This single cell Norman church with an apsidal east end (the only Norman apse in Dorset) is a beautiful little building made of local stone and flint, but it's the simplicity of the interior that makes it so special, with its uneven limewashed walls, wagon roof and bleached oak box pews.
The church became derelict in the late 1920s after falling out of use, and it's thanks to the sale of a collection of Thomas Hardy's manuscripts that it was able to be restored by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1931. The church was "greatly loved" by Hardy.
As you turn off the A31 towards the church look out for the famous Dorset Red Post on the other side of the road which was used in the late 18th century as a reference point for illiterate guards escorting prisoners from Dorchester Prison to Portsmouth for embarkation and transportation for life to Australia.
The above coordinates are for the parking outside the churchyard. To find the cache you need to go inside the church (open daily 10am to 4pm) and find a slate plaque commemorating A R Powys, the architect responsible for the church restoration.
The location of the cache is given by decoding the following easy clue, where each bracketed pair of numbers decodes to a letter. The number before the comma is the line number on the plaque, and the number after the comma is the position of the letter on that line.
(2,1) (5,7) (4,9) (3,4) (2,1) (5,7) (5,4) (3,1) (3,1) (5,3)
The cache is a magnetic black plastic pot about twice the size of a film canister so tiny swops only please. It was last restocked on 26 March 2024. Please trade fairly. All our trade items are new and despite being small cost around £1 each. We'd appreciate it if you could mention what you swop in your online log.
This cache is not suitable for travel bugs or geocoins.
It would help the future of the church if you could sign the visitors' book (mention that you came to do the cache!) and make a donation if you can. The more visitors there are, the more likely it is to remain open.
This cache has been placed with the kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust.
