The Grade II listed St. Nicholas & St. Swithun Church, is a small medieval church, and reputed to be the sixth smallest Parish Church in the country at 56 ft long and 16 ft wide. Records of Yelford go back beyond Domesday. The church may have been founded as a chapel by 1221, when Philip of Hastings was recorded as patron of the living, but the present Church was rebuilt in about 1500 by the lords of the manor, when the village was revived after the Black Death devastated the area and the church fell into disuse and dereliction. It was then restored at some time between 1869 and 1873, which may be when the bellcote was added. Before the bellcote was added, the bells hung in now-blocked slits in the west wall—making it very cold in winter.
Though dedicated to St Nicholas, St Swithin seems to have been added from 18th century confusion about an earlier bequest to St Swithin's, Elford, Staffordshire. It may not be official, but is now the name in use.
****************** ********************
To access the church you will find a gate (waymarked) to the left of the cottage, follow the path to the end and turn left.
At the given co-ords you will find the entrance porch
To the left of the arch you will find two years engraved into the stonework 171A and 16BC
Also to the left of the porch is a stone animal, if it is a Dog D=1 - Stag D=3 - Cat D=5 - Boar D=7
To the right of the porch is a seat dedicated to centenarian Peggy who left us on 1E-3-2018
The cache is located at - N 51° 44. (B-A) (C) (D)' W 1° 28. (E) (D) (B)'
Checksum for all the numbers in the final coordinates is 63
****************** ********************
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.
****************** *******************