Forncett / Forncet St. Peter / Fornesseta [Domesday] / Parva Forncet

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "the parish of Forncet St. Peter, which though not known by that name, in the Confessor's time was only a berwic to Forncet, and had then only one church, now called Forncet St. Mary, to which St. Peter is, and always was, a chapel of ease; though it hath all the privileges of baptism, burial, and administration of the sacrament, as well as the mother-church". And, later in the same source: "Here are two churches now in use, which were given by Roger Bigot to the monks of Thetford,[...] who released that gift very early; these churches were annexed very soon, for I never find them presented to separately: though Domesday makes them both parish churches, governed by one rector, who then had in their right, a house and 40 acres of glebe. They were valued as one benefice [...] the rectory always paying double institution fees, shows it to have been an ancient consolidation; though for many ages St. Peter's church hath been esteemed as a chapel of ease to St. Mary, the mother-church; [...] The whole town of Forncet St. Mary, or Forncet Magna, with Forncet St. Peter, or Parva Forncet, paid 3l. 10s. clear to every tenth." The present font at St. Mary's consists of an octagonal basin with deep-set square panels on the sides, an indented and chamfered underbowl decorated with a rosette at each angle, raised on an octagonal pedestal base decorated with a trefoiled panel or window on each side, and a splaying moulded octagonal lower base; there is a moulding at the centre ring position. [NB: we have no information on the font of the Domesday-time church here].