Tadlow / Tadelai

There are three entries for Tadlow [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL2847/tadlow/] [accessed 8 June 2016]; it mentions no church in it, but the lord in 1066 was one Thorkil, identified as "Earl Tosti's priest". Kelly's Cambridgeshire Directory of 1929 does not mention the font at St. Giles but notes that the church itself "is and ancient building in the Early English style, with modern Perpendicular insertions". The original font must have disappeared before 1857, as a "volume compiled by the Revd. H.W.P. Stevens" for the years 1857-1930, in which is recorded the appointment of William Butterfield as architect for the restoration of both Tadlow and East Hatley churches. Among the expenditures recorded is "new marble font" [source: Cambridgeshire County Archives [ref. P151/6/2]. No font mentioned in the RCHM (1968) entry for this church. The Victoria County History (Cambridge..., vol. 8, 1982), notes: "Picot gave Tadlow church to St. Giles's (later Barnwell) priory when he founded it c. 1092, and Pain Peverel confirmed the gift. [...] The nave and chancel were built in the 13th century [...] William Butterfield was called in in 1858, and in 1859–60 and 1866–7, under his direction, the stonework was largely renewed [...] a marble font and reredos were installed. [...] The font replaced one of the 13th century." The present baptismal font consists of an octagonal basin of an ugly reddish veined marble chamfered at the upper and lower rims, the vertical sides decorated with white-marble inserts that resemble floral motifs; the base is made of grey stone broached octagonal-to-square, and is raised on an octagonal plinth; the inner well of the basin has a metal insert but it may be a later addition; the wooden cover is flat with metal decoration. [NB: we have no information on the font of the medieval church]