The church was built on its present site in 1386, the original foundations still remain, and a curious feature of the building is that it stands on a stream which can be seen emerging from beneath the church. At some stage the unusual right to present the village minister to the bishop was given to Hayfielders. To this day the patronage is shared by the freeholders of Hayfield with the bishop.
The tower was built in 1793. In 1814 after several floods (1748, 1799, 1809,& 1837) a major rebuild took place, including the raising of the floor, with the tower then being later raised in 1894.
The church was an early provider of education and in 1836 a church school was built by public subscription involving support from other denominations and considerable sacrifice by villagers. 1870 saw the state become involved with education nationally though the vicar of Hayfield managed to delay a board school until the late 1880’s.The church school, now state funded, continued in competition, with the council school until the late 1940’s. There seems to have been no other places of worship until the spread of Methodism in the 1750’s. Following an accident in the 1970’s the land on which the church school, now used as a church hall, stood, was compulsorily purchased to build a relief road. The compensation paid for the current hall and the re-ordering of the church.
To locate the cache - follow your GPS to the given co-ordinates where you will find two gravestones standing alone against the side. You need to find details of two people.
First, find Betty Clegg. She died in ABCD aged EF.
Also find Mary Howard. She died in GHIJ aged KL
You can now locate the final cache at 22.BJC 56.LKI
To avoid confusion finding the path to the final, a waypoint is provided for your convenience. This is also a good area to park. Please use maximum stealth at the cache site and please also ensure you fully re-hide the cache, and as naturally as possible, as it lies on a popular route with dog walkers, kids etc.
**************************************
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@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
*************************************