Heybridge / Heybridge nr. Maldon / Tidwalditun / Tidwaldituna

There is an entry for Heybridge [variant name] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TL8507/heybridge/] [accessed 13 February 2023]; it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923) notes: "Font: In tower--part of font with square scalloped base, 12th-century, recut octagonal top, later [...] In nave--built into W. splay of roof-loft staircase, part of Purbeck marble bowl of font with shallow round-headed panels". In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Square. Of Purbeck marble with the usual blank arcading motif and some other motifs, almost entirely re-cut." The Parish of Heybridge St Andrew's [www.freespace.virgin.net/andreandgeorge.heybridge/history0.thm], however, like the RCHM above, notes: "Remains of what is thought to be the original font can be seen built into the West splay of the rood loft staircase. There is part of a Purbeck marble bowl of a font with shallow round-headed panels, also fragments of saltire ornament and other fragments of worked stone. It is conceivable that this font was smashed at the time the tower and the roof fell in. H.W. King in his description of St. Andrew's dated 29th June 1855 describes the then existing font as follows: 'The font placed at the West end of the nave is remarkably small. Its basin is plain and octangular rested upon an ornamented Norman shaft which seems rather designed to support a stoup. As the basin is probably late the shaft may have been adapted to its present use but this I do not feel sure.' The remains of the shaft to which he refers may be seen on the rood staircase. It may be the shaft of the original font. The present font was given to the church in 1897 in memory of Rev. Thomas Wren M.A., vicar of Heybridge for 37 years. It is Purbeck marble and is designed in the same style as the original Purbeck marble font whose fragments are described above. It has a square bowl with four shallow blank round-headed arches on each of the two faces and a diagonal cross (Saltire) on each of the other two faces. The bowl is supported on a central stem with four corner supports." [NB: the collapse of the tower is believed to have happened ca. 1450, according to this same source]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TL8556808084] notes: "Parish church. C12, C15 east end and alterations; C19 south porch and restoration [...] C12 stonework including a fragment of former font bowl with saltire cross built into rere-arch [...] C19 font basin based on fragment mentioned above, on C12 reused stone base resembling upturned scallop capitals." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "part of bowl built into wes spaly of the rood loft staircase" [source given: RCHM (NE), 1922].