Foxton / Foxetune

There are three entries for this Foxton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL4148/foxton/] [accessed 8 November 2014], neither of which reports cleric or church in it. Paley (1844) noted the Foxton font as one of a group "supported upon arches, either with or without a central stem". In his Guide of the same year Paley adds: "The font has been fine, but it is in a mutilated state: it is Early-English, supported on arches and a central stem." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Early English period, but they do not describe the base. Illustrated in a 14 October 1891 drawing by Henry E.L. Dryden, now in the Sir Henry Dryden Collection, Northamptonshire. The Victoria County History (Cambridge..., vol. 8, 1982) notes: "The church at Foxton, recorded by the mid 12th century, had perhaps originally belonged to Chatteris abbey. [...] The existing church was probably begun in the early 13th century with a chancel and nave of equal width in one continuous range. [...] A plain, early font [possibly from an earlier church], rediscovered c. 1880, survives." Described and illustrated in the Cambridgeshire Churches web site [www.druidic.org/camchurch]: "It's a peculiar thing -- the legs are uninteresting and Victorian, but the bowl is 10th century. It looks like a squashed hat, and is extremely shallow". Flat and round wooden cover, probably 19th-century. [NB: if Paley's description is correct, the Victorian colonnettes of the base must have been installed after his viewing of the font ca. 1844]. English Heritage [Listing NGR: TL4121148335] (1967) reports: "Font: The bowl is C12 or earlier origin and is incorporated in later work."