The Church
The church is dedicated to St. Michael as you might have guessed and is, in my opinion a bit of a hidden gem!
Dating from about the beginning of the 12th century this fabulous little church is situated on a corner plot with very little in the way of habitation nearby, however if you look at any detailed mapping you'll see that within a mile or so radius there are quite a few historical remains of one form or another which would suggest this area was historically more densely populated than it is now. The church is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust.
Consisting of a chancel, nave and porch only, this building has walls dating from the 12th century (north and west), 13th century east windows and 14th century windows in the south wall.
Inside though is the best part of the church which has numerous original 13th century paintings on the walls (most churches had this at the time to make the interior a bright and cheerful place). These paintings are various geometric shapes and floral patterns and the main surviving colour is a dark red. Painted on top of this in various areas (probably during the 16th and 17th century) are inscriptions in black lettering, some of which are parts of the Ten Commandments.
Of further interest is the Roman altar that now occupies the blocked-up northern doorway - it was found by accident by the reverend of the time around 1830 who saw the top part, a hollowed block, being used as a herb mortar (bowl for grinding) outside a cottage in the village! He then realised that the objects in the northern doorway at the time were the stem and base. These were moved to nearby Tretire church for a time before being returned here in 1908. The altar has a very worn inscription which reads EO TRI(VII) BECCICUS DONAVIT ARA(M), which loosely translates as 'To the god of the three ways (crossroads), Beccicus dedicates this alter.'
The Cache
Parking is in front of the church on the road where there is really only room for a couple or cars, the entrance gate is just round the corner of the road and the cache is a film-pot-sized container with room for the log only.
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