Church Micro 1883 Wootton - St Martin
The church in the village of Wootton is dedicated to St Martin. A small but neat building giving the appearance of being 13th century Norman. Undoubtedly the Anglo-Saxon church would have been built over by the Normans. The present building, which had fell into ruin, and although containing a great deal of the Norman church, was almost totally rebuilt in the 1878 by public subscription. The tower originally had three bells, but two were sold to help pay for the restorations, the survivor being dated 1629. The church was given Grade II Listed Building status in 1962.
Behind the church was the original manor, Wootton Court, and birth place to the renown mathematician and surveyor, Leonard Digges in 1520. In the 1930's and as recently as 2002, prominent scientists have speculated that the discovery of previously unpublished manuscripts from 1576 is proof that Digges should be accredited with the invention of the first reflecting and refracting telescopes between 1540 and his death in 1559. This would be almost 40 years before the Dutchman Hans Lipperhay claimed to have invented it in 1608.
The Manor House was totally rebuilt in 1785 and again in 1870 when it was used as a rep school. It was evacuated in 1939 and immediately requisitioned by the Army. The school never returned after the war and the building fell into disrepair, until it was demolished in 1952. I first went to Denton in the early 1980's, following a report of unexploded ordinance from WW2 being found near to the current entrance to the former grounds of the Court. An elderly gent from the village approached us and told us that " ..the S.O.E used this house as a last night stay over for agents being parachuted into France before D-Day, the planes took off in the night from a nearby farmers field.." I have no idea if that was true, but certainly the ordnance found tended to suggest operational activity within the grounds.
The cache is a 6x4cm pot hidden outside the churchyard.
Covid-19: If you have no intention of signing the physical logbook in this geopot at this time, please visit when you are prepared to sign it. ALL physical logbooks MUST be signed for a claim to a find to be made.
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication
To view the church micro stats page, please click here