Copford / Copeforde

There is an entry for Copford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL9322/copford/] [accessed 14 June 2018], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923) reports: "Font: square bowl of Purbeck marble, each face with four round-headed panels but on one side the panels are unfinished, late 12th-century, stem modern." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Of the usual square Purbeck type of c.1200, with four shallow blank arches on each side." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add: "Marble base, 1878, by Ebbetts & Cobb, made by Cox & Sons." The Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 10, 2001) notes: "Architectural evidence indicates that Copford church had been founded by c. 1100. [...] The foundations of what appears to be an Anglo Saxon structure have been detected to the southeast of the church. [...] The present church, which probably served as a chapel for the adjacent episcopal manor house, [...] consists of an apse, chancel with vestry, nave with threebayed south aisle, south porch, and timber belfry with spire. [...] The apse, chancel, nave, and central bay of the aisle were built as a single structure c. 1120"; the VCH entry describes the font as "a late 12th-century square bowl and modern base". Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with four panels on each face, although on one side they are unfinished; the stem is modern" [source given: RCHM (C&SW), 1921].