Ashover / Essoure / Essovre

There is an entry for Ashover [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SK3463/ashover/] [accessed 28 February 2015], and it mentions a priest and a church in it. A font here is noted and illustrated in The Topographer (issue no. X, January 1790: 61): "This font, of which an engraving is here given, is undoubtedly very ancient, and by some supposed to be Saxon. The base is of stone, and the embossed figures and ornamented niches, in which they stand, are lead." [NB: the accompanying engraving bears the names of "S. Shaw, del't" and "Ravenhill Sculps't", "Published as the Act directs, Jan. 31, 1790, by I. Robson, Bond St. &c."] Noted in Gough (1792) as a font decorated with the Apostles. There is another early description of this font in Lysons (1806-1833): "of lead, and apparently very ancient, being in the Saxon style: it is two feet one inch in width, and one foot in height; and is placed on a stone pedestal of more modern date. This font is ornamented with twenty figures of men, in flowing drapery, each holding a book in his left hand; and differing only in the position of the head, and of the right hand, which is more or less elevated in different figures". Described in Davies (1811): ''a very ancient font, supposed to be Saxon: the pedestal upon which it stands is of stone; the lower part is hexagonal, the upper part circular, an surrounded with twenty figures, in devotional attitudes, embossed in lead, which are cast in small compartments.'' Glover (1831) describes it as a lead font "in the Saxon style". Noted in Paley (1844), Batty (1848) and in Andre (1882). Described, with measurements, in Cox (1875), with references to Lysons, Gough, Simpson and Glover: "Cox (1875) notes a font of the Norman period at the west end of the north aisle and informs that it was "engraved in the second volume of the Topographer for the year 1790"; Cox (ibid.) describes the font: "The base is of stone in an hexagonal form, and is of a comparative modern date. The upper part, however, is circular and constructed of lead. It is two feet one inch in width, and about one foot in height. It is ornamented with twenty upright figures of men clad in flowing drapery. Each figure holds a book in his left hand, and stands under a semi-circular arch supported on slender pillars. These figures are almost precisely similar, and are rudely executed in bas-relief. Beneath them is a narrow border of fleurs-de-lis. The age of this font has been much over-rated by Lysons and Glover, who attribute it to the Saxon period. Lead fonts are very uncommon." [NB: Cox gives "a complete list of the leaden fonts to be found in England" in a footnote]. Lead baptismal font of the Late Norman period; there are twenty (?) [NB: only twelve according to Cox & Harvey (1907) and Bond (1908)] figures under round-headed arches on the lead casing of the stone bowl; underneath, a band of lillies. Noted in Lethaby (1893). Illustrated in Crossley (1941). Described and illustrated in Stone (1955) as one "of six identical fonts struck off the same mould"; Stone (Ibid.) finds parallel ornamentation with details of the Bury Saint Edmunds' Bible and the Winchester Bible. Described and illustrated in Zarnecki (1957): "The falling off in the quality of the fonts produced at the end of the Romanesque period is already visible here. The very fact that two figures were repeated ten times around the font shows a lack of inventiveness" [cf. supra regarding the differences]. By contrast, Jenkins (1999) describes it as a work of art "without equal in the county", and "one of only 30 left in England that avaited being melted for bullets at some stage of its life." Noted in Pevsner (1978): "Font. The most important Norman font in the county. Of lead, which is interesting as there was so much lead-mining all around [...]; of c. 1200, less good in quality than early C12 examples and very small, the bowl only about 2 ft across. It has standing figures of 8 in. under arcades, only two different figures, each repeated ten times and no doubt representing the Apostles. In design the font at Dorchester. Oxon, es especially similar." [We are grateful to Colin S. Drake for his photograph of this font]