The cache is placed on the public footpath alongside the Church of St Mary the Virgin. There is no requirement, other than to look around and admire the architecture, to enter the grounds. The cache could not be placed to the left or rear of the church due to the close proximity of the schools. Nor could it be placed on any church or private property without permission, which excluded most of front and right - hence the position of the cache to the rear, right- down Church Walk.
Cottingham parish church, is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, the Church is a cruciform building of stone erected between 1272 and 1370, consisting of chancel, nave with aisles, transepts and south porch. There is a high embattled central tower with eight pinnacles. The chancel windows are Perpendicular and there are others of the same style in the church. Both chancel and aisles are battlemented and the former is ornamental with ten crocketted pinnacles. The interior was renovated in 1845 and much exterior restoration was done in 1892 under the supervision of Messrs. Broderick and Lowther, Architects, of Hull. The church is remarkable for the large number of ledger stones and monuments, many of very good design and workmanship and mostly of 17th to 19th century origin, commemorating prominent families connected with the place. The majority of these are Hull merchant families who resided in or retired to Cottingham.
Nicholas de Luda (d. 1382), a capuchin friar, who built or re-built the chancel, is commemorated by a brass in the church. The church was designated a Grade I listed building in 1967.
St Mary’s Tower, built around 1400, houses a ring of 8 bells; the heaviest, on which the clock sounds the hours, weighs a ton and was cast by a member of the Harrison family of marine chronometer fame. No. 6 is the oldest, cast in 1638. The 4 smallest bells were cast in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The bells are rung English style full circle to call changes and methods.
Cottingham, in East Yorkshire, is reputedly the largest village, in population terms, in England and can trace its roots back to Anglo Saxon times. It is now mainly a feeder village for Hull, with a high proportion of retired residents. The modern village has two main shopping streets, Hallgate and King Street which cross each other: A market is held on Market Green on Thursday Cottingham is used by the University of Hull as the site of several of its accommodation campuses: The Lawns to the north-west of the village; and Thwaite Hall, and Needler's Hall, both built on the grounds of late 18th century merchant's house
Cottingham Springboard Festival takes place over three days each May, with live music in public houses from mainly local and regional acts
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