The Church
Nothing is known of the first Church of St Erth, or of others which may have succeeded it until the present Church was originally built in the 14th or 15th centuries.
The present Nave has some early Perpendicular work, with the Chancel a little earlier in the Transitional period. The Tower, which is without buttresses, is 14th century. There are six bells, the tenor bell having been re-cast by Harvey & Co Ltd, Hayle, in January, 1901.
The difficulty of dating the Church with accuracy arises from the extensive restoration and re-building carried out. Vicar Collins, in 1747, showing great zeal in his removals and repairs, and even more extensive re-building was instigated by Vicar Mills in 1873. How great this was can be judged by a Press report of the re-opening of the Church in 1874 stating: “The work taken in hand was so extensive a character that of the old building all that now remained are the tower and pillars, the latter having had to be extensively restored. Altar, reredos and roof are all brightly decorated with painted carvings of many interesting subjects. The reredos, unusually, has the Adoration of the Magi as its central subject flanked by four Cornish Saints: Petroc, Erth, Piran and Conan.
There was a tapestry incorporated in the wall decoration which has been returned to Trewinnard Manor from whence it came.
St Erth takes its name from Saint Erc, one of the many Irish saints who brought Christianity to Cornwall during the Dark Ages, and is at the old crossing point of the River Hayle. The Cornish name of the place derives from St Uthinoch of whom little is known.
The Cache
The headline coordinates take you to the lychgate at the entrance to the church grounds.
Parking is available across the road from here but if this is full there is another car park 80 metres down the road towards the village on the opposite side of the main road by the other side of the bridge.
Pass through the lychgate and look in amongst the trees and shrubs to the left of the path to seek the first piece of information you need for the cache location:
You should see a plaque commemorating the "Six Persons who died in 1832 of the awful visitation of .......".
A = How many letters are there in the name of the deadly disease?
Walk on along the path until you come to the west end of the tower at Waypoint 2.
Opposite the tower door is a gravestone of the Taylor Family:
George Taylor died on BC th October DEFG aged HG years
Elizabeth Taylor, his mother, died on the DC th day of December DEFG aged GE years
The cache can be found a short walk away at N 50 0(G+H).EAG W 005 BG.00C
The cache is a camo taped plastic tube approx 10 cms long by 3 cms in diameter.
Tweezers may be needed to extract the log and Please Bring Your Own Pen (BYOP)
Extreme stealth will be required at the GZ because the adjacent footpath is popular with walkers and dog walkers.
****************** ********************
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.
****************** *******************