Caldecott / Calcoote / Calcot / Caldecote

There is an entry for this Caldecott [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP8693/caldecott/] [accessed 21 July 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Moule (1837) writes: "The font, which is hexagonal, is ancient". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. The Victoria County History (Rutland, vol. 2, 1935) notes: "The first church was an aisleless building with short square-ended chancel, the extent of which is represented by the two eastern bays of the present nave and the western part of the chancel, probably dating from the early part of the 12th century. [...] alterations, amounting almost to a rebuilding, made towards the end of the 13th century [...] c. 1280–1300 [...] The late 13th-century font has a rectangular bowl with slightly sloping sides, each carved with a trefoiled arch, and chamfered angles on which various geometrical patterns are incised. It stands on a cylindrical stem and is on four legs, the moulded capitals and bases of which alone remain unaltered, the shafts having been turned in a lathe by a former churchwarden"; footnoted in the VCH (ibid.): "Rutl. Mag. v, 69. The shafts are all different, two being of baluster shape. The date when this was done is not stated, but it was before 1860." Pevsner & Williamson (1984) note: "An odd piece of c. 1300. Square with chamfered angles. In the square parts cusped blank arch heads, in the chamfered surfaces an elongated quatrefoil and other simple shapes. The balusters replace shafts." The Rugby Borough Council web site [http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=468&pageNumber=58] [accessed 4 November 2010] notes: "In 1743 the medieval font (in which Lawrence Sheriff, founder of Rugby School was baptised) was replaced and moved to the courtyard of the Eagle Hotel, where it served as a trough for the pump until being rescued by the Rugby historian Matthew Bloxam. It was taken to the Percival Guildhouse garden until the 1950's when it was finally restored to St. Andrew's." Noted and illustrated Leicestershire Churches [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/caldecott-st-john-the-evangalist/] [accessed 21 July 2015].