St. Michael and All Angels
Another contribution to this series, started by sadexploration, is St. Michael and All Angels, Hughenden. We have placed this cache as this church has a special significance to us being where we got married and our two children were christened. One of the places you visit is a family memorial.
Please note that in order to find all of the information needed to locate the cache you will need to visit the inside of the church. It is open daily during daylight hours, but of course you will need to avoid service times.
According to early records, a church existed on this site in the 12th century, built by Geoffrey de Clinton between 1100 and 1135. Monks established a small priory here in the building which is today the Church House, located a short distance south-west of today's church. The church itself is mediaeval in origin and this original building now forms the chancel and north chapel of the present building.
In 1848 Benjamin Disraeli purchased Hughenden Manor. The church was restored and extended between 1874 and 1890. Disraeli was British Prime Minister twice, in 1868 and 1874–1880, and was made Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876. He died in 1881 and was buried in the family vault along with his wife Lady Beaconsfield (died 1872) which is located at the east wall of the church. Royal protocol did not permit Queen Victoria to attend the private funeral, but she visited the tomb a few days later to pay her respects.
The exterior walls of St Michael and All Angels are of flint with stone dressings and the roofs are tiled. The oldest part of the church is the chancel, which was formed from the original mediaeval body of the church. When the church extension work was carried out, the floor was covered with ceramic tiles designed by Edward William Godwin and the walls decorated with 1881 wall paintings in the Aesthetic Movement style by Heaton, Butler and Bayne that depict the Nativity, the Four Evangelists and the Prophets.
A memorial to Disraeli was erected by Queen Victoria on the north side of the chancel following his death. It was the only memorial to be erected by a reigning monarch to one of her subjects in an English parish church. The inscription reads:
To the dear and honoured memory of Benjamin Earl of Beaconsfield.
This memorial is placed by his grateful sovereign and friend Victoria R.I. "Kings loveth him that speaketh right"
The Banner and Insignia of the Order of the Garter hanging beside the memorial originate from St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Among the stained glass windows are works by Thomas Willement and Clayton and Bell, including their 1881 East Window depicting Christ in Majesty which was installed as another memorial to Disraeli. The ornately carved marble and alabaster pulpit (c. 1891) is the work of Thomas Earp in the High Victorian style and features effigies of angels in Gothic arches. The memorials in the church include three recumbent effigies of knights, one lying cross-legged; although apparently in the style of the 13th century, the effigies have been ascertained to date from the 16th century and are thought to have been sculpted as fabricated evidence of the pedigree of the Wellesbourne family as descendants of Simon de Montfort.
The tower has a ring of 8 bells. In 1952 7 of the bells were recast and a new tenor added with new fittings and new steel and cast iron frame by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough 1n 1952. The old tenor was rehung in a steel frame with existing fittings above the new frame and bells and is chimed as a service bell.
To complete this cache you will need to find several locations around and inside the church (we have given coordinates for some, others you will need to locate for yourselves):
1. Find Disraeli's tomb. Mary-Anne was Benjamin's wife for AB years.
2. At N51 39.106 W00 45.137 a gravestone commemorates an army officer who died in the Second Battle of the Somme. He was CD years old when he died.
3. At N51 39.101 W00 45.148 you will find a memorial stone to June Cole who was born EF June 19GH
4. Inside the church there is a brass plaque in thanksgiving for an event associated with a monarch. This event happened in the year 1JKL.
5. Find the stained-glass window commemorating the MN Regiment, whose battles included Egypt and The Alma.
The cache can then be found approximately 0.25 miles away at:
N51 3(A+B+N).(C-M)(E+F+G)(D-H-N) W000 4(G+L).(J-B+M)(K-L)(C+N))
The cache has a log book only but no pen so please bring one with you.
If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication