Congratulations to Spoony15 for his FTF
St Michael & All Angels is in Church Lane, a quiet cul de sac just to the north of the Sunninghill roundabout on the A329.
Sunninghill is an ancient parish, originally a Saxon settlement in Windsor Forest. (The Sunnings were a Saxon tribe which settled in various places in the Thames Valley.) The surrounding parishes were carved out of Sunninghill in the 19th Century. Our present parish stretches East-West from the Great Park to the Race Course, and North-South from Cheapside to Bagshot Road.
The present Church is the third on the site, and this misleading inscription by the west door describes the second one as the 'original church'!
The Saxon Church may have been founded in about 890 AD. (The historical evidence, and much detail about the church's subsequent history, is discussed in a splendid book - "Cheapside in the Forest of Windsor" produced as part of the local Millennium celebrations by an historian, Christine Weightman, and it is available from Cheapside Publications, Heronsbrook Cottage, Ascot) .
In the Churchyard near the Vestry is a yew tree - perhaps the one remaining from a circle of yews surrounding the Saxon church. It is thought to be 1200 years old.
The church was rebuilt around 1120, and this Norman church was to be at the centre of the community for 700 years
King John gave the Church by charter to the Broomhall Priory, together with the right to appoint the priest (which is called the advowson, or patronage). The Priory for a time had much land and influence in the area. It was closed in 1524, and all its possessions, including the patronage of the Living of Sunninghill were subsequently given to St John's College, Cambridge.
In 1779 the Church Green adjoining St Michaels, upon which stood a Parish Room, was sold to the owner of the Cedars. The money from the sale was used by the Reverand Thistlewaite to make alterations to the Church. There were some unsuccessful extensions in 1808, and in 1827 the Norman Church was demolished except for its little Chancel.
In 1888, relatives of the Holloways build an entire new East End to the Church, the south-east corner being the Chapel. It was designed by W.H.Crossland (F.R.I.B.A.) who was the architect of the Royal Holloway College and the Sanatorium.
To locate the cache itself, you'll have to find information on a few signs and notices around the locality.
The Cache can be found at
N51 2(B+B).(A-1)(H)(G+G)
W 000 FE.G(J-F-C-2)D
The first part is wheelchair accessible (with some deft turning) but the second might be less so. Wheelchair users will certainly require help to collect the cache.
If anybody would like to expand to 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
To view the church micro stats & information page, please click here