St. Paul's Walden / Abbot's Walden / Pawles Walden / Powles Walden / Walden / Walden Abbatis / Waldene

There is an entry for [St. Paul's] Walden [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL1922/st-pauls-walden/] [accessed 28 September 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Hertfordshire, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "The church of Abbots Walden was probably granted to the monastery of St. Albans by Wulfgar with the manor, […]and was confirmed to them by King John. […] In 1188 the obventions from the church were assigned with the licence of Pope Clement III to the guests' prebend […] The early history of the building is not now to be traced, as the oldest existing feature is the window in the south aisle of the nave, west of the doorway, which dates from about the year 1300 […] The fifteenth-century font is at the west end of the south aisle, and stands on a platform raised above the floor of the aisle. It has an octagonal embattled bowl, with a band of foliage at half-height, an octagonal shaft panelled on all but the north and south faces, and a moulded base." The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertfordshire (1911) notes: "Font: octagonal embattled bowl with band of foliage in the middle; octagonal panelled shaft and moulded base; 15th-century." In Pevsner & Cherry (1977): "Font. Octagonal, Perp[endicular] with frieze of leaves and embattled top." The Parish web site [http://stpaulswaldenchurch.org/history/] [accessed 28 September 2016] [see also FontNotes] refers to archaeological excavations in 1973 "strongly suggest a Pagan Saxon burying ground. Probably most of it lay to the north of the present church".