Combe nr. Woodstock / Long Combe / Combe Longa / Cumbe

There is an entry for this Combe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP4115/combe/] [accessed 28 November 2017], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 notes a baptismal font that is similar in design to the "hexagonal panelled stone pulpit, with rich tracery, crocketed pinnacles and a battlemented cornice". Sherwood & Pevsner (1974) write: "The present font is C19. The original Perp[endicular] font remains on the floor of the nave. It has panelled sides and figures carved in relief, now much weathered and mutilated." [NB: this entry is footnoted: "The Vicar, Mr G. Thompson, however, says that there is no evidence that this was the font and that it may have formed the base of a cross"]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 12, 1990) notes: "There was a church at Combe by c. 1141, when the Empress Maud granted it to Eynsham abbey [...] White Kennett's assertion that the church was built in 1395 (fn. 30) has led to a misconception that it is all of one build [...] The octagonal bowl of what appears to be a 15th-century font lies in the south-east corner of the nave. That it was a font is disputed, (fn. 52: Emden, Combe Ch. and Village, 11; Long, St. Laur. Ch. 11; local inf.) and it may have been the base of a churchyard cross such as those at Eynsham and Yarnton before being hollowed out to serve as a well-head. (fn. 53: B. J. Marples, 'Medieval Oxon. Crosses', Oxoniensia, xxxviii. 304–6.) It is roughly carved inside, and was used as a wellhead in the late 19th century, but it appears to have served as a font in 1846. (fn. 54: O.A.H.S. Proc. N.S. vi. 76, 89; Parker, Guide, 154.) It was returned to the church in 1912. (fn. 55: Combe Par. Mag. Nov. 1912.)