St Margaret's church is a Grade I listed building, and is originally Norman, with extensions in the following few hundred years and restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is open during daylight hours, and is worth a look round. The font is 15th-century with a 17th-century cover. The pulpit, altar and some panelling are also 17th-century, and some fragments of old stained glass (in the easternmost window in the south wall) show flowers and an abbot with his crosier. Outside in the churchyard are the remains of a 14th-century cross, nearly 12 feet high.
The church also has a large tower of unusual four-stage design which houses six bells. Three were cast in Worcester in the early 15th century, and are supplemented with a Rudhall bell of 1693, and two early 20th-century bells. The largest is a healthy 17cwt (850kg), and all were rehung in 2012 with modern fittings. There is an active band of ringers who ring for the Sunday morning service and practise on Friday evenings.
The cache is placed just outside the churchyard; the coordinates can be worked out from the following:
- Stand outside the churchyard at N52° 07.783', W002° 44.180'. Just above you is the church noticeboard. The centre digit of the vicar's telephone number is digit A. The Sunday service at this church (on all but a few Sundays in the year) is at BD:00.
- Enter the churchyard and sit on the bench at N52° 07.789', W002° 44.167'. It was given in memory of a parishioner, and the number of letters in her forename and surname are G and F respectively.
- From here you can also see the village school, over the road; the date it was built is 19E5. Give yourself that primary school lesson experience by dividing the value you found for G by two, to give C. Ask your teacher or another adult for help if you are stuck. :-)
The cache can then be found at N52° 07.ABC', W002° 44.DEF'.
Ample on-road parking is available at all times, including just outside the church.
The village also contains a shop and post office (N52° 07.760', W002° 44.640'), shop open 7am-7pm (Sundays 8am-1pm); and a pub, "The Wellington" (N52° 07.774', W002° 44.488'), which serves food both at lunchtime (12-2pm, Sunday 12-3pm) and in the evenings (6-9pm, not Sundays).
This cache is part of sadexploration's Church Micro series. If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the church names and numbers to avoid duplication.