The co-ordinates listed are for the first 2 questions. It is possible to park in the lane by the co-ordinates. The cache is not at the published co-ordinates nor in the grounds of the church.
The church
The name of the village means "Priests fortified place", from Anglo-Saxon preost and burh, possibly from a fortified manor house belonging to the Bishop of Hereford in the 13th century. The settlement is mentioned as Preosdabyrig in 899-904. Prestbury is listed in the 1086 Doomsday Book as "Presteberie", part of the property of the church of Hereford, with 18 villagers, five smallholders, a priest, a riding man and 11 slaves. By the 13th century it had become Presbery. In 1249 the Bishop of Hereford was granted permission to hold a weekly market along with a three-day annual fair in August.
The church is medieval, founded in the 12th century, a small portion probably dating from the 10th. The church priory and vicarage were originally part of a Benedictine monastery.
It is built of stone, principally in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch, and an embattled western tower which contains a clock and 8 bells. All the windows are stained. It was comprehensively restored in 1868.
When I visited to place the cache, I got chatting to a lovely lady who I guess is a warden. She gave me a tour of the inside and told me that the organ used to be where the piano is now. It was moved to a suspended platform high up at the back of the church. She told me that when they started to restore the pipes, they realised that the ornate patterns had been painted using watercolours, so they were only able to use cotton buds to clean inbetween the paint! An excellent fact.
The churchyard is haunted by the ghost of the Black Abbot. He used to walk the aisle in the church, but after it was exorcised, he only appears in the churchyard.
The cache
To locate the cache, find the answers to the following questions:
Q1: Steps - How steps have writing on them? = A
Q2: Steps - How many letters in the word on the top step? = B
Q3: Noticeboard - How many words are underlined? = C
Q4: Noticeboard - How many years has the church been a place of worship and prayer? = Dxx?
Q5: Stone at bottom of wall - How many letters are engraved on the stone in the wall? = E
The cache, a small clip lock box, can be found at:
N 51° 54.(A*E)(B-E)(D-A) W 002° 02.(B-C)(C+D-E)(A+C)
Checksum - A+B+C+D+E=24
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