Abington Pigotts / Abington-by-Shingay / Abington-in-the-Clay / Abintone

There are six entries for Abington [Pigotts] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL3044/abington-pigotts/] [accessed 26 May 2016], none of which mentions either cleric or church in it. The entry for this church in English Heritage [Listing NGR: TL3043944663] (1967) informs: "Modern font copied from original now in Royston Church; early C17 font cover, octagonal ogee with acorn finial." The Victoria County History (Cambridge..., vol. 8, 1982) notes: "The parish church, recorded by 1217 [...] From an older church, whose steep roof line is visible inside on the tower's east wall, there survive fragments of Romanesque carving. [...] The font is a modern copy of the medieval one, now in Royston church, found in a farmyard in Wendy in use as a horse trough. [...] It has a late 16th-century wooden cover." The present font, a replica copy of the font at Royston [cf. supra] consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides decorated with two sets of alternating motifs: a Greek cross inscribed in a quatrefoil and a cinquefoil arch; the inner well of the basin is round and lead-lines, and has a central drain hole; the base is made up of a broad cylindrical shaft with four attached colonnettes, all plain; octagonal lower base and octagonal plinth, both plain as well. Pevsner (1970) notes only the font cover: "Plain, Jacobean, of ogee outline." It is of low-dome octagonal shape, with short vertical sides on the lower part forming eight panels decorated with a rhomboid in each, the panels separated by pairs of vertical knobs; moulded knobs adorn the angles above them; raised arrises along the curves of the dome to the tall acorn finial. There is an ancient holy-water stoup in the south porch; it consists of a basin that appears to have the two sides at the back at 90-degree angles and partly built into the wall, with a rounded front; raised on a crude pedestal decorated with nested chevrons. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font[s] of this church. The old font now at nearby Royston [cf. Index entry for Royston, Herts.] bears no resemblance to this modern font].