Buckden / Bokeden / Bugden / Bugedene / Bugendena / Buggeden / Bukeden / Bvgedene

There is an entry for Buckden [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TL1967/buckden/] [accessed 14 December 2020]; it reports a priest and a church in it. The on-line catalogue of the 'Business Records' of the Cambridgeshire Archives Service [www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4EE072E4-824F-417C-8470-0848C3DED992/0/HandlistofBusinessRecords.pdf] [accessed 25 November 2007] lists [ref. no.: R100/9], among other materials, a "portfolio of drawings of fonts and covers, including that at Buckden, c.1860-1910" [there is no information given on the authorship of the drawings]. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. The Victoria County History (Huntingdon, vol. 2, 1932) notes: "Although mentioned in the Domesday Survey (1086) nothing of this date remains, the earliest existing portions being the south doorway of the nave, which is of the early 13th century, and parts of the chancel walls which date from the latter part of the same century. [...] The church was restored in 1840, 1860 and 1884, when the present vestry and organ chamber were built, and again in 1909 when the seating was renewed and the font removed to the tower [...] The 15th-century font is octagonal with panelled sides, and stands on a modern stem and base." Noted in Pevsner (1968): "Font. Octagonal, Perp, with pointed quatrefoils containing shields." Baptismal font consisting of an octagonal basin with vertical sides decorated with a blank shield in a quatrefoil window on each face; the basin well is lead-lined; plain chamfered underbowl; octagonal pedestal base decorated with an Ogee arch in each; octagonal lower base, moulded; modern wooden cover, octagonal and with metal ornamentation and handle. The font stands on an octagonal plinth with kneeling stone [NB: two of the upper sides of the basin show damage consistent with the forceful removal of the staple(s) from the old cover].