Barningham Northwood / Barningham Norwood / Berningeham / Berningham / North Barningham

There is no mention of church or cleric in the Domesday entries for "Berningeham" or "Berningham". Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "At the survey [i.e., Domesday] there was but one town, in this hundred, of the name of Barningham [cf. supra], which at that time included what is now called Barningham Northwood, and also the town of Barningham Winter [...] The Church is a rectory dedicated to St. Peter [...] In the reign of Edward I. when the rector had a manse, and 8 acres of land [...] John de Berningham was lord and patron in the reign of Edward I." [i.e., 1272-1307]. Andre (1889) writes: "at Barningham Northwood, the seats are shortened in length, or splayed off as it were, to allow of the free progress of processions round the font. In the latter example immediately east of it, is some stonework let into the floor; it is exactly like a wheel window, and forms a circle 5 ft. in diameter, with a small nave or round in the centre, from whence radiate eight spokes, ending in trefoil arches, the interstices being filled in with neatly cut pieces of brick. This remarkable inlaid figure appears to me intended for a wheel of fortune, placed before the font, as an emblem of human life begun at baptism, to which opinion some measure of support is given by tradition, which asserts that it is a wheel placed in memory of a coachman; so that popularly the stonework is considered a wheel, and not the template of a window, as some have conjectured it to be, though there are no traces of any circular window at Barningham Northwood." The present font in this church consists of an octagonal basin raised on an octagonal pedestal base and an equally shaped plinth; all modern. The octagonal pyramidal font cover is also modern, painted white and blue.