St John the Baptist, Okewood
St John the Baptist at Okewood is reputed to be the most isolated church in Surrey, although local building works are gradually encroaching to threaten this claim. The building dates back to 1220 and is thought to be the former site of a Roman villa and before that a Druid temple. The church has been much restored in the 15th and 18th centuries, with the entire North wall eventually having to be replaced in 1879, allowing the church to be extended.
For those who like mysteries, the plate inside the porch appears to be dated at the top, but the text (from Leviticus) is from a version of the Bible which was published over two hundred years after the apparent date. Any ideas?!
The church is accessible via several footpaths which bring you up the hill to the church, including ones that could be used to start and end at either the Scarlett Arms or the Punchbowl Inn, both well regarded in this area. There is also road access for those wishing to take a more cache-and-dash approach.
If you (like us) are interested in old churches, as epitomised by this series, then do please take the time for a short visit inside - it's well worth it! There is a laminated fact sheet available with an expanded version of the shamelessly plagiarised text above.
Also note that there is really good hiding spot just behind the church door, but I decided not to use this as cachers interrupting Sunday prayers may not have gone down well!
To work out the coordinates of the cache, look for the large tomb in front of the porch (coordinates above and it can be seen on the left edge of the photograph).
On the side facing the church you will see that Caroline Mary Hadley died on DEth Nov in the year 1ABC.
The cache can be found at N51 07.A(C-A)C, W0 23.2(C-2)(A-1). Alternatively, since C is becoming hard to read, you get the same coords with N51 07.(D+E)D(E+D+D), W0 23.2EE.
Head initially SE from the porch, then follow your GPS arrow. The hint is pretty specific to account for variable GPS coverage.
This micro cache has a log book and pencil, and three hand made micro churches for early finders.
People are welcome to expand this series, but please could you let Sadexploration (the originator of the series) know
so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. Thanks!