King's Norton nr. Billesdon / Kings Norton / Nortone

There is an entry for this [King's] Norton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SK6800/kings-norton/] [accessed 18 September 2014], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Leicestershire, vol. 5, 1964) notes: "The advowson of the church of King's Norton was confirmed to Owston Abbey by Robert de Chesney, Bishop of Lincoln, before 1167 [...] King's Norton church was described about 1220 as the mother church from which the chapel of Little Stretton was served [...] The old church, which stood on or near the site of the later building, seems to have been badly maintained. In 1633 it was reported that the chancel was full of rubbish and stones, that part of the walls needed pointing, that the paving was defective, and that the furnishings were in an unsatisfactory state. [...] The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST was built between 1757, when a faculty for rebuilding it was obtained by the patron William Fortrey, and 1775. [...] The interior of the church is a remarkably wellpreserved example of the period and has been called 'a perfect expression of 18th-century Anglicanism'. [...] Immediately inside the door on the north side stands the font, enclosed by original christening pews. [...] The elaborate Gothic font dates from after 1850 when the earlier one was crushed by the fall of the spire." The VCH (ibid.) further notes that one of the old fonts has survived: "there are a few early fittings preserved of which the oldest is the octagonal stone font of c. 1300 which has side panels decorated with two plain blank pointed arches; the intermediate panels are slightly more elaborate with cusped arches." English Heritage [Listing NGR: SK6890500494] (1966) only mentions a "Gothick font" [i.e., 19thC] in this church.