Toddington nr. Luton / Dedintone / Dodingethone / Dodingtone / Dodintone / Tudingetone

There is an entry for this Toddington [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0028/toddington/] [accessed 23 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Bedfordshire, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Toddington was granted to the abbey of La Couture, Le Mans, between 1100 and 1122, and confirmed to the Benedictine monks there by Henry I between the same dates, by Payn de Chaworth in 1167, (fn. 186) by Henry II 1180 to 1186, and by Geoffrey Count of Perche 1192 to 1202. [...] The cruciform plan and general dimensions [of the present church] date from early in the 13th century, but only the central tower, south transept and south aisle preserve masonry of that date. [...] The font is modern, in Romanesque style, and stands between the north and south doors." There are two stoups mentioned in the VCH entry (ibid.): the one by the south doorway appears ancient enough to be noted here: "West of this door in the south porch is the moulded base of a pedestal for a 15th-century stoup." The VCH (ibid.) notes another stoup, by the north doorway: "on the east side is a stoup with a crocketed canopy formed in cement", but it may date, at least in part, from the 1898 re-building of the north porch. This must be the stoup noted in Pevsner (1968): "In the N porch an elaborate canopied Perp[endicular] stoup." The modern font, located in the centre aisle of the nave, is a small basin on a round pedestal base, the exterior of both covered in fluted patterns. [NB: besides the missing medieval font from the early Church of St. George there may have been other fonts in the several chapels-of-ease and chantries recorded in Toddington; the VCH (ibid.) reports one dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin which is recorded as early as 1298; another dedicated to St. Bartholomew in 1244; a third, ddicated to St John the Baptist was founded before 1244; the chantry of St. James [aka chapel of Chalton] was founded before 1292; we have no information on any medieval font here].