Enstone / Einston / Enestan / Ennestan / Ennestane / Ennestone / Enstane / Enston / Envestane / Eynston / Henestan / Church Enstone

Marshall (1868) notes: "The font is of Perpendicular date. The iron-work on the font-cover is [...] from a design by Mr. Street, and was given by the Provost and Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford, to whom the hamlet of Chaldford belongs." Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 reports that the font of this church was repaired in 1856 in the restoration carried out under the direction of G. E. Street. In Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Perp[endicular]. Octagonal, with quatrefoils on each face and blind trefoiled arches on the stem." The font, as it appers now, consists of an octagonal basin the sides of which contain quatrefoil-in-a-circle panels with floral motifs inscribed in them, plain (?) shields on the underbowl chamfer, on a moulded octagonal base with deeply-carved trefoil windows/arches on the stem; octagonal plinth with kneeling stone; flat octagonal wooden cover with metal decoration and ring handle. [NB: it is anyone's guess what the font looked like before the restoration of 1856, but it could very well have been of the present design, even though the original edifice was Norman and would probably have had a baptismal font of the period [NB: a 1175 bull from Pope Alexander III mentions the church of Enstone: "Ecclesiam de Ennestona cum capella de Chalfordia" (Marshall (1868), after Dugd. Mon., ii, 302)].