Church Micro 2895…Finchingfield Multi-Cache
Hidden : 7/28/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Related Web Page

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:



Church Micro 2145... St John The Baptist Finchingfield

The published coords will take you to the church gate you will then need to wander around the church yards to collect the numbers required.


Finchingfield must easily be the most photographed village in Essex, a consequence of its pond; stream, windmill and greens, for there are others that can outdo it in vernacular architecture. The church is a significant building but not one of the most important in the county. The two lower stages of its broad, rather squat W. tower, are Norman, and to these, the Perpendicular period has added the bell-stage with its three-light bell-openings, while the pretty cupola on top is a rebuilding of what was once eighteenth century work. The W. doorway is comprised of three orders, all with chevron moulding, the inner two of which retain their shafts with scalloped capitals, and although the tympanum is now missing, the modern wooden lintel rests on original corbels carved in the form of goats' heads. Inside, the tower arch to the nave is characteristically thick and unmolded save for the saltires and zigzag on the small abaci, but around the southeast and northeast tower angles there are three-bay blank arcades with free-standing shafts with scalloped capitals, for which there is no obvious explanation.

The rest of the church consists of an aisled nave with S. porch, and a chancel with side chapels. In chronological order, the thirteenth century S. aisle and N. chapel come first, with arcades of five and two bays respectively, formed of octagonal piers and double-flat-chamfered arches. Next, the three eastern bays of the nave N. arcade could date from c. 1350 to judge from their arches bearing hollow chamfer and sunk quadrant mouldings and their compound piers formed of four major shafts and four minor shafts with fillets. Finally, the two western bays of this arcade and the arcade to the S. chapel, appear to be late fourteenth or fifteenth century work: the arches here have a complex profile and the piers are composed of four narrow semicircular shafts separated by pairs of keel mouldings.

The windows to the church are mostly new to the south, but in the N. aisle there is one mediaeval window with cusped Y-tracery and two more with three lights and reticulated tracery. Both the nave and chancel have clerestories, of which latter is the earlier but also the most restored. The nave roof, according to Hewett, is inscribed at the eastern end, "1561, W.B.S.L." The N. chapel "has an extremely fine crown-post roof with uncommonly moulded timbers. The [traceried] S. door is in two halves and of c. 1370" ("Church Carpentry" by Cecil Hewett, pub. Phillimore, 1982).

The church contains a number of monuments, mostly to members of the Ruggles-Brise and Marriot families. The following are mentioned by Gunnis ("Dictionary of British Sculptors: 1660 - 1851", pub. The Abbey Libarary, 1951): (i) to Thomas Marriot (d. 1766), a wall monument with a bust by William Tyler (d. 1766), another of whose monuments may be seen at St. Osyth’s; (ii) to Anne Marriot (d. 1811), a wall monument by Sir Richard Westmacott (1775-1856) (son of Richard Westmacott the Elder and father of Richard Westmacott the Younger), whose work may be seen at Little Sampford and at Dullingham in Cambridgeshire; and (iii) to Thomas Ruggles (d. 1813), by Peter Rouw the Younger (1770-1852), who was "a most versatile artist [who] first exhibited at the Academy in 1794 and lived long enough to send a collection of his wax portraits to the Great Exhibition of 1851" (ibid). As for church furnishings, just two items require mention: (i) the Perpendicular font with an octagonal bowl supported on angel figures, the faces of which are carved with shields in encircled quatrefoils; and (ii) the rood screen, which is unusually fine, even though it has been damaged and its loft renewed.

N AB.C(D-E).FGH E U.V(W+V).XYZ


(POP) 10.5.1F19 ~ 1Y.11.2005
Florence Maud Hardy 189W ~ 1985
Eva Oliver 18Z3 ~ 1988
John Burder Died March 20th 1855 Aged 6H Years
(Sammy) 19B2 ~ 1997
Eileen Maude Clark 5th July 1D15 ~ 20th September 20U2
Emma Martin Died June V9th 1918 Aged 5X Years
Connie Westley 9.10.1918 ~ 8.G.2001
Alexander Perkins 13th March 196A ~ 19 September 1990
Henry Arthur Kemp 19E0 ~ 2006
Barbara Gwen Legge 189C ~ 1985


**************************************

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 & information page, please click here

*************************************

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



Advertising with Us