Church Micro 6323 ... Cleeve
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
A disguised cache hidden outside the church grounds.
A pretty church that I have driven past many times in the village of Cleeve in Somerset, hope you agree worthy of a cache.
I have taken some of the history from the church's website:
In the early 19th Century Cleeve, together with Kenn was part of the Parish of Yatton. When Kenn became a separate parish, the Rev. Richard Symes, who had become Curate of Yatton in 1829 devoted a lot of time to the Village of Cleeve, and commenced to hold services in the school room, which had once been a barn.
In the late 1830's it was decided to build a Church at Cleeve, According to an early history there is a legend that, "the owner of. Brockley Hall a Pigott or a Smyth-Pigott, fell out with the Vicar of Brockley, a relative, and so that he could show his independence he built a Church at Cleeve, to which he attached nearby, a coachhouse and stables, which he built for his personal use.
A subscription list was opened, and a total of .£1928. 15. 8d. was collected, with J.H.S. Pigott Esq. of Brockley Hall heading the list with a donation of £200.0.0., £100.0.0. towards the building, £50.0.0. for the Tower foundation, and £50.0.0. towards tile cost of the land. Subscriptions came from far and wide. As well as donations from the local gentry and clergy, donations came from as far as Hastings, Dawlish, Preston, Weymouth and Birmingham. A bazaar was held at Yatton school and raised £30.19.2., whilst one held at Cleeve Court raised £311.13.2.
The Architect was G.P. Manners Esq. of Bath, who was also the Architect of many Churches in these parts. Holy Trinity Church is one of the few Churches built in Somerset in the 19th century that was built in the Romanesque style. The Church was built with stone from the local quarry. Records show:- "To Mr. Blackman, for raising 120 loads of stone at Cleeve Quarry, at a total cost of £.6.0.0. Haulage was by Mr. Hayes at 6d. a ton - £.2.0.0., and a Mr. Raines at 5d. a ton £1.18.1½." This makes a total of 151½ tons of stone from Cleeve Quarry. The builder was Mr. J. Dadley of Bristol, who either died or sold his business during the building, as half way through money was paid to the trustees, or the assignees, of J. Dadley. The builder received a total of £1328.1.0. and Mr. Manners fee was £129.13.10. The land cost £103.0.0. with legal fees of £13.15.8. The Registrars fee for the consecration came to £29.11.10. These represent the larger amounts out of a total cost of £1721 18.9½. Of the remainder subscribed, £201.15.10½ was paid to Queen Annes Bounty to be invested by the Treasurers for the endowment of the Church, this left a total of £5.1.0. in hand.
At the end of the war in 1919 it was decided to erect a cross in memory to the men of Cleeve who fell in the war. Permission was sought and granted, as the faculty states : - "To place a Memorial Cross in the Churchyard of the Parish Church of Cleeve. The Cross to be placed five feet from the wall separating the road from the Churchyard, the wall being lowered to a height of fifteen inches with an open railing on top giving a vision of the Memorial from the road". The faculty was granted on the 14th November 1919. The cost of the Cross was borne by donations from the village and was dedicated on the 20th April 1920, by the Venerable Archdeacon of Bath, Archdeacon Fish.
In 1926 the Churchyard was extended to the east. A point here was that when the wall was built iron bars were required to be built in the wall, so that netting could be put up to stop Mr. Miller's ( the farmer) chickens getting in Churchyard.
In the late 1920's the present pews in the nave were installed to replace the chairs which had been used since the restoration, I do not know if they were the original chairs, these pews were a gift of Mr. Meade-King, Vicar's Warden at the time. All the wood, American Oak, was planed by hand. The remaining pews in the Chancel and transept were given by Mr. Millier (1934) and Mr. Evans (1937).
A black day in the history of the Church was Christmas Eve 1950. On this day the Church plate was stolen. One item was recovered at the time, but the remainder was not seen again until November 1952, when it was found by Mr. Mark Rogers on the rubbish dump in the Churchyard. At the time of the theft the dump had been searched and nothing had been found, so it seems that the thieves could not dispose of the Plate, even though it was silver. Due to the fact that the full claim of the insurance of the Plate had been paid, the Plate was now the property of the Assurance Company. The Assurance Company showed great generosity by restoring the Plate to the parish without cost.
“If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Znl or hfrq ba n fznyy sver?