Church Micro 5763 ... Piddington Multi-Cache
Church Micro 5763 ... Piddington
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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A straightforward cache set around St Nicholas parish church in Piddington. The published coordinates are for handy parking and the start of your quest.
The medieval church of St Nicholas has its origins in an older religious site. The building today is a Grade II* listed building, constructed of random and coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, with old plain-tile and Welsh-slate roofs. It comprises a south porch, south aisle, nave, low embattled west tower and chancel, and seats a maximum of 95 people.
The gem of the church is its Early English chancel, which dates from about 1300 and has plinth and stepped angle buttresses. Its four original windows are of a charmingly peculiar design, with good mouldings and the unusual features of cusped drop arches towards the inside.
The east window has three grouped trefoiled lancets below an outer arch, and, to the south, has two similar two-light windows with trefoils in their heads; all have engaged shafts supporting tracery rolls. To the north is a similar lancet plus a two-light 15th-century window.
The south aisle has two plain lancet windows, which may have been removed from an older building and inserted into this later wall, plus a 14th-century window of two ogee-headed lights. A similar window facing west may be 19th century.
The late 13th or early 14th century nave is plain, which makes it hard to date. The north wall has heavy buttresses, two square-headed windows (one with Perpendicular tracery) and a single light contemporary with the tower (16th century).
Interesting features include a medieval octagonal chalice-shaped font and traces of a door, on the north wall of the nave, which has been blocked in and covered with a 14th-century wall painting of St Christopher.
The plain and squat two-stage 16th-century tower, with diagonal buttresses and crenelated parapet, has single-light bell-chamber openings and a two-light west window, all with three-centred arches, and has a four-centre arched west doorway with shields in the spandrels. Its doorway was blocked up in 1826.
In 1553 the tower contained three small bells, a sanctus and hand-bells. Two bells were recast at Bicester bell foundry in 1729 and 1738. The other was recast at Bristol in 1887, when two more were added. The tower now has a fine ring of five bells, which are in regular use.
Now, on to the cache.
In the churchyard is a tree commemorating John and Minette Methuen. Her dates are given as 1952 – 19AB.
Prior to which year was drinking water obtained primarily from the brook that runs through the village? 188C.
How many quatrefoil windows are there in the south porch? The answer is D.
A bench in the churchyard was donated by Piddington Parish Council in December 200E.
Nearby is a plaque in memory of Lady Daphne. The number of letters in her surname will give you F.
The cache is not far away at N 51° 50.ABC W 01° 04.DEF
UPDATE 20/12/2017 Once you have sorted the location, please ADD .001 to the northings and SUBTRACT .005 from the westings. The cache is retrievable from the road verge.
This cache is one of four Church Micro feeder caches for Church Micro 5778 ... Puttenham - St Mary. To find that cache you will need to retain value F from this cache
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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.
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat va urqtr nobhg svir srrg, whfg abegu bs gryrtencu cbyr.