** IMPORTANT - WHEN YOU FIND THE CACHE PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO PULL THE LID OFF THIS WILL BREAK IT. THE LID SLIDES OFF SIDEWAYS TO THE RIGHT AND UP AS YOU LOOK AT THE CACHE.**
St. Mary Church
The Church of St. Mary in Earlham is the sister church of St. Andrew’s Church, Colney further down Earlham Road. It is an extra-mural (outside the city walls) church built of flint rubble dating from the 12th Century with later additions of stone and red brick and a square tower topped by a crenellated brick parapet.
The church was the parish church one of the many John Gurneys (1749-1809) and his family in the late 18th century when they lived in Earlham Hall across the road. The Gurneys were a prominent family of bankers and included the social reformer Elizabeth Fry who also lived in Earlham Hall during her childhood. While St. Mary’s was their local parish church they did not attend services there as the family were Quakers but they did contribute to it’s upkeep and made numerous donations to the church. These include the current alter which was presented to the church by another John Gurney (1809-1856) in 1843.
The church was also the parish church of Elizabeth and Waller Bacon (wife and son of the philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon) who was 1st MP for Norwich for 3 non-consecutive terms in the early 18th century. Waller also lived in Earlham Hall and brought the Bacon family monument to St. Mary’s from the church of St Giles' in the Fields, Middlesex when that church was demolished in 1731.
There is off-road parking available in front of the church on Earlham Road.
The cache is placed in the park across the road which offers views of the church. With the river running along the bottom of the park this makes a nice (and popular) location for picnics in the summer so please look out for watching muggles and bring your own pen.
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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.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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