Hardwick nr. Cambridge / Harduic

There is an entry for this Hardwick [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL3758/hardwick/] [accesse 12 May 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Paley's Guide (1844) notes: "The font is octagonal and tolerably good." The RCHM (1968) notes: "Octagonal bowl with splayed underside, possibly 13th-century, retooled, on modern base." The Victoria County History (Cambridge..., vol. 5, 1973) notes: "A church at Hardwick was recorded in 1217 [...] All except the vestry, which is modern, are to a unified design of c. 1400, which incorporated one early-14th-century window, presumably from an earlier church on the site, in the south wall of the chancel"; no font is mentioned in the VCH entry. The present font is described and illustrated in the Parish web site [www.hardwick-cambs.org.uk/church/history.htm] ("following information [...] largely taken, with permission, from a booklet 'A Brief History of the Parish Church of St Mary's Hardwick', by Martin Hay, which is available in the church"): "The font of an octagonal bowl with splayed [chamfered] underside is possibly 13th century. It used to have a richly carved wooden surround." The baptismal font consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides and chamfered underbowl, both plain; there is a repair to the upper rim side, which indicates damage due probably to an old cover staple, and the surface of the basin may have been re-tooled, especially when its condition is compared to that of the base; the stem of the base has an upper part that almost replicates the shape of the basin, followed down by an octagonal pillar decorated with a tall trefoil window on each panel; the splaying lower base is octagonal and plain. Octagonal plinth with kneeling stone extension on one of the sides.