Croydon in London / Croindeine / Croindene / Croindone / Crondon

There is an entry for this Croydon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ3265/croydon/] [accessed 21 March 2016]; it reports a church in it. Lysons (1792) writes: "The church appears to have been rebuilt in the time of archbishop Chicele […] The old font, which stands at the west end of the south aisle, appears to be of the same date" [NB: Archbishop Henry Chichele [aka Chicele, Checheley, Chicheley]; 1362?-1443. This would make the font probably late-Decorated or Perpendicular]. Noted in Hassell (1817): "The old font, which stands at the west end of the south aisle, appears to be of the same date" [i.e., as in Lysons', the time of the re-building by Archbishop Chichele]. This is probably the same font noted in Neale (1825): "The font in Heron's Chapel, of an octagon form, has been lately restored, after having been laid aside for some time; it is probably coeval with the church; the quatrefoil panels on its sides are filled with roses, in one is a lion's head." Allen (1831) locates this font "at the west end of the south aisle" of the church. Brayley (1850) describes the font with mention of grotesque heads on it, and gives the location of the font "at the west end of the south aisle". The same font is described in Anderson (1867): "The font, which was of an octagonal form, is supposed to have been coeval with the church; it had quatrefoil panels on its sides, filled alternatively with grotesque heads and roses." [NB: it is probably at this time, January 1867, that the old font was destroyed]. The Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 4, 1912) notes: "A church evidently existed in Croydon in the 10th century, for one of the witnesses to the will of Birtric and Ælfwy, made in 960, was Ælffie the priest of Croydon. [...] At the time of the Domesday Survey there was a church on the archbishop's manor of Croydon. [...] he church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST was almost entirely destroyed by fire on the midnight of 5 January 1867. With the exception of the tower and the south porch, which were comparatively uninjured, the whole of the ruins were razed to the ground and the present church was erected on the old foundations with slight modifications, after the old design, under the supervision of the late Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A., the rebuilding being completed in 1870. In 1887 the north aisle underwent a restoration, and in 1892–3 the tower was restored"; no font mentioned in the VCH entry. The Parish web site [www.croydon-parish-church.org.uk/history] [accessed 30 March 2009] informs: "The octagonal font is Victorian and has a very tall canopy, carved with figures of archbishops." [NB: all the other churches in Croydon are modern].