Holme next the Sea No. 1 / Holm / Holm by the Sea / Holme next the Sea / Holme-next-the-Sea / Hulmo

There are two entries for Holme [next the Sea] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF7043/holme-next-the-sea/] [accessed 7 April 2014], but neither mentions a church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church was anciently a rectory [...] The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and is a regular pile, containing a nave, a north and south isle, with a chancel covered with lead, and a four-square tower at the west end of the south isle, with 5 bells, and was built by Henry de Nottingham, who was one of the council of the duchy of Lancaster, in the 5th and 6th, &c. of Henry IV" [i.e., 1404, 1405]. Blomefield (ibid.), however, gives information that make it clear an earlier church existed here: "William de Tregos was rector in the time of William de Ralegh Bishop of Norwich" [NB: Ralegh, aka Raley, Raleigh, became bishop of Norwich in 1239 and died in 1250]; one other event related to the earlier church here was: "George, son of Laurence de Holm, impleaded the abbot of Lilleshall in Shropshire, for the advowson of the church of St. Mary de Hulmo, by the Sea, of which his ancestor was possessed in the time of King Richard I. but George not appearing, judgment was given that the abbot and his successors, should quietly enjoy it." The reference to the earlier holder of the advowson of the "de Hulmo" church in Richard I's reign [1189-1199], gives us a possible date range for the original church here between 1086 and 1199, which would correspond to the period of the old font here. The church at Holme-next-the-Sea has three baptismal fonts according to The Saxonshore Benefice [www.saxonshorebenefice.fsnet.co.uk], the oldest of which is an "old primitive stone [...] supported on a drainage stone" inside the church. The basin is roughly cilyndrical with rounded vertical bulges at 90-degree angles; it appears totally plain [NB: the font has a drainage hole on the front side consistent with its use as water trough at some point in its existence]. [cf. Index entry for Holme next the Sea No. 2 for a later font in use until 1885 in this church -- the font currently in use dates from 1885 and is therefore not included in this Index; it is the font noted and Pevsner & Wilson (1999) and illustrated in Knott (2006)]