St Peter, Belaugh, Norfolk

I Location

Site Location
Belaugh
National Grid Reference
TG 288 184
County
Norfolk
Diocese
medieval: East Anglia
now: Norwich
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Peter
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

The church has a continuous nave and chancel which are Romanesque, or perhaps earlier. A N aisle was added c. 1300 and a square W tower in the late 14thc. The font situated at the W end of the nave constitutes the only Romanesque carving in the building.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

Font, E face.

Font, E face.

Font, SE corner.

Font, SE corner.

This consists of a circular, cauldron-shaped basin on a large cylindrical support with a chamfered base from which project the smaller hollow-chamfered bases, each with a torus, of four free-standing angle colonnettes. Each colonnette is surmounted by a plain bell capital. The capitals, which are integral with the bowl of the font, have necking and an impost composed of a thin plain upright with a roll above. From these spring four arches in low relief, one on each ‘face’ of the basin, curving to follow the shape of the bowl. Of shelly blue/grey (?)limestone .

Dimensions

h. 0.86 m (from top of modern plinth)
h. of basin 0.37 m
ext. diam. 0.74 m
circ. of support 1.13 m

VII History

Situated in the hundred of South Erpingham, Belaugh covered an area that was nine furlongs in length and three-and-a-half wide, according to DS. Two freemen of the abbey of St Benet’s (Benedict) at Holme in Norfolk held 34 acres there at the time of the DS. Three acres belonged to ‘half of a church’. Before 1066, Ralph the Constable held 10 freemen and a half, one of whom was included in Hoveton, and 63 acres. Stigand held 1carucate of land and 24 acres. Ralph and Stigand had the right to receive dues from Belaugh; Ralph gave this to St. Benet’s at Holme. A pension of 12 pence given by Belaugh church to the monks of St Benet’s was confirmed 1190-1200.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The 13thc. font at Leiston (Suffolk) is similar in design, although there the arcading is trefoil and slightly pointed, the colonnettes are not free-standing, and the capitals and bases are shorter. (Bond, 59) The Romanesque font basin at Spixworth (Norfolk) is also cauldron-shaped.

IX Bibliography

  • T. Combe and F. A. Paley, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London 1844, 219-220.
  • F. Bond, Fonts and Font Covers, London, New York and Toronto, 1908, 57, 59, 209.
  • H. J. Dukinfield Astley, Memorials of Old Norfolk, London 1908, 218.
  • P. Brown, ed, Domesday Book. Norfolk, 2 vols, London and Chichester 1984.
  • C. Harper-Bill (ed.), English Episcopal Acta VI. Norwich 1070-1214, Oxford 1990, no. 245, 197.
  • N. Pevsner and B. Wilson, The Buildings of England: Norfolk: Norwich and North East, Harmondsworth, 1962, revised 1997, 1: 63, 387.