Deddington / Dadintone

There is an entry for Deddington [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP4631/deddington/] [accessed 16 November 2017], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Bond (1908) writes that "Hutt of Cambridge in 1843 produced for sale models in pottery of the font at Deddington in Oxfordshire." Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911: "the font, as appears from the registers, was placed in the church in 1663". Tyrrell-Green (1928) describes this font as a late one that was designed with Gothic influences but "conformed to the attenuated pattern which had become the fashion". Noted in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Font. Dated 1663. Octagonal, traceried plinth and small moulded bowl." The Victoria County History (Oxon, vol. 11, 1983) notes: "There was a church with a rector in Deddington by the late 12th century [...] The reconstruction of part of the church in the 17th century may have obscured evidence of the building's earlier development. There are no certain remains of the 12th-century church [...] The medieval font was presumably a victim of the tower's fall or of later iconoclasm, since a new one was provided in 1664." In the VCH (ibid.) description of the chapel of St. John the Evangelist at Hempton, a hamlet of Deddington, a 12th-century font is mentioned, as having been "transferred from Over Worton church". Marianne Elsley [http://www.deddington.org.uk/church/churchguide.html] informs in the "Deddington On Line" WEB site (www.deddington.uk) that "the 13th century font was smashed when the tower fell and the newer one was first used in 1663." [NB: contacted the Church Council at Deddington: the current font "is Mid-Victorian; the cover is of later date and on both this and the right hand side of the heavy West Door frame is the carver's trademark of a squirrel." [C. Clark's e-mail message to BSI of Nov. 25, 2001]