Holkham / Holcha / Holcham / Holkham

Holkham appears in the Domesday survey in eight entries [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF8743/holkham/] [accessed 11 December 2013], qualifying as a very large place with seventy households, but there is no mention of church or cleric in any of them. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The church had anciently two medieties, one belonging to the King's manor, the other to that of Tovi, which coming into the Crown, the patronage of both rested there, till granted with those lordships from the Crown [...] William Lord Montchensi gave a moiety of this church to the abbey of West Derham, and King John. [...] in his 2d year confirmed it with all its rights. This was valued at 35 marks, and was appropriated by John Bishop of Norwich". This "William Lord Montchensy" is most likely Warin(e) de Monte-Canisio [aka Montchensi, Montchensie, Montchensy, Munchensi], as Blomefield (ibid.) notes in his entry for Sutton, and related to [son? / grand-son?] Hubert de Montecanisio (b. 1060), the latter originally from Mont-Canisy, Calvados, identified in Keats-Rohan (1997-2002) as a tenant-in-chief in East Anglia. The donation of the 'moiety' of this church to West Derham abbey confirmed by King John [cf. supra] took place in 1201, but the lists of the vicars for each of the medieties are recorded only starting in 1300 and 1314 respectively. The church itself, however, must have been built here by the year 1200. Blomefield (ibid.) writes of it: "The Church stands east of the town, near the sea, on a hill, and is a noted sea mark, commanding an extensive prospect over the great German ocean [...] It is dedicated to St. Withburga, and has a nave, north and south isle, with a chancel, all covered with lead. At the south-west corner of the south isle, stands a strong four-square tower embattled, with 4 bells; the lower part serves as a porch to the church; the north and south isles extend on each side of the chancel, and serve as buttresses against the raging wind, &c. of the sea. The east end of both these isles were chapels, and are inclosed". There was a major alteration of the church here in the 18th century, and Blomefield (ibid.) writes of "a marble font" introduced at the time of a major renovation of this church in 1767 "at the sole expense of her Ladyship [...] Margaret, Countess Dowager of Leicester". Pevsner & Wilson (1999) report a Victorian font in this church, "by Colling presumably" [i.e., James .K Colling, responsible for the 1868-1871 restoration of this church]. This modern font is illustrated in Knott (2006). A busily decorated octagonal basin on the usual Victorian coloured marble shafts. [NB: we have no information on the earlier fonts of this church]