The church of St Mary’s at Ilkeston dates back at least to Norman times, and three pillars and arches in the building date from the twelfth century. The church contains the tomb of the then lord of the manor, Nicholas de Cantelupe.
The first tower was built around 1200; a new tower was erected in 1731 but by the nineteenth century the church was in a very poor state, with a collapsed roof and walls. A restoration in 1855 stopped it from totally falling down, but many older features were removed. In 1910, a major extension to the church doubled its capacity, though this entailed dismantling the tower and rebuilding it closer to the market place.
Inside the church it is possible to see some original stonework in the screen, a sixteenth century parish chest, seats with effigies of King Henry III and Queen Eleanor of Provence, and a piscina with carved heads from the thirteenth century.
The cache
This is a multicache. To find the cache you must first visit the church. Most of the gravestones here were "tidied up" years ago, but some still remain. You need to look at the first gravestone as you walk to the left of the tower/church, which commemorates a former churchwarden. Once you have solved the coordinates, it is a one-minute walk away.
The actual cache can be found at N52 58.ABC W001 18.DEF, where:
A = number of words on the first line of the gravestone
B = number of letters in the man's surname
C = number of letters in the third word on the fifth line
D = the number on the fifth line, divided by ten
E = the final digit of the year in which the man died
F = number of letters in the surname of the woman mentioned on the gravestone.
The checksum of all the digits in the final coordinates is 67
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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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