Godmanchester / Durovigutum / Godmundceaster / Godmundcestre / Gudmencestre / Gumecestre / Gumencestre / Guncestre / Gurmundcestre / Gutmuncetre

There is an entry for Godmachester [variant spelling] in the Domesday book [https://opendomesday.org/place/TL2470/godmanchester/]; it mentions a priest and a church in it. The Victoria County History (Huntingdon, vol. 2, 1932) notes: "The Church of St. Mary [...] is stated to have been given with 3 hides of land by King Edgar (c. 969) to the monks of Ramsey, [...] but it was no longer in their possession at the time of the Domesday Survey [...] and they never seem to have laid claim to it. In 1086 a church and priest were attached to the manor [...] but, except for a few stones in the walling, nothing of this early building remains. The church seems to have been rebuilt about the middle of the 13th century [...] The 13th-century font [...] is an irregular octagon with crude carved heads projecting from the diagonal faces; the stem and base are modern. [...] This font was turned out of the church in 1853, and, after lying in the garden of Chadleigh House for many years, it was restored to the church in 1907, and set up in its present form in 1921." Baptismal font consisting of a square basin with wide chamfered angles -could be described as octagonal- carved with protrusions at the corners, in the manner of heads but crudely done, raised on a short cylindrical pedestal base and a square two-volume lower base, both of a later period; modern cover on what appears to be a new well-lining. The Parish web site [www.stmarysgodmanchester.org/church-guide-2.php] [accessed 25 April 2012] dates the base of the font to the 1921 move, and notes: "The font's lid is carved with fleur-de-lys and lilies and with the words of Jesus, 'Suffer little children to come unto me'".