The Church
The church is dedicated to St Tetha, possibly one of fourth century Welsh saint and king Brychan's twenty four children. Indeed, St Teath may have been an important site on the ecclesiastical map; document found among old church records held in Exeter and dated 1345 invites pilgrims to travel to St Teath in order to lessen their time in Purgatory!
The first church on this spot was probably a rather flimsy wooden building of which nothing remains. The second church was built in Norman times (about 1100) and fragments of this still remain in the present church building which is mostly from about 1380.
This church comprises a chancel, nave, and north and south aisles. The arcades east consist of six four-centred arches supported on monolith granite pillars. There are a south porch, a north door, and a priest's door. The tower has three stages and is finished with embrasures and stump pinnacles. The belfry contained five bells. There is a statue of a Knight on a window ledge in the church; angels are holding his head and his feet are resting on a lion. In the back of the church is a slate gravestone with the date 1580; it is one of the oldest in the country. There is also another slate slab with a carved picture of three people in Tudor costume, one woman holding a skull and a thigh bone in her left hand. There are only a few small pieces of old stained-glass left in the windows; these had been smashed at the time of the Reformation, and these pieces were dug up from the churchyard under the windows when the church was restored in the 19th century. The Pews were taken out of the central aisle and replaced by chairs at this time. Some of the Benchends were taken to Tintagel Church. They are now in a screen behind the altar there.
The altar in the Lady Chapel stands on Norman pillars. The old font which stands on the floor just inside the North Door is also Norman, and was found in 1978 in a stream outside Vicarage Farm (which used to be the Vicarage many years ago.); holes had been inserted in each side for the water to go in and out and it had been used as a washing basin
The church is normally open from 9:30 to dusk every day and is well worth a visit inside.
The Cache
The cache is located about 250 metres away along a footpath.
The headline coordinates take you to the church entrance porch on the south side of the church. There are various ways into the churchyard depending upon where you managed to park.
Immediately opposite the entrance porch is the grave of John and Esther Granger.
In order to locate the GZ you will need the following information:
1. John died on the AB th day of July ACBA aged D4 years
2. His wife, Esther, died on E th day of July ACEF aged DE years
The cache can be found at N 50 35.(E-A)B(F-B) W 004 44.(C-D-A)(E-A)E
The cache is a small plastic tube wrapped in camo tape approx 10 cms long by 3 cms diameter.
You may need tweezers to extract the log and Please Bring Your Own Pen (BYOP)
Please be stealthy at the GZ - it is a popular footpath for dog walkers
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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.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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