FLITT HUNDRED 



SUNDON 



carved with a pattern of flowing quatrefoils while its 

 rails and the uprights at either end have bands of 

 shallow diaper ornament. The work may possibly be 

 English, but it is more likely that this is one of the 

 Flanders chests often referred to in mediaeval docu- 

 ments. The font stands in the third bay of the north 

 arcade and has an octagonal Purbeck marble bowl on 

 a central and flanking column, the latter being modern. 

 On each face of the bowl are two pointed arches in low 

 relief, and the font belongs to a common late twelfth- 

 century type. On the west jamb of the low side win- 

 dow on the north of the chancel is what appears to be 

 a sun-dial, but the position is an impossible one, and the 

 stone must either have been moved from the south side 

 of the church or the dial has some other purpose. 



In the tower is a single bell by a fifteenth-century 

 London founder. It is inscribed ' Ave Maria ' in 

 gothic capitals and as a stop between the words has 

 one of the royal heads common on a certain class of 

 bell, in this case the head is that usually called 

 Eleanor of Castile. 



The plate consists of a communion cup of 1 62 8 and 

 a paten of 1906. 



The registers, which are in very bad condition begin 

 in 15S4, the first book ending in 1689, while the 

 second book runs from 1695 to 1768. 



There is no mention of Sundon 

 ^DrOfTSON Church in the Survey, but the Lin- 

 coln Episcopal Registers show that 

 from its foundation, in 1145, Markyate Priory owned 

 the rectory and advowson." The priory owned 

 lands and rents here of the value of 16s. in izgi," 

 and in 1402 received a confirmation of their right of 

 presentation." At the Dissolution the advowson and 

 rectory (which was worth £16 13/. 4'/.") became 

 crown property, and were granted in 1 546 to Wil- 

 liam Byrche," a groom of the chamber and clerk of 

 the exchequer of gentlemen pensioners. 



The Byrches held both until 1590, when Henry 

 Byrche sold them for j^i,ooo to Thomas Cheyne, 

 lord of Sundon manor, and they have since followed 

 the same descent as the manor (q.v.),*' Mr. Page- 

 Turner being the patron at the present day. Sundon 

 has a Wesleyan and a Baptist chapel. 



Poor and church lands. The 

 CHARITIES parish formerly received the rents of 

 two parcels of land lying contiguous 

 to each other at the north end of a close called 

 the Stocking Close, containing respectively i\ acres 

 and I acre, which apparently became merged in the 

 adjoining property, and nothing has been received for 

 many years. 



« V.C.H. Beds, i, 260. 



« Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 



49. 



*8 Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 510. 



■" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 209. 



■"8 Pat. 37 Hen. VIII, m. 23 ; Doc. 

 in possession of Mr. F. A. Page- 

 Turner. 



« Feet of F. Beds. East. 31 Ellz. ; 

 Mich. 32 Eliz. ; Com. Pleas Recov. R. 

 Trin. 32 Eliz. ; Pat. 32 Eliz. pt. i; ; 

 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



387 



