Frithelstock / Fredelestoch

There is an entry for Frithelstock [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SS4619/frithelstock/] [accessed 22 March 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Described by Enlart (1902) as a four-lobe shaped font of the 14th century. Clarke (1921), however, has a different view: "At first site this font seems to be out of place among the square bowls, for the bowl is of the unusual shape of a quatrefoil; but it appears this is a modern transformation. About the middle of the last century the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society published : 'Rough Notes' on a great many churches of Devon; the description of the Frithelstock font appeared in 1848 and is as follows: --'Font, Norman, 4 feet square basin; singular circular shaft with long chevron.' The singular circular shaft with long chevron still remains. Except that it is proportionally much higher it resembles that of Hartland, and when I first saw the font it struck me that the bowl might originally have been spare, as at Hartland. The entry in 'Rough Notes' establishes this beyond a doubt, though it was probably plain, as no mention is made of ornament or cones. Possibly it was the same type as Hittlesleigh [sic], and considered to be ungainly. At all events, at some date later than 1848 some misguided person had it cut into a quatrefoil. There must be either a mistake or a misprint in the statement in 'Rough Notes' that the bowl is 4 feet square. Stoke St. Nectan, Hartland, the largest of the existing square fonts, measures only 27 inches, and the present greatest diameter of Frithelstock bowl is 26 1/2 inches. Perhaps the intention was to say 'four square'. A set-off at the top of the shaft makes a necking; it is 3/4 inch wide, and projects 2 1/4 inches inches from the shaft. There is a meagre-looking circular base, 9 inches deep; it projects 1 1/4 inches from the shaft, and spreads towards the bottom. The plinth is modern; it stands on another platform inlaid with coloured tiles." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. On circular Norman shaft with vertical zigzag decoration." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SS4636619546] notes: "C13 quatrefoil-shaped font with cabled herringbone decoration to stem; reset on late C19 base." The entry for this church in the CRSBI [https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=5677] [accessed 22 March 2025] identifies a part of the font as Romanesque: "A Romanesque round support sits between the 13thc. quatrefoil font and a late 19thc. base