This is my first cache. On completing my 200th find I thought I should start hiding some caches and as Yarm is relatively devoid of caches it seemed appropriate to start here – especially as it was the church in which I was married.
St. Mary Magdalene is the parish church of Yarm. It was originally built in Saxon times. This would have been built of wood, so no traces of it remain. A second, stone built, church served the community until a disastrous fire in 1728 which so badly damaged the Norman church that it had to be rebuilt. The cost of the damage was put at £1,772, and this was raised by public subscription. A 'Brief' granted by George II allowed collections to be made at churches throughout the land to help finance the rebuilding. This was so successful that the Georgian church was completed by 1730 re-using much of the stone from the earlier building.
The churchyard appears unremarkable. There is a memorial stone just inside the main gate which was erected by the Town Council to record an ancient Free Grammar School, founded and endowed in the time of Queen Elizabeth, by Thomas Conyers, of Egglescliffe, in the county of Durham. The benefits were extended by the liberality of the late William Chaloner Esquire. A National school, capable of containing 160 boys and girls, was built in 1816, by subscription, and supported by voluntary contributions on another site.
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could 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