St Michael’s was in all likelihood financed by Geoffery de Clinton, chamberlain and treasurer to King Henry I of England by way of demonstrating his own piety and strengthening the family’s influence over the newly established priory.
The Church was built around 1150 AD in the late Romanesque style of locally-won limestone rubble, ironstone and flints, with finer quality dressed limestone from Oxfordshire. It is a typical Norman three-cell construction of Nave, Chancel and Sanctuary with a massive central Tower above the Chancel, and survives as one of only three Norman churches of the same style and date, without having serious alteration to their original footprint plan.
Stewkley represents ten different late Romanesque stone carving styles, but chevron patterns are dominant, on the Chancel and Sanctuary arches, the window and door surrounds, and the internal and external string-courses.
The most elaborate decoration is on the magnificent West Front (as the church presents from the road), the doorway flanked by blind arches, and a tympanum with Nordic dragons bisected by an unusual dropped keystone. The Sanctuary has an important quadripartite stone rib-vaulted ceiling.
Despite some modest Victorian restoration the only significant change to the church was the addition of a vestry in 1910. It was done in such a way as to minimise the impact on the original floorplan. That floorplan might have relocated rather than changed had London’s third airport plans at Cublington in the 1960’s been given the go-ahead.
Due to proximity issues and in an effort to avoid a simple case of grave spotting I was keen to find a way to bring cachers to the Church but also discover some history and in doing so I came across an interesting story of one of casualties of the First World War who is buried in the cemetery and whose grave you need to visit (it is behind the Church along the nearby treeline).
Albert Richard Hall was the oldest of the Stewkley servicemen to give his life in WW1 at 38, the eldest of four sons he went on to have seven children of his own before the outbreak of war. In 1903 he is pictured helping build the foundations of the High Street Methodist Church and so ties in nicely with the other Church Micro in the village. Albert Hall fought with the 13th Battalion Devonshire Regiment in France before presumably being invalided home where he worked on a military farm in Dorset until succumbed to pneumonia shortly after the armistice was signed.
I am indebted to the local history book, “The Stewkley Lads Fallen in the Great War” by John Sheldon of the Stewkley Local History Group, a signed copy of which I was given by the couple whose wedding I referenced earlier. Copies are usually available in the Church.
Their names liveth for evermore
To find this cache first locate the postbox opposite the Church gate and the three digits after LU will give you a number to work from.
Assuming N51 55 and West 000 45:
For your Northings, treat the 3 digits from the Post Box as a whole number and add the date in November 1918 that Private Hall died
For your Westings, treat the 3 digits from the Post Box as ABC and subtract the first digit of Private Halls's Service number from A, add 3 to B and add the first digit of the Service Number to C.
The cache is a short walk away which can be reached through the waypointed carpark via the alleyway that runs along the Church Yard.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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