Wargrave / Weregrave / Werregrava

There is an entry for Wargrave [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SU7878/wargrave/] [accessed 25 March 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The 1882 edition of the Guide to the Upper Thames from Richmond to Oxford describes Wargrave as "a pleasant village", reports that "nought is left but the north door" of the Norman church here, and adds: "the grounds around the church are exceedingly pretty, and in them is an old Saxon font". Reid' history of Wargrave published in 1885 mentions two fonts in this church; one of them is mentioned in an entry Reid reproduces from the parish register for 1634; it is the baptism of "Francis Martin, sonne of Robert. The first child christened after the removing the font to its antient place in the lower end of the Church", which means that the font had, at some point previously, been installed elsewhere; this is of course the period of restoration after the interference of the Commonwealth in liturgical matters; presumably the font referred to is the one from the 15th century. The second mention of a font in Reid (ibid.) reads: "In the Church, and close to the South entrance, is a large hewn stone vessel, called an Anglo-Saxon font, which has nothing whatever to recommend it to the antiquary, beyond its apparent age, and mutilated condition. It is possible that it was a font in early times, but if so, it has since been adapted to more secular use, and was used for years as a drinking trough for horses." It is therefore quite likely that this "vessel" may have been the disused font of the original 12th-century (?) church here. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923) notes that the church here was subject to an exchange between Henry I and the Norman abbey of Mont St-Michel between 1125 and 1129; the VCH entry further notes: "Restoration has almost obliterated the history of the church, but the nave appears to be of the late 12th century, to which period the north doorway belongs. [...]The present font is modern. The original font of the 15th century still exists, however, in very perfect preservation, in the north-west corner of the churchyard. The bowl and stem are octagonal and both are richly panelled. On the rim the holes for hinge and lock are visible." The font in the churchyard must have been moved inside the church at some point after 1923. A recent [3 May 2007] photograph of this font by Martin Beek [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/483580948/] [accessed 23 July 2007] shows the late-medieval font inside the church; it consists of an octagonal basin the sides of which are decorated with quatrefoil panels and tracery, between two graded mouldings, one at the upper rim, the other at the lower; the underbowl chamfer is plain; the octagonal stem of the base is decorated with a deeply carved arcade of trefoil arches or windows, and the lower base is also octagonal and moulded; there damage to the upper rim and other areas, and there appear to be large cracks in the basin; the inner well of the basin is lead-lined. We have no information on the whereabouts of the earlier font reported in the 1882 Guide to the Upper Thames[...] and in Reid ca. 1885 [cf. supra].