The large village of King’s Somborne is situated in the Test Valley, to the W of Winchester, between Stockbridge (to the N) and Romsey (to the S). The church of SS Peter and Paul comprises a chancel, a nave with N and S aisles, a substantial W bell turret and a N porch.

A church existed in King’s Somborne in 1086. At that time King’s Somborne manor (later known as John of Gaunt’s Palace), to the S of the church, belonged to the Crown. In 1190 it was granted, together with the advowson of the church, to the administrator and courtier William Briwere or Brewer (d.1226), who established Somborne Park. Briwere later granted the church to the Priory of the Holy Trinity at Mottisfont (Mottisfont Abbey, now a National Trust property), which he founded in 1201.

The church was restored and partially rebuilt by John Colson & Son of Winchester in 1885-86.

The font was dated to the late 12thc by the VCH. This places it in the time of William Briwere, before his grant to Mottisfont Priory. The S aisle and chancel arch, though reworked in the 1880s, were more certainly built under the auspices of Mottisfont in the early 13thc. The S arcade, with its round piers, moulded capitals and chamfered pointed arches, is typical of Hampshire church architecture of that period, a style also represented in the surviving undercroft at Mottisfont. It is just possible that the Purbeck font, with its ponted arches, is contemporaneous with the S aisle and chancel, making it a late example of the type.

The eight colonnettes supporting the bowl of the font date from 1885-1886, replacing lost originals (Hampshire Advertiser, 6 March 1886, 7).