St Stephen, Cold Norton
photo by Stephen Parker, courtesy of www.essexchurches.com
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Nortuna but was renamed to Cold Norton to distinguish it from Norton Mandeville near Ongar.
The original church dated from the 12th century and was constructed of weatherboard with a small spire. However by 1835 the falling congregation numbers were blamed for the lack of upkeep and the old church was demolished and a new church of non traditional design was built in 1855. By 1950 the bell tower was unstable and was demolished with the bells put into storage from where they were stolen.
The cache, placed by kind permission, is not at the coordinates shown, first find the following information
- Peter James How, Churchwarden : Jun AB 19CD - Sep EF 200G
The cache is at N51 40.(C-F)(D)(G/A) E000 40.(G-E)(B+E)(D-E)
If anybody would like to expand on this series please do so. Could you please let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.