Hautbois / Great Hautbois / Hautbois Magna / Hobbies Magna / Hobbis / Hobuisse / Hobuist

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "G[reat] H[autbois], Or Hobbies, church, hath a round steeple, a nave and chancel leaded, and stands alone, not far from the river [...] The advowson of the church of the Assumption of St. Mary the Virgin here, was given in the year 1199, by Peter de alto Bosco or Hautbois, to the prior and canons of St. Mary at Cokesford, in the parish of Rudham in Norfolk [...] In 1480, the church was disappropriated, and a rector instituted; and from that time the priors of Coxford always had the patronage, to the Dissolution, when it was granted to the Duke of Norfolk". Despite the age of this church the first recorded rector here is noted in Blomefield (ibid.) as "1480, 13 October, Gregory Voket." The old church dedication of St. Teobald appears to have resulted from a statue of that saint in the old church, documented in Blomefield: "In this church was a famous image of St. Theobald, commonly called St. Tebbald of Hobbies; it was much frequented for its many pretended miracles, so that pilgrimages used to be made to it. In 1507, in the will of Agnes Parker of Keswic is this, "Item I owe a pilgrimage to Canterbury, another to St. Tebbald of Hobbies, and another to St. Albert at Cringleforde," [...] and in 1507 Thomas Wood of Cowteshale gave legacies to the gild of the Virgin Mary, in the church of the Assumption of the Virgin at Hobbies, and to paint the new tabernacle of St. Theobald there, and this saint being so famous, made some mistake the dedication of the church, and suppose it to have been dedicated to St. Theobald, which is not so." A 1839 watercolour of this font by Miles Edmund Cotman (1810-1858) is advertised for sale at the Chris Beetles Ltd. Gallery, London, England [www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/artist.php?art=1464] [accessed 9 March 2012]. Thomas (1846) writes: "Font. Norman, square bowl plain, rim mutilated in removing angular staples, stem rich interlacing tracery in two divisions, upper and lower; cavity dirty. Position, west of pier." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "The church [St. Theobald's] is in the early English style, with a round tower, and contains a Norman font of curious design." The Russell Smith-Upcott Catalogue of 1878 contains an entry that reads: " Hautbois Church, Font in, 4to, 6d ... Cotman", among the "Prints and Drawings relating to Norfolk, On Sale at Smith's 36 Soho Square London", but does not indicate what is the medium of this particular item [is it, perhaps, the same watercolour noted above?] White (1883) informs that the new church, i.e., Holy Trinity, "contains a finer old font, formerly in the old church." Ruprich-Robert (1884-1889) shows a drawing of -and gives Hautbois, Norfolk, as the location for- a baptismal font which has a plain square basin and a very ornate, the patterns clearly Norman. Pevsner & Wilson (1997) write: "Part of the base has C12 carving of entwined winged serpents, from the base of the Old Church font. The C19 bowl is square." Knott (2005), of Norfolk Churches reports only "an old desk and a bench" visible inside the chapel in the ruined site of St. Theobald [visited in April 2005]. Knott (ibid.) was not able to enter the new church, Holy Trinity. The Dec 2006-Jan 2007 online edition of 'The Marlpit: the community paper for the villages of Coltishall, Horstead and Great Hautbois' informs: "The surviving font base, now in the 'new' church at Hautbois possibly dates from this period" [NB: the 'period' referred to in this article is the early 10th century, which is given as the likely date of the round tower].