A set of 26 traditional Essex caches. Each cache marks a letter of the alphabet in various locations throughout our county.
M is for Magdalen Laver
Magdalen Laver, (pronounced 'Maud lin Layver).
The parish has an unusual number of ancient timber-framed farm-houses, the oldest of which probably dates from the 14th century. Several of these, like the manor house and the old rectory, stand on or near moated sites.
Previously the approaches to the church had been by the footpaths which run from the road to Spencers on the south and through the farmyard of Magdalen Laver Hall on the north. Immediately north-west of the churchyard are traces of a large moated site where the first manor house probably stood. To the south-east of the church, in a field known as RedmillShot, a stone coffin containing a skeleton was discovered in about 1757 and human bones were found in other parts of the same field at different times. There was a tradition in the 18th century that the church originally stood in this field but no trace of a church or of any other building has ever been found. It may be, however, that the field was once a burial ground belonging to the parish.
The cache series was to be published all together but we have since decided to publish them randomly.