Odiham / Hodiam / Odiam / Odyam / Odyham / Wudiham

There is an entry for Odiham in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU7451/odiham/] [accessed 2 August 2018]; it reports "2 churches. 2.0 church lands" in it. White (1878) writes: "There is a very curious Norman font, with the cavity for chrism, and a Latin inscription signifying 'My help is in God who made heaven and earth'." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Early English period with an inscription. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908): "a font apparently of the thirteenth century has an oblong projection on one side of the rim of the bowl, in which is hollowed a small trough. Since there are two holes in the bottom of the trough to the exterior, it is hardly likely to be a piscina; it may indicate that either a font desk or a font cover was formerly fastened here." The basin is almost cylindrical -except for the said protrusion- and rather shallow, with an inscription in large letters carved around it [cf. Inscription area]; the underbowl is plain between two roll mouldings; the base is cylindrical, as is the lower base, both plain as well. Cox & Harvey (1907), argue that the protrusion is too small to be any sort of basin and that it may just be a special bracket for an unusually large font-cover structure. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) reports "loose stones in the tower, and one or two more built into the south aisle, which belonged to a 12th-century building, but the oldest walls now standing are those of the chancel and its aisles, and the lower part of the tower, which belong to the early part of the 13th century. [...] The font is placed at the south-west corner of the nave. It is of chalk, of 15th-century date, and has a circular moulded basin, stem and base. On the southwest side of the bowl is a curious rectangular projection, the top of which is hollowed into a small basin from which are two outlet holes. It is probably part of an arrangement for fastening the cover, as staples driven into the chalk rim of the bowl would have been likely to split it. Round the bowl is an inscription in black letter. It is much damaged owing to the soft nature of the material, but can still be read: 'Auxiliũ meum a dño qui fecit celũ & t[e]rā'". The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SU7488150603] reports a "font of circa 1500" in it. [NB: it has also been suggested elsewhere that these protrusions occasionally found on baptismal fonts could have been used as rests for the candle, for the crucifix, for the chrismatories, etc.]