Southleigh nr. Stanton Harcourt

Described in the Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford (1846): "The Font is good Perpendicular, panelled, with two steps; it stands under the middle arch, opposite the south door". The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 12, 1990) informs: "In or before 1176 Richard de Camville granted South Leigh church and 2 yardlands to Reading abbey […] South Leigh was by then, and remained thereafter until 1868, a dependent chapelry of Stanton Harcourt […] The chapel had burial rights by the early 16th century and probably from the outset, since the grant to Reading abbey included land for a cemetery […] the font is 15th-century, and the chapel was presumably baptismal throughout the Middle Ages […] In 1506 the chaplain was expressly required to administer all the sacraments to South Leigh's inhabitants […] The font is 15th-century; in the 19th century it was coverless, and stood opposite the south doorway […] In 1987 it was at the west end; the cover was designed by Sebastian Comper in 1948.