Caversfield / Caffresfeld / Catesfield / Caueresfeud / Cavrefelle / Chauresfeld / Kaueresfuld / Kaveresfeld

There is an entry for Caversfield [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP5824/caversfield/] [accessed 14 January 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Lysons (1806-1833) report a round baptismal font decorated with arches here. Described in the Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford (1846) as a baptismal font "Norman, round, with intersecting arcade round the upper part, of rude and early character". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a font of the Norman period. Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911: "Norman font ornamented with arcaded work of rude character". The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1927) notes: "The church of Caversfield was given to the Abbot and convent of Missenden in the 12th century by Roger Gargate [...] The ground stage of the tower [...] is probably of pre-Conquest date. [...] The tower arch, though entirely restored, represents in all probability a late 12th-century enlargement of the original opening [...] The font has a modern base supporting an early 12th-century tub-shaped bowl about 2 ft. 3 in. in diameter and 1ft. 8½ in. deep, encircled by a roughly carved intersecting arcade." The church itself, adds the VCH (ibid.) retains the lower stage of the tower, "probably of pre-Conquest date". The interior plan in the VCH (ibid.) shows the font located in the north aisle, just east of the north entranceway. Noted in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Font. C12, round with blind arcading."