Over nr. Cambridge / Oure

There are five entries for this Over [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL3770/over/] [accessed 5 July 2016], none of which mentions cleric or church in it. Simpson (1828) writes: "This Font, the design of which is eminently beautiful, has been much injured and we fear wantonly, the angels under the bowl and the niches in the shaft having been, to all appearances purposely, mutilated; one side is entirely plain. The whole is painted white." Cox-Harvey (1907) mention that "the eight panels have shields surmounted by cinquefoil tracery, and the mouldings are enriched with squared flowers". The base in Simpson's illustration is an octagonal pedestal ornamented with a blind arcade of cusped trefoil arches, recessed enough to have housed figures in them; the little ledges that appear in each is a further indication that these arches were once occupied by figural sculpture. Listed as 15th-century in Betjeman (1958). Noted in Pevsner (1970): Font. Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with blank arches containing shields." The Victoria county History (Wiltshire, vol. 9, 1970) notes; "The font, a copy of one at Over (Cambs.), was carved in 1840 by Canon Francis Goddard." The VCH (Cambridge…, vol. 9, 1989) notes: "The church at Over was mentioned in 1178 in the possession of Ramsey abbey […] The 12th-century nave had narrow aisles which have left traces at the west end, including a length of roof weathering and a fragment of a wall painting"; the VCH entry does not mention a font in it.