Elstree / Adulvestre / Idelstre / Idulfestre / Idulvestre / Ilstrey / Tidulvestre / Tithufes / Tydolvestre

No entry for Elstree found in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Hertfordshire, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "In 1188 there was a chapel at Elstree the profits from which were appropriated to the use of the abbey by the permission of Pope Clement in that year. […] This chapelry became a parish before 1424. […] The church of ST. NICHOLAS is almost entirely modern, and has a chancel with south chapel and north vestry, a nave of five bays with north and south aisles and a south-west tower with a shingled spire. The only old work is in the south arcade of the nave, which was rebuilt in 1853 on the old foundations and with the old materials, and in the south wall of the south aisle. In the nave roof three trusses of the former fifteenth-century roof are preserved, plain work with arched braces and collars, the rest being copied from them. […] The font, at the west end of the north aisle, is of the fifteenth-century, octagonal with a panelled bowl and a slender, panelled stem surrounded by an arcade of open arches. The detail is good but obscured by paint, and a modern block of stone has been inserted between the old bowl and stem." Pevsner & Chery (1977) note: "Font: Perp[endicular], octagonal, with little decoration." This same source (ibid.) adds: "Font cover by S. Pietsch, 1974." Baptismal font noted in a 'tour' of St. Nicholas, written by Dr. Bill Elliott (1993), former Rector: "The stone font of 15th century origin is variously said to have been made of Caen stone in Normandy or of Totternhoe Clunch, a local stone". Elliott (ibid.) notes also the modern font cover: "made in 1974 by Siegfried Pietzsch, out of lime-wood." The entry for this church in English Heritage [Listing NGR: TQ1789095394] (1952) notes: "C15 font in W bay of N aisle. Octagonal bowl with quatrefoils, renewed link to stem which has an internal pillar cased in a hollow octagonal drum with pierced panels."