Toot Baldon / Baldedone / Baldendone / Baldentone / Baldon Toot

There are four entries for [Toot] Baldon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP5600/toot-baldon/] [accessed 10 November 2016], none of which mentions cleric or church in it. A font in this church is described in the Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford (1846): "The Font is plain round, Early English, standing on two round steps in the centre of the Church, towards the west end, nearly opposite the south door". Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911: "The font is circular and of Early English date". Contrary to the description in the Guide... (1846) above, the basin has a large Greek cross inscribed in a circle on one of its sides, and a roll moulding where the basin meets the base. Round and flat wooden cover, appears modern. Murray (1882) writes: "On the E[ast] respond is a small trefoil-headed niche supposed to have been for the holy oil used in baptism, and therefore marking the original place of the font." The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 5, 1957) notes: "When the See of Dorchester was moved to Lincoln after the Conquest, the secular canons of Dorchester retained for their support some surrounding chapels. [...] It is probable that Toot Baldon church was originally one of these Saxon chapels. The first clear documentary evidence, however, for its existence occurs in a bull of 1163. [...] The church of St. Lawrence is a good example of a small early-13th-century building. [...] The font is a plain stone one of 13th-century date; it stands on two round steps in the centre of the west end." In Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Tub-shaped, and decorated with crosses in circles. The VCH calls it C13, but it looks Victorian." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2016): "The tub font is described as 13thC in VCH but could be earlier. Other early plain tub fonts with and without simple decoration exist in the county, for example at Alkerton and Northmoor, both on this site. However, Pevsner thinks the Toot Baldon font looks Victorian."