St. John’s is a Norman church originally built sometime between 1130 and 1160. Some history and links to further information is given below (after the all-important information on how to find the cache, to save you having to scroll down too much on your GPSr!).
To find the cache…
Find the following information by the church door:
- Richard Gifford Esq departed this life June 4th 17AB aged C7 years
- Frances Gifford departed this life in September D77E
- Elizabeth Gifford departed this life aged 7F
The cache can then be found at:
N 51° 02.ABC W 001° 26.DEF
Checksum for all six digits A to F = 20
Whilst this is all in a completely public place, it is remote with only a few houses, the church and a farm at the end of a long dead end road... it's probably best therefore to only attempt a find during daylight but it's up to you of course! Waypoint averaging has been used to set the co-ordinates, but tree cover could be problematic, especially at certain times of the year.
Parking is available right next to the church (at the published co-ordinates), do bear in mind that this is a very remote spot so it’s wise not to leave any valuables on show in your car. The cache (a camo'd micro - so bring your own pen) is located a short walk away.
There is a small memento in the cache for the FTF 
.
Update 7th March 2014: open to all members.
An excerpt from an interesting history of the church and parish of Farley Chamberlayne reads as:
“The church of ST. JOHN consists of chancel 24 ft. long and 15½ ft. wide, nave 41 ft. long and 17½ ft. wide, with a bell-turret of wood at the west and a south porch.
The walls are probably of 12th-century date, 2 ft. 7 in. in thickness, and the south door of the nave, c. 1160, probably gives the date of the work. No other medieval details remain, except the trefoiled west window, which may be of 14th-century date, all other windows being plastered round-headed openings of 18th-century date. The church was evidently 'beautified' at this period, the flat wood and plaster arch between chancel and nave being part of the work, as well as all the fittings of the nave, high deal pews, pulpit with tester, and west gallery. The altar rails belong to the same time, but the chancel seats are of later date. The roof timbers of nave and chancel are however mediaeval, of very plain character, ceiled to the underside of the braced rafters, leaving the king-posts and ties exposed. The font, which stands under the west gallery, is of baluster shape with a very small bowl, and is in part of 18th-century work. The south doorway has a plain round head with shallow chamfered abaci, and a label moulded with a roll and hollow, of a type occurring at Romsey; it ends in large beasts' heads, placed horizontally at each end holding the label in their teeth. The porch is probably of 18th-century construction. In the chancel are a number of monuments of the St. John family, the most important being that of William St. John, 1609. It consists of a panelled altar tomb on which an effigy rests, above which is a canopy supported by three Ionic columns, and surmounted by heraldry. On the front of the tomb are four shaped shields, now blank, in panels, with guilloche borders of delicate work in low relief, and the whole monument is covered with small detail of the same character. The effigy, a rather stiff piece of work, is bare-headed, wearing a small ruff above a plate gorget, articulated shoulder pieces and complete body armour of a plain design. The hands are bare and have frilled cuffs at the wrists. Long hose with tassels strapped over them reach as far as the knee pieces; and leg pieces and round-toed plate sollerets complete the defences. A short sword hangs at the left side. The original decoration and inscription were painted, and have nearly disappeared; the existing inscription being a modern transcript of the old, cut on one of the panels at the back of the tomb. The original inscription is, however, still partly legible, but has had another painted over it. The arms over the tomb are St. John differenced with a crescent, quartering: 2, a fesse between six martlets, with a molet for difference; 3, a cross engrailed, and in chief two molets; and 4, three lions passant, impaling a cheveron between three bulls' heads, with a crescent for difference. On the east wall is a mural monument to John St. John, son of Henry St. John, who died in 1627, aged twentyfour, his wife Susan, daughter of Sir Richard Gifforde, who died the next year, aged twenty-three, and their infant son John, who died a few months before his mother. Below the inscription are the kneeling figures of husband and wife with the cradled infant between them. Above a shield bears St. John impaling Argent ten roundels gules for Gifforde. On the chancel floor are several 17th-century gravestones of the St. John family, two having inscriptions on white marble borders.
There are three bells, the treble a late 15th-century bell by William Hasylwood with his initials and the inscription ' Sancte Rafael ora pro nobis'; the second an earlier bell, inscribed ' In honore Tri (nitatis)' in Gothic capitals below a line of cresting, and the tenor by A. W., 1603, inscribed 'In God is my hope.'
The plate consists of a silver chalice of 1636 and undated paten inscribed ' Ex dono Robert (sic) London Armigeri.'
The registers are in three books, the first containing baptisms from 1593 to 1764, burials from 1612 to 1737, and marriages from 1645 to 1762; the second containing baptisms from 1700 to 1812 and burials from 1766 to 1813; the third containing marriages from 1765 to 1813.”
Two items of particular interest to look out for in the church are 1) the mass dial (you would have placed your finger in the hole and the shadow cast against inscribed lines enabled you to find the time of the next mass); and 2) the remains of the stocks in the vestry!
More details can be found here: visit link or visit link
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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