Essendon / Essendene / Esyngden / Isendene

No entry for Essendon found in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Hertford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The west tower is of 15th-century date with work of the 17th century and renewed stonework of 1883 [...] The church appears to have been largely rebuilt in the 17th or 18th century [...] The font, made by Wedgwood in 1780, is interesting and somewhat uncommon. It consists of a circular bowl of basalt ware—a kind of black porcelain—about 21 in. in diameter, the exterior ornamented with festoons of drapery. The base is moulded; it stands on a square wooden pedestal which tapers downwards. The sides are fluted and the upper part is decorated with painted masks and festoons in the Adam style. A small round cylinder of porcelain, about 8 in. high, with moulded capital and base, stands inside the bowl to support a smaller basin for the water." Pevsner & Chery (1977) write: "Essendon is worth a special visit if only to see the font in the church. It is of Wedgwood's Black Basalt ware, an exquisitely beautiful classical shape and with all the appealing matt sheen of the Wedgwood body. It was given to the church in 1778 at the time of an earlier restoration, by Mary Whitbread of Bedwell Park". Pevsner & Cherry (ibid,) also note "an identical one at Cardington, Bedfordshire". In his entry for the font at Cardington Pevsner (1968) writes: "Font. Given by Harriet Whitbread, in 1783, who also gave the font to Essendon in Hertfordshire. They are the only one in England of Wedgwood black basalt. Like the Essendon one, that at Cardington stands on a tapering square fluted pillar." [Pevsner adds a footnote: "Mr. Humphrey Whitbread tells me that a third such font was made for Melchbourne"]. The Hartford Hundred Group of Churches in the Diocese of St. Albans web site [http://hartfordhundred.org.uk/essendon.php] [accessed 15 September 2011] notes: "Norman fragments found during the 1883 rebuilding indicated that there had been a church here since the 12th century and the list of Rectors displayed in the church and researched by a previous Esssendon schoolmaster and sub-librarian at St Albans Cathedral, begins in 1213." [NB: we have no information on the font of the 12th-century church -- the present font is use is Victorian (or pseudo-Victorian) stone font in the shape of un upturned bell, on short columns with foliage decoration in the style of the 13th century; flat and round cover to match].