Ashill / Asscelea / Asschelee / Aysele

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and at the time of Norwich Domesday, here was both rector and vicar, the latter at the presentation of the former, whose rectory was then a sinecure; but before 1300, the rector ceased presenting, and took the whole cure, and so made it an absolute rectory, and as such it continues to this day". Blomefield (ibid.) names "7 Rich. I. Thomas de Watton" as the first recorded rector here, in the seventh year of Richard I's reign, i.e., 1895, and does mention a font in, indirectly by giving the coat of arms on it: "Arg. a cross in a bordure sab. on the font." This same source cites the one Domesday entry for "Asscelea (fol. 285), without a mention of church or priest. The present font here is noted and illustrated in Knott (2007): "The traceried 14th century font has a big surprise: a bearded head looks out from under one of the panels." The font is of the design in which the basin tapers off seamlessly into the octagonal base, the underbowl decorated with trefoiled arch-heads, in one of which is a bearded male face; the sides of the basin alternate blank shields in quatrefoils with rosettes in quatrefoils; there is piping on the angles of the stem and lower base; two-step octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is octagonal, flat and plain; appears modern.