Dauntsey / Dantesie / Dantsey

There is an entry for Dauntsey [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST9782/dauntsey/] [accessed 22 May 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 14, 1991) notes: "The church at Dauntsey was claimed by Malmesbury abbey c. 1177. Since the abbey had already granted its Dauntsey estate in fee by 1086 and since the demesne of Dauntsey manor was later tithe free, it is possible that Dauntsey church was built before the Conquest and belonged to the abbey [...] The nave was apparently built or rebuilt in the 12th century [...] There are registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials from 1653." There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry for this parish. The present baptismal font, located in the north aisle, is a modern one, probably 19th-century; it consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides raised on a plain octagonal pedestal and a moulded lower base. The wooden font cover, a low pyramid of octagonal shape, is older than the font, and must have belonged to an earlier vessel [NB: we have no information on the original baptismal font of the medieval church]