Claverdon / Clavendone

There is an entry for Claverdon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP1964/claverdon/] [accessed 20 November 2014]; it reports a priest in it, but does not mention a church, though there probably was one there. Notices of the Churches in Warwickshire (vol. 2, 1858) reports that Claverdon "possessed a Church at the period of the Norman Conquest", a church re-built in 1830 into what the authors describe as "un-church-like"; on the font they write: "There is no Font in the Church, but the one belonging to it is believed to be still in existence: and the basin of it, said to be in a farm yard. This act of desecration ought not to be permited [...] In lieu of the Font is a wooden pedestal to hold a common basin, which is expressly forbidden by the Canons: 'Curabunt ut in singulis Ecclesiis sit Sacer Fons, non Pelvis, in quo Baptismus ministretur.' Why do not the Churchwardens comply with this Canon and restore the ancient Font so sacrilegiously removed?" The Victoria County History Warwick, vol. 3, 1945) notes: "About 1150 Hugh son of Richard, of Hatton, and Margaret his wife, [...] gave to the Abbey of St. Florent, Saumur, and its cell the Priory of Monmouth the church of St. Michael of Claverdon, to which the chapels of Langley, Norton, and Wolverton were appurtenant"; according to the VCH entry there appears to be nothing earlier than the 14th century in the present church; no font mentioned. No font mentioned either in the English Heritage entry for this church [Listing NGR: SP1983164577] (1967). At some point since 1858 the offensive font [cf. supra] mut have been replaced by a more 'normal' one; the present one, of stone, is of the octagonal all over type, with decorated basin sides and moulded underbowl, on a moulded octagonal pedestal base; the wooden cover is also decorous, octagonal, with a ball finial. It is located at the west end of the nave, jus east of the tower arch.