The earliest reference to Christian worship in Great Budworth appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 where the presence of a priest in the village is recorded.
The Augustinian Canons of Norton Priory, Runcorn were given St Mary and All Saints' church of Great Budworth in 1130 by William Fitz Nigel, Constable of Chester. Later they received the gift of a third of all the land in the township of Great Budworth from Geoffrey De Dutton, to add to the already substantial holdings of land they had been given by local people.
The Canons created the present church and dominated both the religious and economic life of the township. The oldest part of the church, the Lady Chapel, dates from the fourteenth century and most of the rest from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries showing that the Canons were very active in keeping the church not only in a good state of preservation, but also in continuing to beautify and modernise it.
With the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the highly decorated church of the Augustinian Canons was transformed, and by 1600 it had become a white-washed preaching hall from which a series of Puritan ministers would, throughout the seventeenth century, preach the Gospel and convert the parish from a religious conservatism to a radical Protestantism.
The eighteenth century was to see the parish settle into a period of calm as the old, fiery Protestantism mellowed into an acceptance of Anglicanism’s broad church. This stability was reinforced by the fact that only three long serving ministers held the living during that century.
In the nineteenth century the church was to find a major benefactor in Rowland E.E.Warburton of Arley who inspired and oversaw the restoration of the church in the 1850’s, rediscovering the medieval glory of the building and encouraging the return of a more Anglo-Catholic style of worship.
Today, St Mary and All Saints' church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. Alec Clifton-Taylor includes it in his list of 'best' English parish churches and Raymond Richards describes it as "one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture remaining in Cheshire".
You can find the cache coordinates by visiting the following waypoints:
N53o 17.620 W2o 30.285
Here there is a plaque commemorating those in the village who died in World War II. What was Mr Byram's first name. Number of letters = A
N53o 17.610 W2o 30.279
Look up at the clock. There is a date on the clockface. The top left digit - 1 = B and the bottom right digit - 2 = C.
N53o 17.611 W2o 30.247
Here there is a drain pipe with a date. The last digit - 2 = D
N53o 17.630 W2o 30.249
On the ground in front of the Silver Jubilee bench are some gravestones. One of the gravestones is for William Barker. Add the last two digits of the year of his death to get E
N53o 17.588 W2o 30.162
Take a moment to take in the lovely view of Budworth Mere and the rolling countryside. Here there is a gravestone to John Clarke. Add the first digit of the date of his death to the last digit to get F.
The actual cache is placed outside the church grounds and can be found at:
N53o 17.ABC W2o 30.DEF.
References:
Church website
Wikipedia
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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@gmail.co.uk.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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