Berechurch / Bierdechurche / Beordescherche / West Donyland

No entry found for Berechurch or West Donyland in the Domesday survey. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl, each face quatrefoiled and enclsing a flower, plain stem and moulded base, 15th or early 16th-century." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 9, 1994) notes: "Berechurch was the only part of West Donyland to become a separate ecclesiastical parish. The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1955 by the addition of those parts of the parishes of St. Botolph and St. Stephen, Colchester, and Fingringhoe which comprised the Monkwick housing estate. (fn. 158) Its church, St. Michael's, which was closed in 1975, was recorded in 1170 as Beordescherche and Bierdechurche, [...] a form that suggests it existed by the 11th century. It may have been built by one of the two priests, Aelfwold and Aethelmaer, to whom Aethelflaed gave quarters of her Donyland estate. [...] By the late 12th century the church, with Holy Trinity, Colchester, belonged to Bury St. Edmunds abbey [...] In the Middle Ages the church or chapel was presumably served by the rectors of Holy Trinity or by priests appointed by them. [...] The church of ST. MICHAEL, so called by 1254, [...] is of brick with stone dressings and comprises nave and chancel in one, north chapel, south porch, and a west tower of three stages with a stair turret and a battlemented parapet. [...] An earlier church, probably on the same site was restored in the 14th century. [...] The building was vandalized after its closure in 1975. [...] In 1981 the Audley chapel was vested in the Redundant Churches Fund and the rest of the building was sold for light industrial use; in 1993 it was occupied as offices by a security firm"; no font is mentioned in the VCH entry for this church. Bettley & Pevsner (2007) note that this church "was built as a chapel of ease to Holy Trinity, Cochester", but has been "a parish church from 1536". The entry for this site in the Colchester Heritage Explorer [https://colchesterheritage.co.uk/monument/mcc7562] [accessed 12 June 2018] reports "an octagonal bowl font of the C15 or early C16" in isolated church to the northeast of Berechurch Hall. The entry for this church in English Heritage [List entry Number: 1123672] mentions no font in it.