Leckhampstead nr. Newbury / Lecanestede

There is an entry for this Leckhampstead [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey http://opendomesday.org/place/SU4375/leckhampstead/] [accessed 17 January 2016]; it mentions a church in it. Parker (1850) notes: "The font is of the same date [i.e., Transition], ornamented with foliage round the rim and stem." The Victoria County History (Berjshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The township or tithing of Leckhampstead became a parish on the dedication of the church in or about 1050, [...] but it was at a later date included as a chapelry in the parish of Chieveley. In 1835 it became a civil parish, and in 1884 it was again made into an ecclesiastical parish. [...] The church of St. James, Leckhampstead, was erected in 1860 to replace the old church near Chapel Farm which was pulled down in 1859. [...] The Jacobean pulpit and the font also belong to the old church. The latter is a fine piece of early 13thcentury work; the bowl is hemispherical and ornamented with bands of foliage at the top and bottom. The base is modern." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008): "elaborately carved 12thc. Font [...] At W end of N nave aisle, a cup-shaped font now set on a 19thc. pedestal and plinth. The bowl is bulbous with broad bands of foliage decoration at the top and bottom. The lower band consists of a repeated motif of tri-lobed leaves separated by cusps in a form reminiscent of waterleaf. The upper band is much more complex, and is made more difficult to read because the upper edge of the bowl has been shaved. There are nine semicircular stems each linked to those on either side, and these form a chain around the top of the bowl. The two ends of each stem terminate in a vegetal decoration which occupies the semicircular field enclosed by the stem. There is a variety of vegetal forms. The first is a symmetrical pair of furled leaves with scalloped edges, and this motif occurs three times. The same motif occurs in a further two cases, with the addition of a large fruit like a raspberry or a bunch of grapes in the centre. In another case, the central motif is a simplified four-petalled flower. In the other three fields, the leaves from either end of the stem join after furling and terminate in a large inverted palmette in the centre. There is a substantial repair on the NE of the rim."