Blackforth / Blackford / Blackworth / Blakeworth / Blakeworthe / Blakworth

In his entry for Stoke Holy Cross, Blomefield (1805-1810) writes of the main manor and church, and adds: "There was another manor and church, which was anciently called Blakeworthe, and now The Manor of Blackworth, or Blackforth Hall. This part of the town was held by Walter, one of the Confessor's thanes, in part, and partly by Ketel the Dane, under Bishop Stigand, and was then in three parts or manors, which were all given by the Conqueror to Tovi, who made them one manor, the whole of this part, at the Conqueror's survey, laid in the hundred of Humble-yard, and had a church, and 23 acres of glebe and the moiety of another advowson, belonging to it". Chambers (1829) reports also a church in Blackworth manor, aka Blackforth Hall. The Gatehouse Gazetteer description of Blackford Hall [www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English sites/1936.html] [accessed 7 May 2013] notes: "The house to the South of the moat is in all probability a chapel. Close to the house, fragments of Norman masonry have been found. Two churches were documented in the parish at Domesday, the remains here probably being those of one of them, abandoned in C12. It probably became a manorial chapel." [NB: a List entry for the chapel is available at English Heritage [http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1050431] [accessed 7 May 2013]]. [NB: we have no information on the font from the Domesday-time church here].