The co-ordinates listed are for the first question. The cache is not in the grounds of the church. Parking is tricky here as there is no car park and it is on a narrow lane. It says on the church website that there is room for a few cars on the track to the churchyard gate. It goes without saying to please be considerate.
The Church
Aylton church is a tiny but lovely medieval church in a tiny and scattered parish (pop. 144 at the last census). It is set in glorious countryside alongside the early-17th-century Court Farm and its magnificent thatched manorial barn, dated from tree-ring evidence to 1502–3 and recently restored with help from English Heritage.
The origins of the church are lost in history, and there is no record of its dedication. Aylton is mentioned in a legal document from King Canute’s time, before the Norman Conquest, but the church of that period, which was probably wooden, has not survived. The oldest part of the present building is early 12th century. A striking feature of the interior is the rood screen: Pevsner’s guide dates it to about 1400 and comments on the “purity” of its tracery forms, but explains its lack of symmetry by saying that at some point it has been “Wildly (re-)assembled”!
There are two bells, the larger of which is circa 1639, and the smaller is possibly 12th century which makes it one of only two of this date in Herefordshire. To the left above the porch, there is a 17th century sun dial.
It is worth looking inside because it is so peaceful. Be careful opening and closing the church door, and use your left hand, otherwise you risk getting painfully nipped. There are often bottles of apple juice and pots of jam made from the fruit in parishioners’ gardens on sale at the back of the church.
The Cache
To locate the cache, find the answers to the following questions:
Q1: Porch - How many wooden posts are there on each side of the porch? = A
Q2: Porch - Which number is missing from the sundial up to the left of the porch?= B
Q3: Grave - On which day in April did John Jervis die? = CD
Q4: Grave - How old was Maria Jervis when she died? = EF
The cache, a bison, can be found at:
N 52° 2.(B-F)(D+F)(A+C) W 2° 29.(B+A-C)(E/D)(C+F)
Checksum - A+B+C+D+E+F=26
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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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