There has been a church at Heanor since at least 1086 (it’s mentioned in the Domesday Book), but there was probably a Saxon church here before then.
Local legend has it that a new church was built in 1111 AD, but that is unlikely. However, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries a large church was built on this site, and the current tower was added in the fifteenth century.
Heanor was a major coal mining area, and it is possibly for that reason that by the nineteenth century the medieval church had got serious problems. So much so that in 1868 the nave and chancel of the church were demolished and a replaced with a new-build; the tower remained intact though. (The photo above was taken in the 1850s, so it is a view of the earlier church.)
The Victorian re-build cannot have been too good a job though, for in 1981 it all had to be done again, but at least the medieval tower remains in place, the oldest structure in the town. There has been a clock on the tower since 1647, though the current clock dates from 1886 – sometimes it even shows the correct time!
Despite all its tribulations, St Lawrence’s still retains a number of older memorials, most notably that of Samuel Watson (1662 – 1715), who was the principle wood carver at Chatsworth House.
The coordinates will bring you to a bench to the right on the main door to the church. On the bench is a metal plaque.
The cache itself is a short distance away, but you need to work out the coordinates, based on the number of letters in the words on the plaque.
It can be found at N53 00.ABC W1 21.DEF, where:
A = Last word (surname) on line 2
B = 4th word on line 1
C = 2nd word on line 3
D = 5th word on line 1 minus 3rd word on line 1
E = 1st word on line 1 minus 2nd word on line 2
F = 1st word on line 2