Bittering is a tiny shrunken village located in the heart of the Norfolk countryside. The church of St Peter and St Paul of Bittering is a church originating from the 12th and 13th century. The bell tower is from the 17th century. Also in the chruch is a late medieval rood screen. By 1954 the church was derelict but it has since been restored. There is a moat nearby marking the site of Bittering Manor, which has now been demolished. A medieval village once existed here, and the earthworks of the houses can clearly be seen in a nearby field (See waypoints) . The sister village of Great Bittering does not exist anymore, The church of the village disappeared by the 17th century with the only remains of the village being Bittering Street which runs from Gressenhall to Beetley.
Some more information from the Norfolk Churches website:
It is easy to describe quite a few East Anglian churches as being lost in the fields. St Peter is only about a hundred metres from the nearest road, but this is such a remote country lane, and Bittering itself is so far off of the beaten track, that St Peter really feels as if it could be one of the most hard-to-find churches in Norfolk. The church was declared redundant in the 1970s, not unreasonably.
There are no headstones, and the tight little churchyard is neatly trimmed. But the fields around are abandoned and wildly overgrown. To the north of the church is the site of the former Bittering Hall, an Elizabethan moated house which was demolished only in the 1960s. Now, sunken trees mark the site of the moat, and exploration is not recommended.
There are no other houses for a mile or so, but this is not a rural idyll. Immediately to the south of the church, between here and the Gressenhall to Beeston road, there is a huge quarry. It is hidden from sight behind high hedges and fencing, but the air is filled with the sinister sound of machinery and the fall and clatter of earth and stone. As beautiful as the setting may look in the photographs above, it is actually a rather bleak place.
But St Peter should not really have survived at all, of course; hardly anybody lives in the parish, and this is a part of Norfolk with plenty of churches. This building is a happy amalgamation of Early English work and a most un-ecclesiological 17th century restoration, giving it a character all of its own. Although no longer a part of the Diocese of Norwich's plans, it remains in use as a church, still hosting two or three services a year, a a testament to the energy and commitment of a handful of local enthusiasts, as well as the Saintly influence of Billa Harrod's Norfolk Churches Trust.
Bittering church is, alas, kept locked, when churches like this really shouldn't be. I put this down to the Gressenhall effect, for we are in a black hole here, a small part of Norfolk with a high concentration of locked churches, and precious few keyholder notices. Norfolk is, of course, a country which rejoices in its huge numbers of open churches, with a good seventy per cent of them open for business every day, and most of the rest accessible.
The cache is located outside of the church boundaries. Please BYOP. I hope you enjoy the location of this cache.
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html