Chalgrave / Cealhgnefau / Celgrave / Chaugrave / East Coten

There are two entries for Chalgrave [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0027/chalgrave/] [accessed 21 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Bedfordshire, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Chalgrave was bestowed upon Dunstable Priory before 1185 by Roger Loring [...] It was dedicated in 1219 [...] The oldest work in the church is the north arcade of the nave and the south doorway, c. 1230 [...] The bowl of the font is broken to pieces, only the lead lining remaining". Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as an "interesting old font" that had been cast out of the church but was later brought back to the church but no longer used for baptism. The present [September 2015] font is use is a metal basin decorated with dragon flies; the parish web site [www.allsaintschalgrave.org.uk/baptisms.html] [accessed 21 September 2015] notes: "Our font bowl is quite smal [...] The dragonfly which sits on the of the font bowl [...] is an ancient symbol of Resurrection, of new life. It is a reminder to us of the changes which take place at the font when we are baptised. The dragonfly begins life as a little water bug - you can see one lying in the bottom of our font bowl. It lives in the grimy water and mud at the bottom of a river or pond. But the little creature doesn’t stay a water bug forever. When it reaches a certain stage in life it attaches itself to a plant stalk and a great transformation begins to take place. As the little creature emerges out of the water it begins to shed the skin of its old life and emerges into the warm sunlight as a new creature. The dragonfly is born out of the water with a beautiful new colourful body and flies off to enjoy life in the bright new world above the dark cold water."