Forest Hill / Forest Hill with Shotover

Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 [www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 1July 2007]: "the font is modern". The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 5, 1957) notes: "The church may have obtained full parochial status in 1273 when its graveyard was consecrated. [...] By 1341 in any case the church is spoken of as ecclesia parochialis. [...] The massive round-headed chancel arch, with plain imposts, is of 12th-century date, and is a survival from an earlier and probably the original church [...] in 1710 a new font was bought. It was inscribed with the initials of the young men who contributed to it at a Whitsun Ale [...] —a festivity which took place as late as the end of the 19th century in Spier's close, just north of the manorhouse. [...] A new pulpit replaced the early-18th-century one; stone sedilia, pews, and font were installed." [NB: we have no information on the original font of this church or its 1710 replacement]. Regarding Shotover itself the VCH (ibid.) entry notes: "The Shotover residents have never possessed a church of their own, and, since the area was extraparochial, did not pay tithes or rates to any other church. It appears from the parish registers of Forest Hill that the Tyrrells attended the church there".