HOLCOMBE, a parish in the hundred of KILMERSDON, county of SOMERSET, 65 miles (N.E. by N.) from Shepton-Mallet, containing 527 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry of Wells, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at £5. 7. 8., endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant, and in the pa- tronage of John Twyford Jolliffe, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is an ancient edifice, with a fine Norman south porch. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parish abounds with mines of coal and iron-stone, but there is no iron made here. There is a traditionary report that the inhabitants, at a remote period, deserted the village, then situated in a valley near the church, and settled on the Mendip hills, to avoid the contagion of a malignant fever, thus leaving the church, as it still remains, without an habitation in its immediate vicinity. A canal from the southern part of the parish to Frome was commenced some years since, but has not been completed.