Banstead / Banested / Bansted / Benested / Benestede

There is an entry for Banstead [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ2559/banstead/] [accessed 16 December 2015]; it mentions a church in it. Allen (1831) notes: "The font is an octagon, with an ornament in each compartment, all disimilar." Brayley (1850) reports the mention of a church in 'Benestede' in Domesday (1086), and notes the font at All Saints': "The font, standing at the west end of the nave, is of stone, massive, painted in imitation of grey marble, and resting on a round pillar: its form is octagonal, with an ornamental device on each face, but no two faces are alike". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. Noted in the Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911): "There was a church in existence at Banstead in 1086 [...] Tirel del Maniers granted the advowson to the Prior and convent of St. Mary Overy during the reign of Henry I [i.e., 1100-1135] The nave, as usual, probably retains the plan of a building considerably earlier than any detail now existing, the great height and comparative thinness of its walls suggesting a possible pre-Conquest origin. [...] All the internal fittings are modern except the font, which has a 14th-century octagonal bowl on modern round stem and base. The top and bottom of the bowl are moulded, and each of the sides has a panel filled with tracery of a different pattern. The effect is not very successful, but a fair number of similar fonts exist up and down the country—Chipstead is a neighbouring example."