Hascombe / Hascomb / Hascumbe

No entry found for Hascombe in the Domesday survey. Brayley (1850) writes: "The font, of Sussex marble, bears the date of 1690, and was given to the church by Richard Holland, the then rector." A note in the Jan. 5, 1884 issue of 'Notes and Queries', signed "S.T., Cambridge" reads: "at Hascomb, Surrey, where there is the name of a former rector (which I have not got down), and the date 1693 carved on one side. It is a solid square font, and is, I should think, considerably older than its date, which may possibly have been put on after a restoration and the incoming of a new rector." [cf. infra re font date] The Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) notes: "No church is mentioned in the Taxatio of 1291, but Henry Hussey died seised of the advowson in 1305. [...] The old church must have been a curious and singularly attractive little building, judging by the drawing preserved in Cracklow's Churches of Surrey (1824). The late Mr. J. L. André has also left a careful sketch of the church taken from the southeast, Cracklow's view being from the north-west, accompanied by a small block plan to scale, from which its dimensions can be approximately recovered. [...] The south door was a plain round-headed opening of mid 12th-century date, and two very perfect little windows of the same date remained, one in either wall, in the eastern part of the nave. [...] The church was entirely rebuilt in 13th-century style in 1864 [...] The font of Sussex marble has a small square bowl on a square-banded pedestal and plinth, and bears the inscription on its western face, 'The gift of Richard Holland, rector, 1690.' It somewhat resembles in form two Sussex fonts not far away, at Lurgashall and North Chapel, also of Sussex marble, and bearing date 1661." The font was moved into the new mid-19th century church from the old one.