Holy Trinity Church
The first Anglican Church in Lane End was built in 1830 because the Revd Henry Colborne Ridley, Rector of Hambleden, felt obliged to visit the people of Lane End as they lacked pastoral care. He wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln, expressing his wish for a church to be built in the village at the expense of himself and some of his friends. Many influential people contributed toward the cost. The major benefactor, John Meggot-Elwes of Bolter End gave £2,500 towards the church and also commissioned the building of the School, the School House and the Vicarage.
The church was built on land given by the Lord of the Manor, Sir William Clayton, and was consecrated by the Bishop of Lincoln on July 15th 1832. Unusually, this church faced North as did the headstones of the early graves. There was a bell turret with one bell, the choir sat in a gallery and a harmonium was installed in 1856.
This church fell into disrepair and a new church, this time facing East, was built and consecrated on Lammas Day, August 1st1878. The architect was John Oldrid Scott, son of Sir Gilbert Scott.
Notable features of the church include the Nave roof, whose timbers came from the former Bisham Abbey, demolished just before this church was built, as well as the Good Shepherd window, pulpit and altar rails which were retained from the original building.
Holy Trinity boasts some very beautiful and unusual stained glass windows, both old and comparatively modern.
The oldest window is situated in the Lady Chapel facing north, known as the 'Good Shepherd' window. This came from the original 1832 building and depicts Jesus cradling a sheep and holding a crook, around which is inscribed 'I Am The Good Shepherd And Know My Sheep'.
The newest window is the Millenium Window, designed by David Wasley MA in 2000. The window is a contrast to the others, in that it depicts a montage of local scenery, rather than a saint or religious image. The window includes amongst other things a chair, symbolising the furniture making heritage of High Wycombe, local wildlife and even the M40 motorway which passes through the parish, as a sign of modern life.
The church is normally open during daylight hours.
And now onto the cache.......................
The posted co-ordinates are for the grave of Flying Officer Grenfell (military graves are usually easier to spot!) let A = the digits of his age added together and let C = the last digit of the year he died.
Go to the North gate - number of spikes minus one - let this be B
Visit the memorial bench of Arthur and Olive - let E be the number of words in the inscription and F be the number of letters in their surname
Finally - count the number of doorways round the building and subtract the number of carved heads by the main doors - let this be D
Now find somewhere to sit and calculate the final which can be found a short but pleasant walk away at..........
N 51 36. ABC W 000 50. DEF Checksum for all digits is 56
Congratulations to Thewinfieldwonders and mykey987 for the joint FTF - a perfect outcome in my opinion!
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