Holt nr. Cromer

There is an entry for Holt in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG0738/holt/] [accessed 23 January 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomeield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church of Holt is a rectory dedicated to St. Andrew [...] On May day, 1708, great part of the town was destroyed by a dreadful fire [...] Before the fire it had a nave, north and south isle, a square tower, with a spire so high as to be a sea-mark; the chancel, after this, was fitted up for the reception of the parishioners". The earliest reference to a church in Blomefield (ibid.) is to the date of the institution of "Thomas de Schotesham" as rector in 1305, although a church here must have existed prior to then, to judge by the font. The present font here is noted in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a Norman font decorated with fleur-de-lys motif. In Pevsner & Wilson (1997) with date probably in the 13th century. Illustrated in Knott (2004). The font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with (four?) large scallop-like semi-circles the joints of which have the fleur-de-lis motif; raised on a plain cylindrical base and a round moulded lower base; on an irregular polygonal plinth. The octagonal wooden cover is modern.