Freshwater / Fershewater / Ferswater / Fresceuuatre / Frescewatere / Frescewatre / Freshewater / Fresqwatere

There are two entries for Freshwater [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SZ3487/freshwater/] [accessed 19 February 2020] neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Early English period here. Cox (1911) reports a good modern font of Purbeck marble on an original Early English base: "The font, at the west end of the north aisle, has a square bowl supported on a central stem in the four small shafts at the angles ; it is of Purbeck marble of Transition Norman design, but only the base stone, from which the shafts spring, is original." The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 5, 1912) notes: "Of the church mentioned in Domesday […] no visible trace remains […] A 13th-century font with central drum and attached shafts stands at the west end of the church under the tower." In Lloyd & Pevsner (2006): "Font, c.1190-1200, of polished Purbeck marble. Plain square tapering bowl, round stem with shafts. Restored and set up at the W[est] end of the N[orth] aisle in 1894 by F.L. Pearson (son of the great architect J.L. Pearson). It now has a stepped base behind brass rails on openwork iron brackets." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SZ3470487305] notes: "Parish church. This may contain the remains of a Saxon 2 cell church but the nave arcades are late C12, the windows are C13 and the tower is C15, the whole much restored 1872-4", but mentions no font in it. [NB: we have no information on the font from the earlier church -- thhough mentioned in the VCH we could not locate the reference to a church in the Domesday entries for Freshwater]. [NB: although the Church of S. Agnes carries a stone with the date 1622 on it, that stone and many of the ones that constitute this building came originally from a 17th-century farm; the church actually dates from the early 20th century]