Cholesbury No. 1 / Chelwardisbyry / Chelwoldesbery / Chilwaldesbuorye / Chollesbury / Cholsbury / Choulesbury / Choulsbury

No entry found for Cholesbury in the Domesday survey. Rickman (1850) reports a baptismal font of the Early English period in this church. Illustrated in a sepia drawing (5 x 3.5 in.) by John Buckler (1770-1851) now in the William Salt Library collection of the Staffordshire Archives: "'Font in Cholesbury Church, Buckinghamshire.' Showing a round bowl with circular engravings, on a short shaft with a round flat base (on top of a more roughly cut octagonal base). 'J. B.,' [John Buckler]. 4 inches x 3.5 inches." Sheahan (1862) notes: "The font is oval, with scalops and rude foliage". The Architect (isue of 2 August 1873: 61) reports the recent re-opening of this church after the restoration with the addition of new font "in Caen stone, with an oken cover." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Early English period, a noteworthy example. The RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912) states that the modern font is "copied from fragment of 13th-century font with circular bowl, now in the churchyard". The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 3, 1925) notes: "The former nave and chancel dated respectively from the 13th and 14th centuries, but, with the exception of parts of the walls on the south side, the whole building was rebuilt in 1872–3, largely of re-used material. [...] In the churchyard are the remains of the circular bowl of a 13th-century font. The present font is modern and the design has been based on this fragment." [NB: a request for information was sent to the Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards Local History Group by BSI. Here is the reply (e-mail of 27 April 2009) from Paddy Thomas, of the Group: "We do not have anything in our own records other than a reference in a locally written history of the Church. It mentions that Kelly's Directory in 1933 noted fragments of the bowl in the churchyard but searches since 1956 had found nothing. St Lawrence has recently been the subject of a survey by NADFAS Church Recorders Group. I asked the leader of the group working on St Lawrence, Mrs Liz Chalmers, if they had any information. I quote from her reply 'We think the font is 1873 and only of a design based on the 13thC fragment. Not a restoration of anything - new in 1873 of the design above'".]