Ivinghoe / Evinghehou / Hythingho / Iuingeho / Ivanhoe / Yvyngho

There is an entry for this Ivinghoe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP9415/ivinghoe/] [accessed 20 November 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Parker (1850) notes: "The church is D[ecorated] [...] Font modern, but not bad." Sheahan (1862) writes: "The Church stands on the S.E. side of the town, and is a large handsome cruciform structure, chiefly of the Decorated period; but portions of the chancel and nave are Early English [...] The font, which is modern, is placed under the tower" [cf. infra]. The font is a cylindrical basin decorated with a tight-knit pattern of square flowers all around, raised on a base of clustered columns with capitals and bases, a round lower base and a circular plinth with kneeling stone; there is an inscription around the upper rim that identifies the donors. The wooden cover probably of the same period, the 19th century. The Victoria Country History (Buckingham, vol. 3, 1925) notes: "The thickness of the west wall suggests that the present building has been enlarged from a 12th-century church, but no detail earlier than the first half of the 13th century now remains. [...] The church belonged with the manor to the see of Winchester, and reference to it occurs in 1241"; there is no mention of a font in the corresponding entry, nor does a font appear anywhere in the plan of the interior included in the VCH entry. B. Wright, in The Ivinghoe & Pitstone Village web site [www.pitstone.co.uk/phpBB2/kb.php?mode=article&k=34] notes: "The old font was replaced in 1872. The mediaeval style of the baptistry is also seen in the west windows which were reconstructed at the same time" [cf. supra - the dates do not seem to match, as Parker, had reported a new font in the church already in 1850; Sheahan, too, reported a modern font in the church in 1862; perhaps the old font was kept until, and eventually discarded (?) in 1872]. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font of this 12th-13th-century church]. We found no churches or chapels recorded for the hamlets of Ivinghoe Aston and Ivinghoe Horton.