Roydon nr. Harlow / Ruindune

There is an entry for this Roydon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL4010/roydon/] [accessed 7 June 2018], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Gough (1792) reports an early baptismal font consisting of a square basin mounted on four supports in this place. Noted with an illustration in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "octagonal bowl with four heads in hats with rolled brims, circular stem with four detached shafts of Purbeck marble with continuous moulded capitals and bases, late 13th-century." In Pevsner (1976) and in Bettley & Pevsner (2007): "Font. An interesting piece of c.1300. Octagonal with, in the four diagonals, four heads, men who are neither saints nor clerics, but look like workmen. They wear hats with rolled-up brims." The Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 8, 1983) reports: "A priest of Roydon was living in 1198 [...] The walls of the nave probably date from the 13th century [...] The font of c. 1300 has an octagonal bowl with four carved heads of men, probably workmen, wearing hats with rolled brims." A 2004 document published by the Epping Forest County Council and the Essex County Council by Maria Medlicott entitled 'Roydon: historic settlement assessment report' describes the font as "a late 12th century font" [www.planarch.org] [accessed 19 April 2006]. The Parish website [http://www.roydonstpeters.org/Colte2.html] [accessed 29 July 2010] notes: "The church contained a stone font, used for baptisms. That font has survived up to the present day, and is now sited by the north door. The font’s stonework includes the heads of the four apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The mason had no idea of what the apostles looked like, so he used his fellow villagers as models. Two similar heads, clearly by the same mason, are outside the south door to the church, and have been there since the church was built; that is how we know that the present day font is the original."