Rogerstone St. John the Baptist -Church Micro 1217 Multi-cache

This is our sixth cache in Rogerstone and, like the others, it follows a simple theme – places in Rogerstone. The caches can be completed together to make a circular walk around Rogerstone. The reason for the name of the cache, Rogerstone Saint John the Baptist (Church Micro 1217), is explained below.

The above co-ordinates are not those of the cache. They are the co-ordinates of the entrance to the churchyard. The terrain rating reflects the narrowness, in places, of the paths and the fact that there is a need to cross grass.

The cache is a short multi that takes you to a small clip lock box in a camouflage bag located within the churchyard of Saint John the Baptist, Rogerstone. Permission for this cache had been granted by the vicar. There is no time limit associated with the permission. However, the permission can be withdrawn at any time should problems occur. It is requested that due regard is made for others in and around the churchyard (considerate car parking, etc).

When we set it up we had a good GPS signal at the cache location so the final co-ordinates should be as accurate as possible. However, should you have any problems please use the Additional Hint.

As before any comments (are our estimates of the Overall Difficulty and Terrain ratings correct?) about the cache will be greatly received.

Also, this our first attempt at using HTML. We hope that it improves the presentation of this cache description. Please forgive any oddities in the layout.

This time the cache name, Rogerstone Saint John the Baptist (Church Micro 1217), is obvious so we will give a history of the Church.

The church of Saint John the Baptist, Rogerstone, is part of the Rectorial Benefice of Bassaleg. The Benefice is situated just to the west of Newport in South East Wales. It has three Churches: Saint Basil's in Bassaleg; Saint Anne's in High Cross and Saint John the Baptist in Rogerstone. It is part of the Diocese of Monmouth in the Church in Wales, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Church.

It is interesting to note that, until 1920 and the disestablishment of the Church in Wales, the Parish of Bassaleg was in the Diocese of Llandaff and part of the Church of England. In September 1921 the Diocese of Monmouth was created by the Church in Wales, with the Right Reverend C.A.H. Green as its first bishop, and the Parish of Bassaleg became part of that Diocese, where it remains today.

The coming of Nettlefords and their Shropshire workforce was the instigation for new churches to be built in Rogerstone. Lord Tredegar gave the land for the building of a Church for the Anglicans at the top of the village.

At the west end of the church is a stone bearing the inscription:

It was laid by the second Lord Tredegar, Godfrey Morgan; later to become Viscount Tredegar. The parish owes much to the generosity of the Tredegar family, not least because of the gift of both Church and church hall in Rogerstone.

The building of the Church began in August 1887 and was completed, probably in the summer, of 1888 at a cost of £2 370. When built the Church was equipped with a baptistery, as baptism by total immersion was a feature of local life at that time.

The Bishop of Llandaff consecrated the church, with its title and dedication being in honour of Saint John the Baptist. The village of Rogerstone was provided with a fine church and the local people no longer had to walk to the parish church in Bassaleg for worship.

The church hall (used as a Sunday school and parish room) was later added close to the church and opened in 1900.

The interior of the church building has an 'open' feel. The wooden pews are the original ones and can seat around 300. The font is near the main entrance at the rear and set into the floor nearby, and normally covered, is a baptising pool used for the immersion of older children and adults during their baptisms.

The window above the altar depicts the risen Christ outside the tomb on Easter morning, speaking to Mary of Magdala, with two angels looking on. To either side of the altar, the windows show Jesus as the 'Light of the World' and 'the Good Shepherd'.

To complete this cache you need to locate two memorial stones within the churchyard and record some numbers. You can do this either by locating the memorial stones or by Internet research.

Part 1: Locate the memorial stone dedicated to Vivian Lawrence Roberts. Vivian Lawrence Roberts, who held the rank of Volunteer in the Home Guard (unit: 13th Gloucestershire (City of Bristol) Bn), died on the 25th September 1940. Record his age (two digits AB).

Part 2: Locate the memorial stone dedicated to Amy Brown. Amy Brown, a sister in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was lost at sea on the 12th February 1944. Record her age (two digits CD).

In Saint John the Baptist’s Churchyard Amy Brown is remembered on the grave of her aunt and uncle. However, as Amy Brown has no known grave her name is formally listed on the Brookwood Memorial.

The Brookwood Memorial, in Surrey, commemorates nearly 3,500 men and women of the land forces of the Commonwealth who died during the Second World War and have no known grave, the circumstances of their death being such that they could not appropriately be commemorated on any of the campaign memorials in the various theatres of war. They died in the campaign in Norway in 1940, or in the various raids on enemy occupied territory in Europe such as Dieppe and St Nazaire. Others were special agents who died as prisoners or while working with Allied underground movements. Some died at sea, in hospital ships and troop transports, in waters not associated with the major campaigns, and a few were killed in flying accidents or in aerial combat.

The cache is located at:

N 51° 35.4(5+A)(4-B) W 003° 03.5(1+C)(4+D)

As young people often loiter around on the steps in the corner behind the church you need to be careful when looking for and replacing the cache.

The numbering of the church micro series of caches is managed by ‘sadexploration’. If you would like to expand to this series please do so. But please you could let ‘sadexploration’ know (via his Profile) so he can keep track of the church numbers and names to avoid duplication.

Note, the sources of the historical information are: -

‘Images of Wales – Rogerstone’, by Kim Fry, published by Tempus and available from Rogerstone Library.

The Rectorial Benefice of Bassaleg web site http://www.bassalegbenefice.org/index.htm