Church Micro 10699
Horningsham
Church of St. John the Baptist
| Logging Etiquette: Geocache hiders sometimes go through a great deal of planning to place their caches. As a result, they'd like to hear your feedback on whether you liked or disliked any aspect of the hide, the journey or location, or if you feel that some cache maintenance is required. Single word, acronym, or "copy and paste" logs may be easier when you have a lot of caches to log, but it doesn't tell the hider or other finders anything about your adventure (or lack thereof) in finding the cache. Please keep this in mind when entering your log. |
It is always nice to discover a church that has yet to be added to the series, and so I jumped at the chance after driving past this particular one on the way home from Shearwater.
The church of St John the Baptist was founded in 1154 by Sir Robert de Vernon on a sloping hillside. St Johns was created collegiate church, and Sir Humphrey de Bohun gave a house, land, and animals for a priest to serve the church. The earliest written record of the church comes in 1224. That first church was not officially dedicated and had no font for baptism. The churchyard was not enclosed, so animals wandered freely past the door. By the time of a visitation in 1408 a font had been added, as had a graveyard and fence. However the inspectors found the fence broken, and decreed that the parishioners must repair it or pay a fine.
By the late 18th century the church was in very poor repair and the south wall had to be completely rebuilt. The chancel and north aisle were rebuilt in 1810, with the cost born by Lord Bath. The entire church was expanded in 1843, and what we see today is largely the result of this early Victorian restoration.
The tower is 15th century, but almost the entire remainder of the church dates to the 1843 rebuilding. At the west end of the nave is a carved stone royal coat of arms. A few medieval tiles have been preserved in the presbytery, and some memorials from the earlier church have been preserved, including a 1727 tablet with an indecipherable inscription. There is a very nice marble monument in classical style to Thomas Davis (1807) and another to William Crumbleholme (d. 1828).
The most striking feature is the timber roof of the chancel, which is decorated with extremely large wooden figures of angels projecting out over the centre.
Horningsham's church is not replete with historical features, but it is an extremely good example of early Victorian taste, and the location is utterly wonderful, on a sloping hillside in glorious countryside.
Accessibility
The cache is neither wheelchair, or pushchair accessible unfortunately. I recommend that this cache is is found as a drive-by, despite the road being a 30mph zone, it is narrow and walking along should be avoided.
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
This cache was originally placed and maintained billiethecat from March 2017 - January 2023, Jamie2791 maintained the cache from January 2023 - November 2023. Foresthare adopted the cache in November 2023.