Battlesden / Badelesdone / Badelestone / Battleden / Bittesden / Botlelston

There are three entries for Battlesden [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP9628/battlesden/] [accessed 21 September 2015], but there is no mention of cleric or church in it, except for the lord of one of the parts in 1066, "Morcar the priest of Luton". A font here is noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as an early baptismal font decorated with "crosses patées, and fleurs de lys" [NB: there is only one cross, and it can only be described as having tréflée-like arm-ends; the same applies to the rest of the ornamentation: two leaf motifs of a butterfly shape, an oak-like leaf and a lily of sorts, perhaps a fleur-de-lis at a stretch]. Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire (1898) notes: "the font is Early English". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Early English period. The Victoria County History (Bedford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Battlesden was in the possession of Ralph Passelewe in 1280 [...] The font has a rough circular bowl with four pieces of leaf carving, apparently of late 12th-century date, and stands in the eastern tower arch." Noted in Pevsner (1968): "Font. Norman, drum-shaped, with a few sparse decorative motifs." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015) as a "simply-carved font" of the late 12th century.