King's Somborne / Kings Somborne / King's Sombourne / Kingsomborne / Sombourne / Sumbourne Regis / Sumburn Album / Sumburne

There are three entries for [King's] Somborne [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU3631/kings-somborne/] [accessed 11 September 2018] one of which reports "2 churches. 0.5 church lands" in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) mention here a noteworthy baptismal font of the 13th century, Early English period, made of Purbeck marble, "with eight small shafts". The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "There were two churches in King's Somborne Manor in 1086. [...] One was King's Somborne Church, the other was perhaps the church at Upper Eldon. [...] The present nave appears to represent the nave of a 12th-century church, which at that date had a small chancel. In the 13th century a south aisle was added, and the chancel may then have been rebuilt outside the lines of the older chancel. In the second quarter of the 14th century it seems to have been again rebuilt [...] The font at the west end of the nave is of Purbeck marble, octagonal with pairs of shallow pointed arches on each face, and stands on a circular stem and eight smaller shafts. These latter are modern, but the rest, with the plain round base stone, is of late 12th-century date." Holmes (1922) describes the font as "very fine". Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble; "subsidiary shafts modern". The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SU3608431170] notes: " In W bay octagonal Purbeck marble font with arcaded sides and central stem and 8 smaller shafts." A communication to BSI from Colin Smith (e-mail of 13 December 2018) included photographs of this church and font, and the comment: "I spoke with the local handyman there who was about to remove the bottom step from the font".