Chenies / Cheynes / Eastnamsted Cheynes / Iselhampstead / Iselhamstede Cheynes / Isenhampstead / Isenhampstead Chenies / Isenhampstead Cheyne / Isenhamstede

No entry for Chenies found in the Domesday survey. Parker (1850) notes: "The font is N[orman], cup-shaped, with some good ornaments." In Sheahan (1862): "The font, which is Norman, is very large, cup-shaped, the lower part of the basin is grooved, and around the brim is an ornamental border". In Murray (1882). Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. The RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912) describes it as a font of the "Aylesbury type [...] late 12th-century". The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 3, 1925) notes: "The present church was built in the 15th century on the site of an ancient edifice the only remains of which are the font and a capital now lying in the south aisle, both dating from the 12th century [...] The late 12th-century font has a circular bowl fluted and enriched on the upper edge with a band of foliage and supported on a square scalloped base." Described in Pevsner (1960): "Font. Cup-shaped, Norman, the lower half fluted, above a band of wavy trails framing regular almond-shaped medallions, and in these symmetrical leaf motifs." Listed in Stockner (1997) as a 12th-century baptismal font of the Aylesbury group. The decoration around the upper basin side is actually an acanthus vine with intersecting tendrils forming loops in which the leaves appear; the spandrels of the loops house tiny motifs which, in some cases, are the tips of the leafs and tendrils inside the loops; below is a thin roll moulding which separates the start of a fluted pattern; some of theses flutes have a full circle motif inserted at the top, others have none; the inner well of the basin is lead lined; the centre ring is a pronounced roll moulding at the top of the squat stem, while the bottom moulding is a very slender and well-defined rope moulding; the lower base has the usual shape in this group of fonts: a cushion capital; in this example it is plain, except for a very thin braid motif that stems from the stem at each of the angles; polygonal plinth.