Chearsley / Cercelai / Cerdeslai / Cerdicesleah (?) / Cerleslai / Chaddesle / Chardesle Velence / Chardeslie / Chardislee Molyns / Cheardesley / Chersey / Chersley

There are two entries for Chearsley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP7110/chearsley/] [accessed 3 December 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Lipscomb (1831- ) writes: "The font, which is large and circular, is on the north side of the nave, supported by an octagon column on a circular plinth, and having a border of trefoils encircling the verge, which is ornamented with foliage." In Sheahan (1862), after Lipscomb. In the RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912): "Font: cup-shape bowl, with fluted scallops, band of stiff foliage at the top, rim cable-moulded, early 13th-century, octagonal stem and moulded base, probably 15th-century." The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1827) notes: "The church of Chearsley, anciently a chapel to Crendon, formed part of the original endowment of the abbey of Nutley, founded in the early 12th century by Walter Giffard. [...] The nave dates from about 1300, the tower from the early part of the 15th century, and the chancel, which was probably erected at the same time as the nave, was rebuilt about 1480"; the font, however, notes the VCH (ibid.), "has an early 13th-century circular bowl, with a cable mould round the rim and a band of foliated ornament; it stands upon a later octagonal stem and moulded base." Described in Pevsner (1960): "Font of cauldron shape, Norman. The lower part of the bowl fluted, above a frieze of upright three-lobed leaves." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015), which notes that, although of the Aylesbury group, this font is "less proficiently carved and not by the same workshop as the main group. It may be compared with the examples at Buckland and Saunderton." The basin is somewhat similar to the one in Buckland, although this one has a rope moulding at the upper rim; the base, of later date as identified in the RCAHM [cf. supra], consists of a plain octagonal stem raised on a splaying circular base with moulding and incised circle on the upper section. [NB: it may the case that these basins were made without corresponding bases, the latter being added from other workshops or from locally based masons, as with some Tournai fonts in England].