Ashampstead / Æshamestede / Ashamstead / Asshampsted / Ayshamsted / Esshamstede

There is an entry for Basildon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU6078/basildon/] [accessed 30 April 2015] that reports two churches in it, one of which is believed to be that of Ashampstead [cf. infra]. A vessel used for baptisms at the time is described in 'Church notes...' (1887) in the context of some "notes [that] were taken between 1835 and 1840": "The font seems to have been an apothecary's stone mortar". The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923) notes: "One of the two churches of Basildon [...] at the Survey was doubtless at Ashampstead [...] The Domesday Survey includes it [i.e., Ashampstead] in Basildon [...] The [present] church was built early in the 13th century, and, but for the erection of the bell-turret, appears to have remained practically untouched until the 19th century. Restorations were undertaken in 1849 and 1894 [...] The font is modern". The present baptismal font appears 19th-century Victorian; it consists of an octagonal basin decorated with a large lead inlaid motif on each panel, graded underbowl chamfer, raised on a plain octagonal pedestal with a moulded lower base. Round wooden cover probably of the same date. [NB: the fabric of the original church goes back to the 11th century, but we have no information on the original font here, nor do we have any further information on the mortar noted ca.1887 [cf. supra].