This used to be a traditional cache outside the church but as it kept going missing I thought I'd make it a multi cache which meant submitting a new listing.
The cache is NOT at the published coordinates but you need to visit them to get the information.
Facing the church there are two benches, on the bench on the right which is nearest the information board is a plaque. What is the year on the plaque? This is ABCD.
Final is at N52 05.A(C-A-A)D W000 15.BBC
St Andrew’s, Biggleswade
St Andrew's church is first mentioned in a grant of the manor of Biggleswade to Alexander I, the Bishop of Lincoln in 1132 to help endow Lincoln Cathedral. In about 1163 Bishop Robert de Chesney made the church a Royal Peculiar. On 18 November 1200 a miracle occurred in St Andrew's Church when Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, died in London and his body rested at Biggleswade on the way to Lincoln. A woman with a broken arm touched his body and it is reported that she was healed and the wax tapers in the procession stayed alight. St Hugh was canonised in 1220. However, none of the present building dates back to that period with the oldest extant part today being from about 1300. Most of the church is from the Perpendicular Period with the chancel believed to have been rebuilt or refurbished between 1467 and 1481 by Archdeacon John Rudying (d. 1481).
The medieval tower collapsed in the early 1700s and was rebuilt in 1720 and fitted with a ring of five bells cast by Thomas Russell of Wootton in 1721. The church underwent a major restoration in 1870 when the roofs and stonework were repaired , an organ chamber was added and corbels were fitted to carry the wall-posts for the nave roof.
A stone reredos designed by the London architect R J Withers was added in 1877 with decoration by the famous mosaicist company of Antonio Salviati in 1881. Between 1885 to 1888 the church architect William Butterfield made additional improvements to St Andrew's which included reroofing the chancel and the addition of a new vestry. The chancel and organ chamber were damaged by a fire in November 1953 and were restored between 1953 to 1955 which included adding an organ gallery at the church's West end.
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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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