There was a church at (Cherry) Hinton in 1201 when Henry Fitz-Hughe was granted land at Hinton with the advowson of the church. This land was later known as the manor of Up Hall and its owners were known as 'De Hinton'. The Hinton family sold the advowson to Hugh de Balsham (Bishop of Ely from 1257 to 1286) and in 1335 John Hotham (who was then Bishop) gave the rectory of Cherry Hinton to St. Peter's College, Cambridge (now know as Peterhouse).
There was a Norman (or possibly a transitional style) church before the present 13th century Early English church. Some traces of the earlier church on the site of the present one do survive - the massive jambs of the tower arch (though the arch itself is later), and the plain circular stone font (which until the 18th century stood upon five pillars) are of the early period, and are the oldest surviving parts of the original church.
In the 13th century the original heavy Norman or transitional church was replaced by an Early-English building and some of the materials of the older structure were incorporated into the new. Pevsner dates it from c. 1230-1250.The chancel dates from the second quarter of the 13th century while the nave was built later in the century.
The aisle walls were heightened in the 14th/15th centuries, making space for the present large and finely traceried windows, and there was once a 15th century clerestory, but it collapsed in 1792! The fine chancel screen is also later Medieval in date. In the reign of Henry VII, the sacristy was built on the north of the chancel and the tower was rebuilt.
The church is mainly built of flint rubble with some stone facings; the carvings and mouldings are made of local clunch (which is a soft white limestone) and were probably the work of village craftsmen. It is known that Corpus Christi College owned a quarry in Cherry Hinton through a grant of King Edward III and the Cherry Hinton Rectory also used to own a clunch pit.
We would have liked to have placed the cache closer to the church, but there is a Multi solution too close for the rules.
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here:
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at:
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html