Ashbocking / Asbocking / Assa / Assia / Essa [Domesday] / Hassa

There are four entries for Ashbocking [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM1654/ashbocking/] [accessed 25 April 2020]; one of the entries reports "1.5 churches. 0.15 church lands" in it. Parker (1855) writes: "Font, P[erpendicular]; a square bowl on a circular pedestal" [NB: description that does not match the present font]. Listed in Cautley (1982) and in Mortlock (1990) as a baptismal font of the 12th century. Described in Knott [www.suffolkchurches.co.uk] as this church's ancient treasure, a "late Saxon font found under layers of brick and plaster in 1842. It sits upon a modern 'Norman-style' base". Friar (2003) refers to an early cone-shaped cover with "gently curved" ribs, but the cover on it now is a polygonal pyramid with crocketed arrises. The base appears totally new; the basin has been heavily restored and looks as if it were made yesterday. The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919). Baxter (CRSBI 2008) questions the original function of this object despite acceptance as font by Cautley, Mortlock and Pevsner [cf. supra]; Baxter (ibid.) notes: "The present bowl was discovered in 1842, restored and mounted on the present shaft, newly made for the purpose. Although both Pevsner and Mortlock appear to have no reservations about it, the present author takes the view that its form and the absence of any marks on the rim to indicate that it once had a locking cover cast grave doubts on its original status as a font. It looks like a mortar, and is unlikely to be Romanesque, or even medieval. Such objects are regularly identified as fonts: another example may be seen at St Mary's, Wappenham (Northants)." [NB: the object looks too large and fancy for the usual mortar, liguid or grain measure that have been re-used as fonts and stoups; Baxter is right about the lack of cover anchor evidence, though, which makes the dating unlikely, though not impossible].