Tetsworth / Tettesworth

No entry found for Tetsworth in the Domesday survey. Lee (1883) writes: "The font, of freestone and octagonal, standing on a slender shaft, and not raised upon steps, placed near the south-west door, is small and without any remarkable characteristics -- of third pointed character. It is certainly not the original font -- 'round and plain,' which existed in 1793." [NB: not known which source Lee quotes from; the quote is not footnoted in Lee]. The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 7, 1962) notes: "Architectural evidence shows that the church was in existence by the 11th or early 12th century, but its early history is not known. It may not have always been a chapel of Thame, but may once have had an independent ecclesiastical position, for in the late 12th century its priest was called 'presbyter' or 'persona' [...] The present church of St. Giles [...] was entirely rebuilt in 1855 [...] The smaller medieval church which it replaced is stated to have contained some long-and-short work of Anglo-Saxon date [...] but the main structure dated from the early 12th century". The floor plan of the church interior prior to 1846 does not include a font, nor does the VCH text mention one. There is an object in the nave at present [29 February 2009] in Tetsworth St. Giles' that resembles a fragment of a medieval font; the upper part and the top of the stem appear to have been cemented to a later structure, and looks like the lower end of a medieval (?) octagonal basin broken up. [NB: we have not been able to locate any information on a possible font of any period in this church].