Waterbeach / Utbech

There are two entries for Waterbeach [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL4965/waterbeach/] [accessed 30 June 2016], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Paley's Guide (1844) reports: "The font is plain octagonal Early-English". The National Gazeteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) reports an "antique font" in this church at the time. Kelly's Directory of this county for 1929 notes "the beautiful font of marble and Caen stone", obviously a different one. The Victoria County History (Cambridge and Isle of Ely, vol. 9, 1989) notes: "A church at Waterbeach had been founded by c. 1160, when priests were recorded there. […] The earliest surviving part of the church is probably the two eastern bays of the nave, which have poorly set out and plainly chamfered arches on piers of clunch, mostly octagonal, without bases, one with a carved late 12th-century capital. The arches to the south are perhaps slightly older than those to the north. They were all possibly cut through the thick walls of an earlier church. […] A plain octagonal font, probably 13th-century, in place until 1880, was probably then taken to the Fen church, where portions of the old square wooden pulpit, whose carved panels were described c. 1870 as Decorated, were re-used in a reading desk. Both were brought back to the village after 1964. […] mosaic panels by Powell of Whitefriars adorned the square alabaster pulpit, inaugurated in 1883 with a new font on marble shafts." , describes a new font, probably the one mentioned in Kelly: "A plain octagonal font, probably 13th-century, in place until 1880, was probably then taken to the Fen church" [NB: two 'Fen' churches in Cambridgeshire: Fen Ditton, nearby, and Fen Drayton, nearer Huntingdon -- the font at Fen Ditton is of later date and decorated -- the one at Fen Drayton is listed in Cox & Harvey as being from the Decorated period, i.e., 14th-century]. A '"new font on marble shafts", dating from the late-19th century renovations is also noted in the VCH entry [cf. supra]. The later font is described and illustrated in Cambridgeshire Churches (2004) [http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/waterbeach.htm] [accessed 9 October 2007]: "the font is a confection of enamel, mosaic, topped with marble tracery. Quite ridiculous, but rather fun."