Stanstead / Stansted / Stansted Mountfitchet / Stanstead Mount Fitchet

There is an entry for Stansted [Mounfitchet] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL5124/stansted-mountfitchet/] [accessed 2 March 2015]; it mentions a priest, but not a church in it, though there probably was one there. Gough (1792) notes that this font and the one at Arrington (Cambs.) "are shaped like the frustum of a pillar on a base." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 eports: "a very ancient font rudely sculptured". Coller (1861) uses similar language in his description: "a rudely sculptured font evidently of great antiquity", one of a few furnishings kept from the old church after its 1829 renovation. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period [NB: C&H use the name "Mount Fitchet"]. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a baptismal font consisting of a capital-like basin ornamented with "big corner volutes of Gothic type" and listed both in the 13th-century (ibid.) and among fonts of the 12th century and Norman period (p. 147); it has a broad cylindrical base ornamented with two mouldings: the upper is a rope, the lower is a roll moulding; it is raised on a wider circular plinth. [NB: Bond uses 'Stanstead' spelling; Gough uses 'Stansted']. Both the font and the cover are noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: round bowl with four foliated projections forming angles, round moulded base and stem, considerably restored, early 13th-century. -- Cover: ogee, spire-form, octagonal and panelled, 17th-century." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. A big heavy circular piece with coarse angle volutes, c.1300 -- Font cover. Plain, ogee in outline, with foliage finial; early C17." Much the same in Bettley & Pevsner (2007).