Church Micro 573 St Nicholas, Tolleshunt Major Traditional Geocache

GC1Q3M4 Church Micro 573 St Nicholas, Tolleshunt Major

GC1Q3M6 Church Micro 470 St Nicholas, Tolleshunt D’arcy

GC1Q3M8 Church Micro 577 All Saints, Tolleshunt Knights

Each church micro cache can be completed as a stand-alone cache. Associated with each church micro is a bonus cache which allows for a short walk. The coordinates for each bonus cache are written on the back of the related church micro logbook. The three bonus caches are:

GC1Q3M5 Tolleshunt Triangle, Major Bonus

GC1Q3M7 Tolleshunt Triangle, D’arcy Bonus

GC1Q3MA Tolleshunt Triangle, Knights Bonus

The logbook of each Bonus cache contains part of the coordinates for a final bonus cache. All three bonus caches will need to be found to obtain the full coordinates for the final bonus. The final bonus cache is:

GC1Q3MC Tolleshunt Triangle Final Bonus

CHURCH MICRO 573 ST NICHOLAS, TOLLESHUNT MAJOR

The Church of St. Nicholas stands South East of the main village next to the ruins of Beckingham Hall. Tolleshunt Major was granted by King Henry VIII to Stephen Beckingham, gentleman, in 1544. As well as buying up most of the property round about, Stephen built a semi-fortified residence with a turreted gatehouse within a red-brick boundary wall some 130 feet square. A fine piece of panelling, bearing the date 1546, elaborately carved with decorations in the style of the Renaissance, among which are the Royal Arms as borne by Henry VIII and those of Stephen Beckingham, was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1912. The original Beckingham house has gone and replaced by a farmhouse, but the gatehouse with its turrets and boundary wall remain clearly visible from the road as you drive down to the church.

The church is mainly late 15th century, of pudding stone and septaria, but was much restored in 1888.

The tower was built in the early sixteenth century by Sir Stephen Beckingham at the same time as the Gate House to Beckingham Hall. It is built of Red Tudor bricks with blue brick diapering. Much smuggling took place in many of the parishes round about. Tolleshunt Major was involved for over a hundred years. The vicar and churchwardens were in close touch with the smugglers and allowed different galleries in the belfry tower to be hiding places. The tower is scheduled as an ancient monument by the Ministry of Works. 220 yards south west of the church is a circular mound about 8 feet high and 50 feet in diameter. This mound was opened in 1906 but nothing was discovered inside. The mound was opened again sometime later and bones found but it was unclear if they were human or cattle. Archaeologists believe this is a Tumulus but nothing to this day has been confirmed even though on modern maps you see one clearly marked. A Tudor map of the village dated 1637 shows a windmill on the mound site. This seems to be confirmed by the name of the field, which is known as Mill Field.

The cache is a micro and contains the coordinates for Tolleshunt Triangle Major Bonus on the back of the logbook.

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If anybody would like to expand on this series please do so. Could you please let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.