A brief history of St Mary's
The original church is believed to date back to the 10th century, when Lewisham and Greenwich were owned and run by the Abbey of St Peter's in Ghent, Belgium. Back then, the Ravensbourne had working mills, Forest Hill and Sydenham had 500 acres of woodland while Greenwich raked in money with an ancient port.
St Mary's was rebuilt in the 15th century, with the floor around 10ft lower than the current building.
In the 1600s, Abraham Colfe was the vicar. He went on to establish Colfe's School along with Lewisham's first library "for gentleman only".
Structural problems due to the proximity of the Ravensbourne led to a structural survey in 1773, followed by plans for a new church on the site. The present church was built 1774 - 1777 to the design of George Gibson on the site of earlier churches. Gibson's design incorporated the tower (1471-1512) of the medieval church. The chancel, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, was added in 1881 when the nave was re-modelled in Victorian style.
The cache
The co-ordinates supplied take you to a gate into the churchyard off Lewisham High Street. At this gate you will discover the first of a number of informative plaques within the churchyard.
Plaque 1: Avenue of Yew Trees - there are A arrows
Plaque 2: Henry Tibbats Stainton - there are B letters in the name of the insect (singular)
Plaque 3: Des Vignes Family Vault - the device has C letters in its name
Plaque 4: Captain Charles Weller - the company was founded in 16DD
Plaque 5: Ebenezer Blackwell - he was the treasurer until 1EEE
Plaque 6: How Family Tomb - there are F letters in name of the piece of cutlery
The cache is located at:
North 51 27.(F-2) (B-A) (C-F) West 000 01. D (E-1) (F-2)
HAPPY HUNTING!
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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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