Chilworth nr. Southampton / Celeorde / Celeworda / Cheleworth / Chylworth

There is an entry for this Chilworth [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU4018/chilworth/] [accessed 26 July 2018]; it reports a church in it. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908) notes: "The church (? dedication unknown), [was] built by Peter Serle in 1812. [...] The church of Chilworth is mentioned in Domesday among the lands of Bernard Pauncefoot. [...] Nothing of the former church is preserved except the font, which has a square shallow bowl of Purbeck marble, of late twelfth-century date, and formerly much deeper; on the underside are the capitals of the four angle shafts on which, with a central shaft, it stood. The shafts are lost, and the bowl is now balanced on a wooden post." Described and illustrated in the Parish web site: "The bowl of the font is Saxon work, and bears the notches were iron clamps were fixed to retain a lid [...] [source: www.baddesleychurch.org]. The entry for this font in Historic England [Listing NGR: SP3187223056] reports: "C12 font of square-panelled bowl, cut down." The font consists of a square basin somewhat similar to other fonts of the Norman period in the area, mounted on a columnar base; the inner well of the basin is lead-lined and round, and the spandrils formed on the upper square surface are plain. The flat wooden cover with metal reinforcements is modern. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "the bowl is very defaced and was originally deeper; central stem and subsidiary shafts are missing" [source given: VCH, 3, 1908]. [NB: the present font is probably of the date suggested in the VCH, the 12th century; we have no information on the earlier font of the pre-Conquest church]