Clanfield / Clanefelde / Clanefeud / Clanffield / Clenefeld

No entry found for this Clanfield in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908) entry for this Clanfield notes: "Clanfield seems in origin to have been a chapelry dependent on the mother church of Chalton. The first mention of it is in 1227, in which year Sybil, prioress of Nuneaton, arraigned an assize of darrein presentment to the chapel of Clanfield against Bartholomew, archdeacon of Winchester. [...] The church of St. James [...] was rebuilt in 1875 [...] It contains nothing ancient, but the two bells in the turret are both mediaeval, the work of Roger Landon." The VCH entry does not mention a font. One local source, however, [cf. infra] notes a medieval baptismal font originally from the old church pulled down in 1878; the church roster has the first rector listed in 1305, which is believed to be date of the original building. The font consists of an octagonal basin with a thick upper rim; the sides themselves are decorated with large quatrefoil motifs; the underbowl has a plain chamfer; the stem of the base is octagonal and decorated with trefoil windows; splaying lower base, moulded and also octagonal; hexagonal plinth with kneeling stone. The font cover appears modern, consisting of a flat wooden base, octagonal, and a decorative metal top. [source: notes from "Welcome to St James' Church", by the Rev. Gill Hill, rector, and description and illustration in http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~villages/ clanfield.htm]