Willen / Wilies / Wilinges / Wilne / Wylie / Wyllyen / Wyllyn / Wylyene

No individual entry found for Willen in the Domesday survey. Sheahan (1862) reports that the medieval church "was rebuilt in 1680 [...] the font, of marble, is ornamented with heads of cherubim, and has a carved oak cover". Listed in Betjeman (1958). Illustrated in Blatch (1995) with caption: "A contemporary font of Wren type -- in Willen Church, Buckinghamshire for which Robert Hooke was the architect". The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1927) notes: "The church was bestowed before 1150 by Philip de Kaynes on Tickford Priory. [...] A church has existed here from the 12 th century, [...] but the ancient structure, having probably fallen into decay, (fn. 45) was removed in 1680, and the present nave tower and vestries were built by Dr. Richard Busby, head master of Westminster School, from designs, it is said, by his former pupil, Sir Christopher Wren. No traces are now left to indicate the character of the earlier structure [...] The apse was added in 1862, and the whole church was then restored. [..] The font has an octagonal bowl of white marble enriched on the upper edge with cherubs' heads and conventional scrolls connected by festoons of drapery, and at the bottom with acanthus leaves; both the baluster-shaped stem and the square base are of black marble. The elaborate oak cover has a band of cherubs' heads at the base, a domical top with floral enrichments, and an urn-shaped finial." The font consists of a square white marble basin decorated with cherubs the wings stretch out almost parallel with the drapery hanging below them, and volutes; the underbowl has foliage motif in high relief; the stem of the base is of the baluster type, and is octagonal at the top and middle but ends below in a round moulded shape, raised on three square volumes. The wooden cover is of the dome type, the lower volume with vertical sides decorated with putti heads, the dome itself with garlands running upwards toward the vase-like finial. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font replaced during the 1680 re-building of this church]