Oxhill / Octeselve

There is an entry for Oxhill [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP3145/oxhill/] [accessed 12 January 2015], but it mentions neither clric nor church in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Norman period here. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a bucket-shaped baptismal font ornamented with an arcade of round intersecting arches with figures and other motifs in them; in relation to the dating of this font, Bond qualifies the sculpture as barbarous, but states that "the interlacing arcading is not likely to be earlier than that in the work of Priors Ernulph and Conrad at Canterbury (A.D. 1096-1130)"; Bond dates it late-12th or early-13th century. Tyrrell-Green (1928) identifies the scene of Adam and Eve and the Tree on the sides. The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 5, 1949) notes: "Both nave and chancel date from about the middle of the 12th century, but the south wall of the chancel has been considerably repaired several times, and the east wall was entirely rebuilt in the 17th or 18th century. [...] Dated restorations are 1865 (chancel), 1877–8, and 1908. [...] The 12th-century font is of unusual design. It is a stone bowl of flower-pot shape with the sides carved in low relief in 16 bays formed by pilasters and interlacing round arches. In two of the bays are figures of Adam and Eve, the other 14 contain conventional trees, flowers, &c." Davidson (1985) states "This font returned to its proper use after being utilized as water trough & 'flower vase'" and gives Harris' Unknown Ws., p.19 as reference. Noted and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015), with identification of the detailed ornamentation that fills the sixteen panels created by the arcade. On-site notes: the basin stands on a modern octagonal base. The bucket-shaped bowl has a series of long, narrow niches resulting from the intersecting of the round arches of the arcade; these niches contain a vegation motif in each, except for two which depict Adam and Eve: two long slender figures, standing frontally, and holding a fig leaf over their genitals. The basin well is lead-lined and has a central drainage hole; the basin has been restored, especially the upper rim area, where the damage is obvious. The modern octagonal plinth has a date on it indicating it was placed there in the 1800s.