Hoole / Grett Wholle / Holes / Hull / Magna Hole / Much Hoole

No individual entry found for Hoole in the Domesday survey. Gastrell (1845- ) notes that the chapel of "St. Michael's infra Much Hoole [...] was Consecrated w[i]th Par.[ochial] privileges" by Bishop Bridgman in 1629. Raines, who annotated the 1845- ed. of Gastrell's 1717 original, adds: "The font was presented in the year 1633 by John Stones Esq.", but Raines also notes that this new chapel was actually a re-edification of an earlier church "erected in the fifteenth century as a Chapel of Ease to Croston" [Raines refers to Baine's 'History of Lancashire' (vol. iii, p. 411)] as source. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 6, 1911) notes: "The earliest reference to a chapel is a grant about 1280 by Amery de Hoole to God and St. Mary of an acre in Much Hoole for the maintenance of the lights in the chapel of Little Hoole. [...] About 1628 a chapel was built in Much Hoole by Thomas Stones of London, and in 1641–2 it was made a parish church [...] extension of 1859 is in the same style as the original building [...] The font, which is of stone and octagonal, was the gift of John Stones of Carr House, and bears the inscription, 'Deo Donum Johanis Stones An. Dom. 1633.' For a long time it was painted, but has now been cleaned." Noted in Pevsner (1969) and in Hartwell & Pevsner (2009): "Font. Polygonal, massive, and completely undecorated. How would one date it, if it did not have an inscription with the date 1663?" The Lancashire Churches web site [www.lancashirechurches.co.uk] describes the basin as octagonal. An extract from Marston (2004) notes: "An octagonal font was given by John Stones in 1633 [...] The font [...] is a perfectly plain and serviceable one, with neither ornate decoration nor even a cross on it." [NB: we have no information on the font from the 15th century church on this site]