Godalming No. 1 / Godeliming / Godelminge / Godhalminges / Godlyman

There is an entry for Godalming [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU9643/godalming/] [accessed 26 April 2015]; it reports two churches and three hides of church land in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) report a square-bowled baptismal font of the Norman period made of dark Petworth marble from Sussex. The Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) reports a set of fragments that have been claimed as possibly belonging to a former baptismal font, a claim the VCH dismisses: "in a very hard shelly limestone, of pre-Conquest date. Two seem to have formed the rims of a circular basin or basins, but they are hardly large enough to have served for a font, as has been suggested, nor does the shape at all suggest such a use. The total diameter of the two halves is only 1 ft. 7½ in. by 6¾ in. in height and 3¾ in. thickness. The upright face is ornamented with four horses' heads, separating alternate designs of interlaced work and a running scroll, such as are found in the pre-Conquest arch at Britford Church, near Salisbury. A third fragment, with a basket-work pattern, may have been part of the block on which this basin stood; and two others with a scroll-pattern and figures, much defaced, suggest the stem of a churchyard cross. Some of these were found built into the walls, notably in the west arch of the tower, i.e. the chancel arch of the pre-Conquest church, suggesting that they had formed part of some building of even older date." The VCH (ibid.) further reports: "a disused font also of late character and quite plain", but gives no details of it. The present font resembles a classic a Norman font design, but it is modern; it is made of a light-coloured stone [Is it a copy of the font seen by Cox & Harvey?]. The three fragments are now displayed in a case inside the church at Godalming; two of them have been brought together and make up a round basin with what appears to be the remains of four possible heads at 90-degree angles; the spaces in between are decorated with varied interlace motifs; the object is small for a font, but it otherwise resembles a design that was popular across the Channel in the 12th century. [NB: if the VCH is correct and these fragments do not belong to a font, we are still missing the fonts of the two original churches reported in the Domesday survay [cf. supra]].