Ashley / Ashley nr. Market Drayton / Esselie

There is an entry for this Ashley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SJ7636/ashley/] [accessed 10 September 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Lewis' Dictionary of 1831 notes the font at Ashley as one of the most remarkable in the county. A baptismal font in Ashley is reported in Tymms (1834). The William Salt Library, Stafford, has a catalogue entry for a 1843 sepia drawing of the font at Ashley Church "showing an octagonal font, situated in a recess in the wall, under a cusped canopy" [the drawing [3.5 x 7 in.] is by John Buckler and has the catalogue no. SV I.93]. Lee (1861) writes: "Ashley This church is at present in a state of transition. The fine old building has been levelled to the ground, except the tower, which stands in naked contrast with the brick and stone walls rising from the old foundations; and the quaintly carved heads which adorned the windows, lie scattered among bricks and mortar. A new N. porch has appeared, but no vestiges have been allowed to remain of a fine holy-water vessel formerly in the N. wall. The old font is curiously cut out of a massive pillar, which will form part of the new church; it is canopied with a projecting spherical roof of stone, gracefully carved." Phil Draper (2004) mentions a "font and canopy, built into the north east pier of the tower" [http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/STS/Ashley/StJohn4.html] [accessed 23 September 2007].