Caddington / Cadendone [Domesday] / Cadenton / Cadyndone / Kadington / Kateden

There are two entries for Caddington [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0619/caddington/] [accessed 27 July 2016], neither of which mentions a church in it; the second entry, however, was in 1066 in the lordship of one "Leofwin the priest", and went on to the canons of London St. Paul's in 1086, which would indicate the presence of a church here in pre-Conquest times. The Lysons (1806-1833) list a font here as one of several of octagonal shape made of Totternhoe stone in this county: "Caddington has roses, leopards' heads, &c." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. The Victoria County History (Bedford, vol. 2, 1908, and Hertford, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "The church of Caddington was granted to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's by Walter, bishop of Lincoln, in 1183–4 [...] The western angles of an aisleless nave are to be seen in the west wall, and represent the earliest state of which any evidences remain. Whether they are older than the jambs of the chancel arch or the masonry of the south doorway, c. 1180–1200, it is impossible to say [...] The font stands at the west end of the south aisle, and is of the fifteenth century, with an octagonal bowl, each face having a cusped panel with roses, fir cones, acorns or oak leaves at the points of the cusps." Pevsner (1968) notes: "Font. Big, octagonal, Perp." The Parish web site [www.caddington.com/allsaints/chhist.htm] [accessed 11 May 2012] dates the font to the 15th century and adds: "The small bowl inside the font is from the 18th Century, and the inscription on the top reads (in Greek) 'Nipson anomema, me monan ho psin' -'Wash away iniquity, not just your face'. It is a Greek palindrome." The font and the inscribed 18th-century marble basin are noted and illustrated in the Bedford Borough Council [www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/ArchivesAndRecordOffice/CommunityArchives/Caddington/CaddingtonChurchAlterationsAndRepairs.aspx] [accessed 27 July 2016]: "“The font has a drain and leaden lining; but its use is superseded by a nondescript marble vase, which would be better in the rector’s [sic] garden, where, unhappily, too often are found some of the original fonts in our churches. An alms-box is to be found here”." [the entry in the Bedford Borough Council page makes reference to Horace Montagu Prescott's 'Notes on Caddington Church' published in 1937 as source for its information].