Caerwent No. 1 / Caer went / Venta Siluru / Venta Silurum

There is an entry for Caerwent in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST4690/caerwent/] [accessed 13 September 2020] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Rees (2003) writes: "a Saxon font has an inverted Roman column for its base". The Archaeologia cambrensis (5th Series, vol. II, no. VIII, October 1885: 329) reports on a visit to the church "dedicated to St. Stephen", but no mention is made of any font in it; "There is a holy water stoup in the north wall, close by the door". The entry for this church in the CADW [http://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=2014] [accessed 13 September 2020] notes: "This church appears to be C13 in origin although a pre-Norman church is recorded at Caerwent, also a possible early Christian congregation during the Roman period; but there is no evidence that either of these shared the same site as the present church. [...] There are two fonts, only the first, that by the door, is native to this church. It is a re-cut Norman tub on a baluster pedestal, probably early C18 in its present form. The second font in the south aisle is also Norman in origin, but has been introduced to this church from the destroyed church at Dinham about 2 km to the north of Caerwent. It is a tub type on an unrelated plain base." It is possible that this re-cut Norman basin that lays now [March 2020] outside the main portal serving as a decorative planter, was used in past times mounted on one of the Roman pedestals retaing from the old Venta Silurum colony here; two such pedestals are still retained in this church [cf. ImagesArea]. [cf. BSI entry for Caerwent No. 2 for the font inow in use, originally from nearby Dinham]