Eynsham / Eglesham / Egonesham

There is an entry for Eynsham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP4309/eynsham/] [accessed 28 November 2017], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Murray (1882) notes: "The font is Perp[endicular] and much ornamented." Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911as a baptismal font of the Early Perpendicular period. Described in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "C15. The bowl is rather too shallow for a font; it may be a re-used capital. It is carved with small angels and lumpy foliage. Panelled octagonal base." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 12, 1990) notes: "Eynsham was apparently the site of an early Saxon minster and the centre of a large parochia, steadily diminished as new churches were established, for example at Water Eaton and Cogges [...] The parish church was probably founded as a chapel for the villagers when Eynsham's Saxon minister became the abbey church of a closed order in 1005. It was first recorded in the late 12th century, [...] and was dedicated to St. Leonard, a saint popular with the Benedictines [...] The oldest dateable parts of the [present] fabric, the chancel and part of the south aisle, are of the late 13th century, although in the early 19th century there was said to be earlier masonry in the south wall [...] The 15th-century font is much repaired; it was raised in 1893 on steps similar to those removed in the mid 19th century." The Green Man Trail site [http://www.bejo.co.uk/greenmantrail/html/] [accessed 24 June 2007] reports and illustrates a grotesque head with leaves sprouting from the mouth on this font. The West Oxfordshire site [http://www.wospweb.com/site/Eynsham-Online/churches.htm] [accessed 24 June 2007] notes: "The font near the entrance is thought to have been a 'capital' from the abbey. Beneath the rim is the face of a 'green man', spouting animals from his mouth".