The church was open when we visited, perhaps because the organist was practising inside. It is clearly a lively and active church with lots going on as we could see from the noticeboards and their parish website.
The stained glass is particularly fine and looks magnificent on a sunny day.
The website also has a history of the church, of which this is an extract:
St Mary’s Church, Alderbury dates from 1858, but from the time of the Norman Conquest, Alderbury church has been mentioned often enough to suggest that there has been a church at Alderbury continuously since that time. A little is known about the church that was there before the present one but nothing about earlier churches. It has been suggested, however, that the Saxon church must have been of an appreciable size as Alderbury was the mother church of an extensive forest parish with a number of dependent chapels. The previous mediaeval church, demolished in 1857, was a plain roughcast building with perpendicular windows in the chancel, and a post-Restoration south porch. The building is described as having had a nave, possibly mediaeval, 45 feet by 20 feet three inches, and a chancel 26 feet by fifteen and a half feet. There was also a belfry at the west end with a wooden turret. Outside the building stood the old yew tree. In 1856 a faculty petition for the rebuilding of the church, to increase seating from 247 to 436, was approved. The specification, by SS Teulon, the architect, indicates that the new church was to be built on the existing foundations, extended as necessary. Stone and timber, if suitable, were to be re-used. Some nearby tombstones would need to be removed and remains re-interred. The estimated cost of the new building was £2,500. Viscount Folkestone provided £500, there were grants from the Incorporated and Diocesan Church. The sum of £1,640, raised by private subscription, included a donation by Mr Fort of Alderbury House and £500 donated by Sir Frederick Hervey Bathurst in consideration of which 50 seats were set apart for the use of the people of Clarendon. The vicar, the Rev. Newton Smart, undertook to provide the balance of the sum required. The church was completed in 1858 and consecrated by Bishop Kerr, the Bishop of Salisbury on 24 June.
To find the cache, go to the published coordinates and look around.
Look at the spire; it has “A” sides.
Then look for two of Mags’ namesakes.
Iona Margaret Hammett was born in BCDE (although at first, doing the maths, you might think her birth year was BCDE+1 - but she died in January!) and another Margaret, with her twin sister, was born on the FG of H in BCBJ
The cache is at N HB GF.(J-E)(D-E)A
W GGB (B+D)(H-B).(E+F)(D+E)B
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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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