Mears Ashby / Asbi / Ashbi Meres / Asshebi Mares / Esseby / Esseby Mares Northesseby

Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as an octagonal basin of a Norman baptismal font; each panel has a central motif encircled in beaded-pearl-tape, all different: a rode, a romboid motif, a six-point flower or star, etc., while the rest of the space on the side panels is covered in busy interlace and other such patterns. The chamfered underbowl is, in contrast, totally plain. The base that appears under the basin in Bond's illustration is probably not the original one, since it does not seem to fit the lower basin at all. The font has a flat wooden cover with much iron reinforcement and ornamentation, probably modern. The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 4, 1937) notes: "the round-headed priest's doorway is apparently an ancient feature and would seem to point to the original chancel having been of late-12th-century date, to which period the south doorway and probably the font belong. A wheel-head cross, of late-10th- or early-11th-century date, however, preserved in the church, presumably belongs to the site and if so indicates that there was a cemetery here, and perhaps also a church in pre-Conquest times, [...] though the first stone building would no doubt be that erected in the 12th century, consisting only of chancel and nave. [...] The font is of the unmounted type, octagonal in shape and lined with lead. On all sides but the west it is richly ornamented with circular medallions inclosing roses, stars, and other devices, flanked with bands of interlaced work. [...] Having been long covered with plaster the ornament is well preserved. The lower part is cut back, or chamfered, and is plain." Mee (1945) describes it as one of the treasures of this church: "the font, a marvellous work of art 800 years old. It is a handsome and solid font raised on a triple base, and the bowl has eight sides, all magnificently carved in different patterns. We should be thankful to those misguided people who platered up this font in ages past, for the plaster has preserved the carving so well that after eight centuries it as impressive as when the master mason left it [...]" In Zarnecki (1953). Maguire (1970) suggests an attribution to the workshop associated with the west portal of Northampton St Peter's: "It seems likely that this font was carved by one of those masons who undertook the decoration of the church in Northampton." Pevsner & Cherry (1973) comment that "The carving is detailed and so sharp that it appears to be re-tooled." Described by Barwell (2004): "a twelfth-century font decorated with rosettes and interlace". Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008), which refers to Pevsner's comment on the retooled appearance of the carving: "The present author [i.e., Ron Baxter in the CRSBI] accepts that it is retooled, or even scrubbed, and suggests a date in the second half of the 12thc", rather than Mee's [cf. supra] take on the beneficial results of lomg-term plastering. Baxter (ibid.) further notes: "The font may be related to the re-set W doorway at St. Peter's, Northampton, with which it shares motifs, although the Northampton work does not include the Anglo-Saxon style interlace panels. The visual similarity with Islamic or Mozarabic patterns is surely coincidental." Thurlby (2006) notes: "the Norman font at Mears Ashby (Northants.) provides a good analogue for the octagonal form and the decorated roundels at Llantrisant".