Oakley nr. Basingstoke / Aclei / Chircheoccle / Church Eokle / Church Oakley / Chyrchocle / Ocling

There are three entries for this Oakley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU5650/oakley/] [accessed 29 September 2015], one of which mentions a church in it. White (1878) reports: "The font has been restored" [cf. infra]. The British Listed Buildings database [hwww.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-138815-church-of-st-leonard-oakley] reports: "the font is a 'Norman Revival' massive structure". The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "There was a church on Hugh de Port's estate in Church Oakley at the time of the Domesday Survey. [...] There was a church here in the 12th century with a nave of the size of the present one and a chancel. To this nave about 1180–90 a south aisle was added, the west arch of the south arcade being of that date. The tower seems to have been built by Archbishop Warham early in the 16th century […] All the furniture is modern except the bowl of the font, which was formerly used as a horse-trough in a farm near by (The Chestnuts) and was placed in the church in 1869. It looks like the base stone of a mediaeval cross and is octagonal above with large rounded stops at the corners, but there seems good foundation for the story of its having been taken from the church to the farmyard by a former churchwarden."