Great Haseley / Haselie

No individual entry found for Great Haseley in the Domesday survey. Described in Weare & Delafield (1848): "The font is plain, round, and massive, of ealy character apparently, but with no particular features." An illustration in Weare & Delafield (ibid.) shows part of the nave and [south?] aisle, with the font partially visible by one of the pillars; there is conical wooden cover on it. The 'Great Haseley Conservation Area Character Study, by the South Oxfordshire District Council (Sept. 2004) [www.southoxon.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/download/asset/?asset_id=280484] [accessed 1 February 2009] notes: "Part of the font is [...] thought to be Saxon." There is no mention of either font or cover in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974). The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SP6442601696] notes: "Church. c.1200, c.1300, early C14 and C15. Chancel restored 1897 [...] a plain stone tub font." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 18, 2016) notes: "Great Haseley was a large and well-endowed parish, which for part of the medieval period had outlying chapels at Little Haseley, Latchford, and Rycote. [...] Great Haseley church was founded relatively early, probably by the 11th or 12th century [...] For a small rural village Great Haseley has a relatively large and impressive church, reflecting in part its high-status patrons, the size of its medieval endowment, and possibly its early origins. [...] The earliest fabric dates from c.1200, when the Pipards held the manor, but there are hints of an earlier structure: the nave, in particular, is exceptionally long, prompting suggestions that its easternmost bay may have once formed the chancel of a smaller 11th- or 12th-century church. The present building was substantially complete by 1500"; the only mention of a font in it is a complaint by the churchwardens ca. 1520: "Under Harrop [the then rector] (who resided) the churchwardens nevertheless reported numerous abuses: grazing of animals in the churchyard, failure to keep the holy oil and font under lock and key or to collect parishioners' dues, refusal to visit the sick or to meet funerals beyond the churchyard gate, and on one occasion refusal to bury a parishioner's son." The VCH entry (ibid.) further notes that in the Rycote Chapel of the mid-15th century: "The sumptuous interior dates mostly from the 17th century, when the chapel was owned by the Norrises and Berties; the only 15th-century survivals are the wooden seating in the nave and chancel, the base and cover of the font, and the base of the rood screen"; it was restored in 2005. The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2019) reports "a Romanesque plain font" in this church, "A tapered plain limestone font is located at the W end of the S aisle. The later and wider cylindrical base is chamfered at the top. No lead lining is present. There are signs of repair at top SW edge, probably lock damage.