Ribchester / Coccium / Ribblecastre / Ribelcastre

There is a multiple-place entry of Ribchester [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SD6435/ribchester/] [accessed 12 March 2019]; it reports three churches there. Whitaker (1823) writes: "We know that no church existed here at the time of Domsday [...] Now the oldest appearances about the present church [...] may be referred to the reign of Henry II [i.e., 1154-1189] [...] this must be taken as the actual period at which the parish was separated and the church erected"; no font mentioned in it. Butterworth (1841) reports "a curious font" in this church. The Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 7, 1912) notes: "The font is of 14th-century date, and stands in its original position near the south door. It is octagonal in plan with straight sides and chamfered angle shafts dying into a splayed plinth, and has a flat wood top. Like the south door it has unfortunately suffered from successive coats of paint." Noted in Pevsner (1969): "Font. An octagonal piece of the same width bottom to top. No decoration; only buttresses. Is it C14?" Ditto in Hartwell & Pevsner (2009) [cf. Index entry for Stidd for a font listed in Stidd Chapel nearby]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SD6498435019] notes: "Church, C13 with later additions, restored 1881 and after a fire in 1917. [...] The sandstone font is octagonal with slim corner buttresses."