Church Micro 1719 St Margaret, Reydon Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

Red Duster: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it.

If you wish to email me please send your email via my profile (click on my name) and quote the cache name and number.

Andy
Red Duster
Volunteer UK Reviewer - geocaching.com
UK Geocaching Information & Resources http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk
Geocaching.com Knowledge Books http://support.groundspeak.com//index.php

More
Hidden : 3/26/2011
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

St Margaret's church Reydon.

St Margaret sits away from the houses, on the road towards Wangford, anonymously pretty in an overgrown graveyard. I had passed it before, and had always looked forward to visiting it. It is probably older than it looks, having undergone a serious tarting-up in the 15th century. I wondered what it was like inside.

I wandered around the back to the surprise of a super late 1980s extension, one of the best of its kind that I've seen. The architect was Andrew Anderson. The graveyard was wide and spacious, but there were many more modern graves than 19th century ones, a mark of how the town has grown. A 1920s angel was rather pompous, but to the west of the church I found the older ones, and stood looking at them. One of them was a cute little child's grave, to Percy Hunt, son of Henry and Harriet, who had died at the age of just ten months in August 1888. Grieve not with helpless sorrow, it read, Jesus hath felt your pain. He did thy lamb but borrow, he'll bring him back again, the theology of which seemed curious, to say the least. The tiny tombstone was covered in a century or more of moss. It was very moving. His parents' larger graves were beside it; His father had died in 1910 at the age of 60, his mother surviving into the 1930s, when she died at 86. There were no other Hunt graves nearby, and I wondered if little Percy had been their only child. Counting backwards, I worked out that she must have had her baby in her mid-forties - was this an unexpected late fruit after barren decades? And were their hopes dashed? It was all very sad.

The church has more surviving medieval image niches than any other in Suffolk, and they are of the highest quality. They are in the eastern splay of every single window. It seems likely that the Anglicans filled them in during the great iconoclasm of the 1540s, because when Dowsing came here one April morning a century later, he doesn't mention seeing them, taking to task instead ten stained glass windows and Laud's offending chancel steps.

In one of the niches, the Parish has placed quite simply the most beautiful Madonna and Child I have ever seen in a Suffolk church. Mary holds out the infant Christ, who is naked, and extends his arms in a prefiguring of the cross. Of course, there had been complaints - an image in an image niche? Outrageous! And some people had complained that Christ was naked, and asked if a loin cloth could be incorporated. The Diocese, who usually come in for a lot of stick from me, very bravely said no, it must be as the artist intended, expressing the vulnerability of the infant Christ - so they are to be commended.

Generally, the church bears all the hallmarks of enthusiastic Victorians reritualising it in the 1870s, although the greatest offence is probably the refitting of the organ in the chancel at the time of the 1988 extension. It really shouldn't be there. It detracts from some splendid Victorian glass, particularly the story of Christ meeting the Samaritan woman at the well - you can tell at a glance that she's probably had six husbands, and she's not married to the one she's with at the minute. Certainly, she's the sexiest 19th century figure I've seen in Suffolk stained glass - Mortlock tells me she's the work of Arthur Moore. You can see a detail of her among the images on the right. Other 19th images are equally fine - except for the east window, perhaps, which appears to show Jesus trampolining.

Simon Knott (visit link)

You are searching for a nano log in a micro container. No other hints available at this time but I may post one depending on DNF's.

If any body would like to add to this series, please do, but could you please let sadexploration know first, so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ybbx gb gur sbyvntr. Fubhyqre uvtug tvir be gnxr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?

Bookmark Lists

View all bookmark lists...