St Peter's Church, Alstonefield
This beautiful 12th century church is normally open between 9:00 and 17:00 each day. The walls of the church comprise a pleasing blend of sandstone and limestone, sourced from the surrounding hills. There has been a church here since at least 892, and its architectural styles range from the Norman south door and chancel arch, through to the Decorated and Perpendicular. The church essentially dates back to Norman times but has undergone several facelifts over the centuries, mainly in 1590 when most of the chancel was rebuilt and again in 1870. A feature of the church is its splendid woodwork. Constructed by local man, Edward Unsworth, is a set of low 17th century box pews, retaining their original brass-work, a double decker pulpit (originally a three decker ) and a painted Beresford pew at the east end of the north aisle. The Cotton family pew bears the Cotton coat of arms on the back and was made around the same time as the rest of the carved woodwork in the church for Charles Cotton Sr, who then owned the now demolished Beresford Hall.
Church Micro Series
Hopefully the caches that we place will encourage other Staffordshire-based CO's to contribute to the world's largest series. 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.
**************************************
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.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
The Cache
The cache is not in the church grounds.
Just inside the churchyard you will find two plaques.
The wild flower meadow was created in year ABCD
The 2 years on the plaque to Prebendary S Beresford are 19EF to 19GH
The cache can be found at:
N 053 05.(D+H)E(F-1) W 001 48.(A-1)(G-1)B
*************************************