I thought it would be appropriate to create a Church Micro cache here at this time. It will celebrate the 11th Anniversary Church Micro Day and also the fact that Captain James Cook was baptised in the church on 7th November 1728.
You will need to bring your own writing implement (but then you always do!) and perhaps some tweezers so that you can prove that you have found the cache.
The Cache
Needless to say the cache is not located at these co-ordinates, which will take you to the lych gate.
To obtain the co-ordinates (and a hint as to the hide) you will need to solve the puzzle.
The cache is a short walk away.
The Church
The church of ST. CUTHBERT consists of chancel 30 ft. by 15 ft. with north vestry, nave 56 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft., north and south aisles 6 ft. 8 in. wide, north transept 15 ft. by 13 ft., south transept 14 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 9 in., and south porch 7 ft. 9 in. by 4 ft. 6 in. The total width across nave and aisles is 31 ft. 6 in. These measurements are all internal. There is a bell-turret containing two bells over the west gable. The building is of 12th-century date with a late chancel probably erected in the 13th century, but was almost entirely rebuilt in 1843–6, the only original structural features left being the north arcade, the lower part of the north aisle wall, and part of the north transept. All the rest, with the exception of one or two features mentioned later, is new, being a more or less faithful copy of the building it replaced, and on that account of some interest. From the antiquarian point of view, however, the building has lost the great interest which it once possessed and externally the hard lines of the modern Norman architecture have as yet been scarcely affected by time or weather, and have little to offer in the way of picturesqueness.
Ord, writing before this rebuilding was completed, states that the south transept, aisles, and one arch at the west end had been destroyed previous to 1630 (this date having been discovered under the plaster when the church was lately rebuilt). The building had been 'greatly out of repair' some years before 1843 and the work then or shortly afterwards carried out included 'three of the arches, the chancel arch and south porch and a vestry added on the north side of the chancel.' The south transept and the rest of the rebuilding as it at present exists followed. Ord further states that 'the transepts were early Norman, the nave of late Norman verging on transition,' but the style of the old chancel was difficult to trace 'owing to the numerous alterations which had taken place.'
The nave and aisles are under one wide roof, which, like that of the chancel, is covered with blue slates. The chancel is in the style of the 13th century with a three-light east window and three lancets on the south side. The only ancient feature is a 13thcentury piscina in the usual position, replaced there when the chancel was rebuilt. The bowl is in the thickness of the wall and the opening has a line of nail-head ornament all round, including the sill. In the opposite wall is another but taller recess with trefoiled head, in which the dog-tooth ornament occurs, and corbelled sill now used as a credence, which, if old, has been much restored. The semicircular chancel arch is modern and of two orders, the inner with cheveron ornament springing from half-round responds with scalloped cushion capitals and moulded bases. The outer order is plain and goes down to the ground, and the hood mould is continued along the north and south walls of the nave and over the arches of the arcades rising from above the spring. On the north side this feature is original, and probably the chancel arch is a copy of the one destroyed in 1843.
The nave is of five bays, that at the east end on either side being open to the transepts, and the arcades consist of semicircular arches of two square orders. There are modern transverse arches between the transepts and the aisles springing from corbels and abutting on to built-up masonry piers with responds east and west. The original north arcade is alone of antiquarian interest. The first arch opposite the transept springs on the east side from a square respond with slightly chamfered angles and plain moulded capitals, and on the west from a half-round respond with cushion capitals and moulded base with foot ornaments. The first and third piers of the nave arcade proper counting from the east are octagonal and the middle one a quatrefoil in plan, while the responds are both half quatrefoils. The west respond is modern. The piers and responds have all carved capitals with chamfered abaci and moulded bases with foot ornaments. The capital of the eastern respond is carved with early foliage adapted from the volute, and that of the middle pier has also conventional foliage of different type. The first octagonal pier has a grotesque animal amid foliage at each angle and the other two are carved with dragons and what is apparently meant to represent a boar hunt. The carving in all cases has been refaced and spoilt. The modern south arcade is only of interest so far as it reproduces ancient work. The carving of the middle capital is certainly copied from the old one, as the original mutilated capital with portions of the old clustered shaft has been preserved. The south transept arch is a copy of that opposite.
The north wall has an embattled parapet, which may be old, but the windows are modern Norman, though the wall with its flat buttresses and string at sill level may be partly ancient, and the lower part has been apparently left untouched. The north transept has two original flat buttresses on the north end, but the window between them is modern and the stepped gable has been rebuilt. There is also a stepped gable at the east end of the nave, following the embattled parapet of the north transept.
The font and all the fittings are modern. A new organ was erected in 1910 at the west end of the nave. The churchyard is entered from the road by a lych-gate at the south-east corner erected in 1897.
The bells are of 17th-century date and bear the inscriptions 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' and 'Gloria Deo in altissimis.'
The plate consists of a chalice, paten and flagon of 1861 and an alms-dish of 1862 of mediaeval design by J. Keith of London. On the rim of the alms-dish is inscribed, 'This Alms Plate with silver paten, chalice and flagon were given by Harriet the wife of H. W. F. Bolckow of Marton Hall through the Revd Charles Bailey, M.A., Vicar, to the glory of God for the use of the Church of St. Cuthbert's Marton in Cleveland Xmas Eve, a.d. 1862.'
The registers begin in 1572.
Advowson
A moiety of the church of Marton was given to Guisborough Priory at its foundation by Robert Sturmy and confirmed by Robert de Brus. Probably before 1187, about which time the whole church was appropriated to the priory, the other moiety was also given by Adam de Sothewast and by his brother and heir Eudo after him. A vicarage is said to have been ordained by Archbishop Walter Gray. Some claim to the advowson seems to have been advanced by Richard de Marton in 1303, but the church remained with the priory until its surrender, and was granted by Henry VIII in 1545 to the see of York, to which it has ever since belonged. The rectory has always followed the descent of the advowson.
The site of a dwelling-house which belonged to the vicarage in 1535 may have been that of the house which Robert, parson of Marton, granted to Guisborough Priory. About 1199 William de Bernaldby gave land to this priory to find every year a wax candle, weighing half a pound, to burn on St. Mary's altar in Marton Church at Christmas.
'Parishes: Marton', in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1923), pp. 264-268. British History Online [accessed 23 July 2018].
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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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