Studham / Estodham / Stodham / Stotham

There is an entry for Studham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0115/studham/] [accessed 23 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Lysons (1806-1833) notes an early baptismal font "ornamented with dragons and foliage" here. The National Gazetteer of 1868 reports "a round stone font of curious workmanship" in this church. Noted in Kelly's Directory of 1898. Described in Cox (1907) as a baptismal font with Transitional period ornamentation. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a baptismal font of the Norman period/style; the basin, cylindrical with a hemispherical underbowl, has a band of high-relief ornamentation around its upper side, a number of dragons (or salamanders?) with single-knoted tails and some very Romanesque scrollwrok [NB: the "scrollwork" looks like tendrils, but could very well be seen as a stylised rendering of flames spewing from the dragons' mouths]; the rest of the bowl is plain, as is the curved underbowl. The upper part of the base is a plain cylindrical column; the lower base splays out and is ornamented with large foliage motif; the whole rests on two circular plinths, the lower wider than the upper. The Victoria County History (Bedfordshire, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The first church on this site, built in the time of Abbot Leofstan of St. Albans, may have been of wood, though the terms of the grant of 1064 do not exclude the possibility that it was a masonry building; in any case the architectural evidence goes to show that a masonry building was standing here before the 13th-century enlargements. [...] A consecration of Studham Church in 1219 is recorded in the annals of Dunstable, pointing to building here in the early years of the 13th century [...] In the west end of the south aisle the font is placed. This is an unusually fine piece of 13th-century work, with a rather shallow circular bowl, rounded beneath, and having a band of dragons and foliage round the upper part. It rests on a circular stem and spreading base, the latter carved with sprays of trefoiled foliage springing from a necking at the base of the stem and spreading downwards and outwards on the slope of the base." Tyrrell-Green (1928) notes "some exceptionally well-executed conventional foliage upon the base of the font." Pevsner (1968) wonders if the base decorated with "E[arly] E[nglish] stiff-leaf" could be an inverted capital. [NB: the font has been much restored, and the basin may have been totally re-carved or replaced before the 19th century, as the present look is already registed in Lysons' ca. 1806; the only original section appears to be the lower base, with the stiff-leaf decoration]. The CRSBI (2015) notes: "A church had existed at Studham prior to the Conquest as records show that Abbot Leofstan of St Albans was applied to to provide wood to build a church. The Annals of Dunstable record that the church was dedicated in 1219 by Robert Bishop of Lismore"; the CRSBI entry does not mention the font. [cf. Index entry for Barwythe, for a pre-Conquest church that may or may not be related to [the same as?] Studham's]