The church:
Most of the fabric of the current parish church of St Michael and All Angels dates from 1477, but the first church here dedicated to St. Michael dated back at least 1,200 years. The current church is built of red sandstone and positioned on a triangle of land in the centre of Alphington, which is now a suburb of Exeter but was previously a village in its own right.
The church was used as stables by Parliamentarians in 1645 and 1646 during the Civil War and had its first clock installed in 1710. On 10th June 1826, the tower was struck by lightning during a ringing of the bells, injuring four bell-ringers and killing another. By 1877, however, the condition of the church had deteriorated badly, leading to £4,000 being spent on renovations - that's around £325,000 in today's money.
The cache:
The headline co-ordinates will take you to the main information signs for the church.
- At the headline coordinates, there is a green sign which gives the Church Office phone number as 01392 A622B0.
- Enter the churchyard using the gate and steps a few feet to the right (if facing the sign), and walk a short distance to where the paths converge. Near to this junction, you will find a memorial to Alice and Fred Blanchford. Fred died on 26th January in the year CDEF.
- From here, following the path to the right (if looking at the building). Along the side wall boundary, you will find an 18th Century memorial to Catherine Willis. The lower half is very difficult to read, but towards the top it can be found that Catherine died in the year 1GGG.
- Continuing around the church, the paths across the grass are made of square paving slabs. Counting the number of such tiles gives you H.
The cache can then be located at:
N 50º (H + D) . (E + F) (D - C) B
W 003º (H - 1) . (B + C) G A
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html