Culham

No entry for Culham found in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 7, 1962) notes: "Culham's first church may date from the reign of Coenwulf (796–?821) [...] There is a later tradition that the royal matron Ælfhild obtained in 940 a grant for life of Culham for a similar purpose. The chapel that she built, dedicated to St. Vincent, and in which she was buried must have been there [...] Another tradition relates how Edward the Confessor permitted a rich priest, Blacheman by name, to live on Andersey Island and build a chapel there dedicated to St. Andrew ...] After the Battle of Hastings Blacheman fled from England [...] and in 1101 the chapel, by then no longer used for religious services, was granted by Henry I to Abbot Faritius, who took its materials for rebuilding the abbey church at Abingdon [...] Twelfth-century papal confirmations of Abingdon's property do not mention any church in Culham. (fn. 203) The tithes of Culham are mentioned in the time of Abbot Hugh (1189–1221) [...] but the first known reference to Culham church is found in a bull of Gregory IX (1227–41) [...] The church of St. Paul [...] is a relatively modern edifice, replacing a medieval Gothic building which stood on the site from the late 12th or early 13th century to the middle of the 19th century [...] A stone font was given in about 1845 by J. S. Phillips. Before that time a baptismal font of gilded base metal (now used as an alms-dish), resting on a mahogany stand, was used." [NB: we have no information on the baptismal font of the medieval church, or of any possible fonts of the earlier chapels]