For those not in the know The Church Mirco Series is intended to be as big a cache size as you can muster, Steve (sadexploration) explains.
Click here page 4.
The series is called ‘Church Micro’ I encourage cachers to hide as large a cache as it's possible to. It’s just that Church 2.5 Lt clip box’ didn’t quite roll off the tongue as well.
N 51 17.172 W 002 29.035 is the church location
So onto the church description.
The Catholic Church in Midsomer Norton was originally a barn, built by Augustinian monks around 1400. It was purchased, in a derelict condition, by Downside Abbey in 1910. So it returned to monastic ownership after 500 years or so, and was converted for use as a church in 1913. The parish, surprisingly, includes another converted barn, St Hugh's Church, in Radstock. The area of the parish was formerly dominated by mining; and the Mendip Hills now are a very popular region of great natural beauty. The parish is part of the Catholic Diocese of Clifton, and is under the care of the Benedictine monks at Downside. We warmly welcome all visitors, in Christ our Lord.
The building was formerly a tithe barn built and owned by the Augustinian Canons Merton Priory, Surrey. It is the second-oldest oldest existing building in Midsomer Norton (after the old priory itself, with Pevsner assigning it to the 15th century.
Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, the barn was handed over to the King along with all of the Priory's property, and subsequently became part of the patrimony of Christ Church, Oxford. By 1886 it was no longer needed for the storing of tithes in kind and was sold to a private owner in auction.
Conversion to church use
In 1906 the building was purchased by Downside Abbey for use as a church. Since its auction in 1886 the barn had been used as a kennels, a stable and even a chicken house and was by now in a very poor state. Abbot Edmund Ford engaged the services of the architect Giles Gilbert Scott to plan restoration and conversion of the building. In addition to restoring the splendid timber roof and timbers, Scott made several structural changes to the building, including new doorways and a new gothic style window in the south wall, the tracery for which was copied from that of a room above the porch.
The barn was blessed as a church on the 17 May 1913.
Church furnishings
The tabernacle of the church is elaborately carved in wood and richly gilded. It dates from 1794, and previously stood on the High Altar of the Chapel of the Bavarian Embassy, Golden Square, London. The Stations of the Cross are Flemish and are early examples of the painted depiction of the stations, dating from the end of the 18th century.
Other church furnishings, including the Jacobean panelling behind the High Altar (now carrying the words "Deus Caritas Est", or God is Love), were taken from the buildings of Downside Abbey and School. The pulpit used to be the Prefect's desk in the school's study room.
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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 at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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