Askerswell / Oscherwille

There is an entry for Askerswell [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SY5292/askerswell/] [accessed 23 August 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874) reports a Norman font here. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907), Long (1923) and Mee (1939) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. In the RCHM (1952). In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Norman, with intersecting arches." Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk] notes that "the font is very similar and appears to be from the same workshop as the font at Turners Puddle." Duke [ibid.] refers that a church leaflet dates the font "precisely to 1154" [perhaps for the date of dedication of the church?]. Noted in the CRSBI (2018): "The font is the only Romanesque feature [...] Carved from limestone, the font has a circular, convex bowl with simple, intersecting arcading springing from projecting impost blocks, which rest on plain shafting. The moulded rim has crude cable ornament. The bottom has a plain roll moulding. The circular stem is plain, except for an unfinished carved band of plaiting round the middle. This has lightly carved beading along the middle of each strand. 90 degrees of the stem has been left uncarved. The projecting spurs and base are C20th cement restoration. The font is not lead lined. The font is a simpler version of that at Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset. The intersecting arcading has been drawn closer together, the imposts and pilasters are simpler, and the rim has been simplified with a crudely carved band of cable. It is possible that the two fonts were carved by the same sculptor, though that at Whitchurch is certainly the more sophisticated. Such treatment of fonts is not common in Dorset, though another example may be found at Bere Regis, where the flat intersecting arcading is packed tightly together and has a band of roundels above. Other examples, outside Dorset, may be found at Chadsunt (Warks), Oakham (Leics), where the compartments are left plain, and Lifton (Devon) (Bond, pl.90,204). More elaborate examples of this type may be found at Alphington (Devon) and Porchester, (Hants) (Bond pl.154), though the compartments are still plain, that is uncarved. It is noteworthy that the band of interlace round the stem is unfinished, which suggests that the sculptor may have been called away for work elsewhere; probably carved 'avant la pose'. Date: mid late C12th."