Henley-in-Arden / Henley / Henleye

We found no entry for this Henley in the Domesday survey. Notices of the churches of Warwickshire (vol. 2, 1847) informs that this was a chapelry of Wootton Wawen, and not mentioned in Domesday because it was in the lordship of Wootton; this source refers to Dugdale [i.e., William Dugdale, 1605-1686), who uses uses the Register of Bishop Witlesey [i.e., William Whittlesey (aka Whittlesea, d. 1374)] as source for dating the construction of a chapel here dedicated to St. John the Baptist, about the 41dst year of Edward III [i.e., 1368]; the Notices... (ibid) entry for this chapel adds: "No part of the original structure built in the reign of Edward the third is apparent in the present edifice, which was probably erected on the site of the more ancient Chapel about the year 1448, when an Hospital supposed to be the Gild on the north of the Chapel, was built. [...] The font is plain and devoid of interest, consisting of an octagonal shaft supporting a shallow basin." The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 3, 1945) notes: "Although a felon is said in 1262 to have taken sanctuary in the church of Henley, [...] it is almost certain that this refers to Beaudesert, as there is no other reference to a church here until 1367, when it is recorded that a chapel had been built at the cost of the inhabitants because of the distance and foulness of the ways in winter between the village and the parish church of Wootton Wawen. [...] In 1369 William Fifhide was licensed to alienate in mortmain three messuages in Henley for the support of a chaplain to celebrate in a chapel which he intended to build there, [...] presumably as part of the new parish chapel. No trace of these buildings remains, except perhaps the tower, the body of the present church being a century later in date. The chapel remained subordinate to Wootton [...] The font is octagonal with a shallow bowl of the 17th or 18th century, plain stem, and chamfered base. It has a flat lid with a turned middle post. [...] The registers begin in 1679 and are almost confined to baptisms [...] Henley became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1914." The present font is, as described above, quite plain, and of a composite nature; the basin is octagonal and shallow, half of its heights taken by the chamfered underbowl; the plain octagonal stem of two blocks appears modern; the lower base is octagonal-to-square and made up of three blocks; it appears modern as well; the wooden cover is octagonal flat, with a large ball finial/handle; could be 18th- or 19th-century.