Dalham's St Mary has one of the loveliest settings of any English village church you are likely to come across. Approaching by road, from the beehive-like 18th century malt kiln on the village street, you turn up and up the narrow Church lane to reach the top of the ridge, where the church sits beside Dalham Hall. The view is spectacular on a good day, and stretches far across the wide valley. In the fields below the church, where the public footpath descends through an avenue of chestnut trees, friendly cows can often be seen. When I've passed them by, I've found them particularly disinterested in my presence - so don't be alarmed by them!
Dalham Hall was home to the Rhodes family, and the famous Cecil Rhodes was brother to the Lord of the Manor. The Hall stands over the church, a 17th century rebuilding of an earlier church.
(Frances Watts was dairy and poultry woman at Dalham Hall for A years, and died DD+MM+YYYY (= B), while John Keats and Joseph Betts served the family of Dalham Hall honestly and faithfully (with little interruption) for C years.)
Walking around the church, you come to a strange extension east of the north aisle. It is now roofless, but was once the Affleck mausoleum, constructed in the 18th century. In about 1900 the coffins were removed and buried, and the memorials placed in the north churchyard wall where they have quickly become illegible.
There is a large monument to General Sir James Affleck at the front of the church. Affleck died in Dalham Hall DD+MM+YYYY (= D).
If the church is open (and it usually is) it is worth a visit inside. Along the north arcade are some faded, but still interesting wall paintings. The most complete is of the Seven Deadly Sins, and that beside it the Seven Works of Mercy. Just as outside, with the dominating monument, the name most obvious in the chancel is that of the Affleck family. But Sir Martin Stuteville, who paid for the rebuilding of the tower and is remembered in the inscription above the tower arch, has an imposing monument. His bust, and that of his two wives, gaze out, while below their children kneel and grieve.
Cherish has many ancestors buried in the churchyard at Dalham St Mary. Two of the more readable headstones of her Tabraham (sometimes spelled Tabram) ancestors belong to Sarah Tabram (nee Turner), wife of John Tabraham (son of Joseph Tabraham and Martha Lock), who died DD+MM+YYYY (= E); and to James Tabram (Tabraham), son of Joseph Tabraham and Martha Lock, and his wife Sarah Tabram (Tabraham, nee Godfrey). James died in February 1886, aged F years. Sarah died in December 1884 aged G years. James & Sarah and John & Sarah were Cherish's 5th Great-Granduncles and 5th Great-Grandaunts. Their sister (and sister-in-law), Susan Swan (nee Tabraham) was Cherish's 5th Great-Grandmother.
A+B+C+D+E+F+G+1=WXYZ
N 52° 1(Z).(W+Y-X)(Y)(W)
E 000° 3(X-Y-Z).(Z)(W+Y-X)(W)
Update: 23/5/2016 Came today for a maintenance walk, had a go at collecting the necessary numbers myself and failed. With this in mind, and the fact there is no sign of the original cache at GZ, I decided to place a new cache. This can now be found at N52 14.060 E000 31.452 I decided against archiving as this page gives a great insight into the vast history of this beautiful church.