Melchbourne / Melceburne

There is an entry for Melchbourne [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0265/melchbourne/] [accessed 14 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Bedford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Melchbourne was given with the manor to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by Alice de Clermont. [...] In 1176 Bartholomew Bishop of Exeter, arbitrating in virtue of a mandate of Alexander III in a dispute between the Hospitallers and the convent of Thorney, decided that the former should retain Melchbourne Church. [...] With the exception of part of the tower, it was rebuilt in 1779." There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry. The modern font is noted in Pevsner (1968) as one of three fonts --Cardington and Melchbourne in Bedfordshire, Esendon in Herfordshire-- made by Josiah Wedgwood in black basalt. [NB: there may be one other font in this church: square basin with chamferred angles, raised on a broad central shaft and four outer colonnettes, the latter of coloured marble, on a quadrangular lower base and plinth -- we have no information on the medieval font from this church].