East Shefford / Little Shefford / Schipford / Scifford / Shiford / Sibeford / Sibesford / Siford / Sipford

There is an entry for [East] Shefford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU3874/east-shefford/] [accessed 21 May 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Tyrrell-Green (1928) lists a tub-shaped baptismal font of the Norman period in this church. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The old church, of unknown dedication, [...] was abandoned when the new church was erected on the hill-side above in 1869. [...] The church was restored by subscription in 1887 and the monuments cleaned. [...] The fabric is usually said to have been rebuilt late in the 15th or early in the 16th century, but it seems more likely that the walls of the chancel and nave represent a late 12th-century building, [...] The font is unmounted and of plain cylindrical tub-shaped type, 30 in. high, and is of 12th-century date. Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015): "At W end of nave stands an almost cylindrical tub font of oolitic limestone without base or plinth. According to notes made in 1911 and recorded in the church, it originally stood on 5 shafts, but none of these could be found. The bowl is plain except for a band around the bottom carved with simple arcading, now badly eroded." [NB: if the font was ever raised on a base, it would have been a very short one, no more than 20 cm or so, as fonts rarely varied significantly in height from the ca. 3 ft. [90-100 cm] standard height]