There is a small amount of car parking outside the church and on the lane but please do not park on resident's driveways or block gateways. As an alternative, you could park on Church Road and walk down the lane. The cache is not on the church grounds but as there are several properties nearby, please do not attempt this one at night.
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The church of ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, Cinderford, was begun in 1843 and consecrated in 1844. The site on Cinderford Tump, the hill north-east of Cinderford bridge, was given by the Crown, which in 1855 also provided a few acres of land to the north-east for the minister's glebe and parsonage. The cost of the church was borne principally by Charles Bathurst together with the Crown, the philanthropist the Revd. S. W. Warneford, and the solicitor Thomas Graham, formerly clerk to the Dean Forest commissioners. During its construction T. G. Smythies, who was to become the first minister, held services in Edward Protheroe's new school to the south. Missions were sent from the church to the northern part of Cinderford, which became a separate parish in 1880, and to Soudley, where a permanent church was built.
St. John's church, built of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, was designed by Edward Blore in an early 13th-century style with an apsidal sanctuary with north vestry and an aisled nave with short transepts, south porch, and small south-west tower and spire. Galleries in the transepts and at the west end were taken down during restoration work in 1874 when the internal walls of the nave were lined with brick and the west gallery was rebuilt. In 1905 a new organ was put in the north transept and in 1912 a chancel was formed by raising the floor at the eastern end and erecting a low stone screen between it and the rest of the church. A wooden screen was added to the partition in 1913 and a wooden reredos was erected in 1923. A bell cast by Thomas Mears in 1844 was replaced in 1927 by a chime of eight bells given by A. J. Morgan of Abbotswood, Ruspidge.
The cache is in a camo bag. Happy caching!
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
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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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