Kirtling / Chertelinge

There is an entry for this Kirtling [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL6857/kirtling/] [accessed 12 July 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Cambridge…, vol. 10, 2002) notes: "The church was once cruciform, with a low central tower over the crossing and a long aisleless nave. The foundations of the crossing survive below ground level. (fn. 55) The proportions of the building have been thought characteristic of an Anglo-Saxon church of high status, perhaps a minster, […] but churches were still being built in that form after 1066, and no features remain which are unambiguously pre-Conquest. Apart from what can be deduced of the original plan, the oldest surviving feature above ground is a small round-headed window at the west end of the south nave wall, the only part of the nave walls not altered in later centuries. The window head is carved from a single large block of stone, scooped out underneath to form an arch, and very simply decorated on the external face with concentric round arches. It dates from the later 11th century and may be pre-Conquest, but the window opening is straight, not splayed as many late Anglo-Saxon windows were"; no font mentioned in the VCH entry. A font here is noted in the Kirtling & Upend site [www.kirtlingandupend.org.uk/html/history_of_kirtling_-_6.html] [accessed 28 October 2007]: "Opposite to the door there is an octagonal plain stone font of unknown date". The basin is octagonal with a moulding at the upper rim, otherwise plain, with vertical sides; the underbowl chamfer is slightly concave and plain; there is a set of thin mouldings at the joining point of basin and base; the lower base splays and there is a chunky kneeling stone attached to the west side of the lower base. There is repaired damage on the basin and on the stem. The cover consists of a flat octagonal platform with the usual arrangement of eight (?) ribs around a central pivot.