Woolstone nr. Swindon / Olvricestone / Olvrichestone / Wlfricheston / Wluricheston / Wolierston / Wolstane / Wolston / Wolstone / Woolstone /Woulricheston / Wulevycheston / Wulwricheston

There is an entry for this Woolestone [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU2987/woolstone/] [accessed 9 June 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The font here is listed in Paley (1844), in Batty (1844), in Cox (1875), in Andre (1882) and in Lethaby (1893) as a "leaden font" [NB: Lethaby (ibid.) dates it 'Norman']. Described in 'Church notes...' (1887) in the context of some "notes [that] were taken between 1835 and 1840": "The font has a cylindrical bowl of cast lead, upon a plain stone cylinder, with a scalloped base. The prints upon the lead resemble 'cancelli', or lattice work, with some rude representations of windows, with early Decorated tracery." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a "small tub font [...] rudely marked. Dr. Fryer's suggestion that the designer was endeavouring to reproduce the form of an earlier timber Saxon church is ingenious but not probable". [NB: C&H's reference is to Alfred C. Fryer's article on Leaden Fonts, in vol. LVII (1900: 40ff) of the Archaeological Journal]. Listed in Bond (1908) as a lead font ornamented with "various decorations" [NB: Bond gives the county as Berkshire in the text of the original edition; the reprint edition shows in under "Oxon." in the index]. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The building dates from about 1195 [...] The font is of great interest, and consists of a circular lead bowl 21 in. in diameter [...] by 14 in. high, on a circular stone stem and modern base. It is probably not earlier than the 14th century. The bowl is divided by raised vertical bands into a series of compartments, 'each containing a pair of leaves forming a pointed arch,' [...] across which a series of zigzag lines are carried. A narrow fillet runs round the top of the bowl between the vertical bands with a series of smaller pointed 'arches' in the spaces thus formed." The window tracery can have the effect of suggesting praying figures.