Introduction:
Holcomb family genealogists have long regarded the Abbey Church at Dorchester-on-Thames as the resting place of an early ancestor, revealed in a remarkable stone effigy. The Abbey recently concluded that this attribution was incorrect, and now believes the effigy to be that of a knight named Valance. This change in the attribution of the effigy surprised me, so I sought the historical documents bearing on the identity of this Knight. After a careful study of those documents, my wife and I traveled to England to visit the Abbey in person. We stayed in Dawlish, walked the bean fields of Holcomb, visited Powderham Castle and Branscombe , and finally Dorchester-on-Thames.
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