THE CACHE
At the given co-ordinates you will find one of the two main entrances into the churchyard. You will need to get the data from the church notice board to complete the following simple arithmetic. The cache is then a short walk, or a short drive and even shorter walk, away.
The final co-ordinates are:-
North 54 H G . A E C,
West 001 (D - H) A . F E G
Where:-
The lych gate bears a memorial brass plaque to Evelyn NIMMO:
Her date of death can be represented as:-
A B, C D, E F G H
Checksum = 36 (For the numbers you have to calculate!)
THE CHURCH
The church of ALL SAINTS, Hurworth stands near the east end of the village on the south side of the main street close to the bank of the Tees, and when seen from the opposite side of the river, grouping picturesquely with the irregular roofs of the houses on and along its steep bank. The site is an ancient one, and a fragment of a pre-Conquest cross was found in 1871, but the building is almost entirely modern and of little or no antiquarian interest. The whole body of the church was rebuilt in 1831–2, hardly any ancient features being left save the piers of the arcades and some portions of the outer walls of the nave. In 1871 the church was again almost entirely rebuilt, the old piers being still retained together with some portions of the 1831 building. The fabric, however, is practically of 1871 date, and consists of a chancel with short north and south aisles, north and south transepts, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower. There is also a small chapel at the east end of the north aisle. The building is in the late Gothic style, and is faced with ashlar, the roofs being covered with blue slates. The tower has an embattled parapet with angle pinnacles and a vice in the north-east corner.
Surtees, writing before 1831, describes the old building as consisting of chancel, nave, north porch, and low west tower, the nave having regular aisles each with three pillars supporting round arches. Two of the pillars of the south aisle were plain cylinders and the rest octagonal. The east window was square-headed and of four lights divided by a transom. The other windows were modernized and irregular. The chancel arch was pointed, and on the west front of the tower were three shields with the arms of Nevill, Tailbois and Dacre. Hutchinson, at an earlier date, describes the building in much the same terms, from which it would appear that part of the nave, at any rate, belonged to a 12th-century church, which had been considerably altered, perhaps at the end of the 15th century. The two cylindrical piers, which have moulded capitals, now stand one on either side of the nave at the west end, and the semicircular arches have given place to pointed. The three shields are built into the west wall of the new tower outside.
The church contains two interesting effigies, now in modern recesses at the west end of the nave aisles. One of these has the head encased in a cylindrical helmet and the sword is unsheathed and held erect. The feet are broken, and on the left arm is a shield charged with three water bougets on a fesse. The figure, which is of Frosterley marble, was discovered in excavating the foundations of a house near the site of Neasham Abbey. The second effigy is that of Robert Fitz William, who assumed the arms of Greystock and died in 1316. The figure is in complete mail, with sleeveless surcoat, and the head rests on two cushions. The hands are folded in prayer and the feet rest upon two lions in combat. The shield bears the arms of Greystock, and is supported by a jewelled belt passing over the left shoulder. Along the sides of the monument is carved foliage, and below the legs are two or three heads, apparently of dogs. The effigy was originally in Neasham Abbey, whence it was brought to Hurworth, and it is probable that the other figure was originally in the abbey also.
Transepts were first built in 1831–2, each containing a gallery, and there was a gallery also at the west end across the first bay. The chancel as then built was considerably less in length than at present.
The font and all the fittings are modern. The quire stalls are of oak taken from an old tithe barn pulled down about 1879.
There is a monument with Latin inscription to William Emerson, the mathematician, who died in 1782. The inscription has been recut.
There is a ring of six bells, by Taylor of Lough-borough, cast in 1872, given in June of that year by Lucy Jane Colling in memory of her husband, Thomas Colling. An old bell by Samuel Smith of York has been preserved: it bears the inscription, 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Leonard Wastell Rectour 1682. S: O: C: E: churchwardens.'
The plate is all modern, and consists of two chalices, a flagon, and an almsdish of 1869 and two patens of 1873, all presented by the Misses Williamson in memory of their father. There are also two chalices, two patens, a flagon and an almsdish presented in 1889 under the will of Robert Henry Allan of Blackwell Hall, Darlington.
The registers begin in 1559.
'Parishes: Hurworth', in A History of the County of Durham: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1928), pp. 285-293.
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