Hartlip / Heordlyp / Hertlepe

No entry found for Hartlip in the Domesday survey. Halsted (1798) writes: "The church is dedicated to St. Michael, and consists of three isles and three chancels, with a square tower at the west end of it, in which hang five bells. King Henry III. in his 9th year [i.e., 1225], gave the church of Hertlepe, with its appurtenances, to the prior of St. Andrew's, in Rochester. Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1225, admitted the monks into the possession of this church, to be possessed by them to their own proper uses for ever: saving, nevertheles, a vicarage to be conferred on a proper person at their presentation, who should sustain the burthens of this church, reserving to him, the archbishop, the taxation of the vicarage. Which instrument was confirmed by John, prior, and the convent of the church of Canterbury. [...]The church of Hartlip, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the priory of Rochester till the dissolution of it in the 32d year of king Henry VIII [i.e., 1541] [...] Thomas, the last rector, resigned in 1225." [NB: not clear when the church was founded; after 1225 it became a vicarage, as noted above]. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "a handsome font" placed in the re-built north-east chancel, and the 'handsome font' term is used also in Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of 1870-1872. Glynne (1877), however, writes: "The font is new; a very good imitation of the fine Decorated font at Swaton in Lincolnshire." An entry entitled 'Local historian looks at Hartlip, No. 8' in the Hartlip Parish Magazine (October 1966: 8) [http://hartlip.org.uk/hartlip/parishmag/1966_Oct_6.aspx] [accessed 7 September 2013] notes "the font is comparatively modern". The present font in this church is, as indicated in Glynne above, a good replica copy of the font at Swaton [aka Swayton] St. Michael's, in Lincolnshire, an octagonal basin with its panels completly covered in a pattern of square flowers, the underbowl chamfer having one ball flower at each angle, the supporting base a cluster of eight colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases. The wooden font cover is a Jacobean-style dome, with crocketed arrises, either original or a good rendering of the popular design; it is raised and lowered with the help of a counterweight system. [NB: the church was originally of the Decorated period, but we have no information on the earlier font]