Ashmore / Aisemare
INFORMATION
Font ID: 11283ASH
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Ashmore
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Church Address: Ashmore SP5 5AE, United Kingdom
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B3081, in Cranborne Chase, about 10 km SE of Shaftesbury, on the Wiltshire border
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Historical Region: Hundred of Cranborne [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: recycled font: 12th-century basin on a 18th-century base
Font Notes:
Click to view
Thre is an entry for Ashmore [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST9117/ashmore/] [accessed 21 June 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. C12 cauldron-shaped bowl on an C18 baluster." The Dorset On-line Parish Clerk web site [www.dorset-opc.com] notes that "the font is of Bere stone".
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, Bere stone [basin only?]
Number of Pieces: two
Font Shape: cauldron-shaped, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: rectangular
Basin Exterior Shape: round
REFERENCES
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 78