Whitsbury / Whichbury / Whistlebury / Whitchbury / Whitsbury / Whyttesbury / Wiccheburi / Wicheberia / Wicheburia / Witchebury / Witeberge / Wychbury

No entry found for Whitsbury in the Domesday survey. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "The church of Whitsbury is mentioned in confirmation charters of Henry I [1100-1135], Henry II [1154-1189], Richard I [1189-1199] and John [1199-1216] to the abbey of Reading [...] The church of Whitsbury has always been in the diocese of Winchester and in the hundred of Fordingbridge in Hampshire, though all the parishioners lived in Wiltshire. [...] The church of St. Leonard is a modern building". There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry. The present font in the church is modern, dated 1877. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SP1529519175] notes a "small plain cylinder font of old church" in it [cf. infra]. The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2018) reports a holy-water stoup here as Romanesque: "In the porch under the W tower is a stoup consisting of a narrow cylindrical bowl with a hole in its bottom resting on a roll/ hollow base with an integral square plinth. [...] There is a current of opinion,repeated in the EH list description and the Hampshire Historic Buildings Record, but apparently disputed by the Salisbury Museum, that the object described above was the font of the old church. This is extremely unlikely because it is much too small. It appears to consist of a 12thc base, perhaps from a doorway, to which a small cylindrical bowl has been later added. It seems unlikely that it ever served as a font, since it could not hold water as it stands, and this also rules out its use as a stoup. It is currently used as a stand for floral displays." [NB: we have no information on the font of the medieval church here]