The village of Birkin is located to the south-west of Selby in North Yorkshire, and sits beside the River Aire. Birkin takes its name from the fact that the village was originally built within a heavily wooded area of Birch trees.
The village is dominated by the beautiful St Mary’s church. This Norman church was constructed in 1149/50 and is considered to be one of the best preserved small churches of it’s era.
St Mary’s is constructed from magnesian limestone aslar with a stone slate roof. Of particular interest are the carved wooden porch and Romanesque door to the south side, and the five-bay Apse with pilaster buttresses to the eastern side. The apse also features a prominent 3-light window with reticulated tracery to the head of the arch.
Old maps show that the village once stretched further to the south, beyond the church. This goes some way to explaining why the most ornate church entrance is on this side of the building, with no obvious footpath link.
The coordinates will take you to the church gate where (with a little hunting) you will find a brass plaque, in memory of a lady named Kathleen.
Use this plaque to answer the questions below, the answers will all be single digit numbers.
A = The number of letters in Kathleen’s surname
B = The number of letters on the first line minus the number of times Douglas’s name appears
C = Add together the two numbers of Kathleen’s day of birth
D = The number of letters in the final word on the plaque
E = Add together the last two numbers of the year that Kathleen was born
F = The first number of year Kathleen died
The cache is located at N53 43.ABC, W001 11.DEF
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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.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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