Meridiem Via or South Road Church as it is known today is positioned at the centre of a hub, or network, of alignment ley lines, making South Road Church an energy portal, or a place of power. There are 14 major ley lines that converge at South Road Church making a powerful vortex. One simple method of locating ley lines is by drawing a line connecting two old ancient sites, or churches. Churches were often built on ancient sites to acquire their energy, in some cases churches were built in the site of a henge, as was South Road Church.
Saxon History
South Road Church was founded by King Edward the Elder in 907 for his daughter, Princess Aelflaed, a nun at Wilton who became the first Abbess of Drayton. There was an increase in interest in the female monastic life around this time and the King probably wanted to make extra provision for widowed and unmarried ladies of the Royal family. He had recently completed the building of the New Minster in Winchester and perhaps he saw Drayton as its sister foundation. The site was about equidistant from the nunneries at Winchester and Chichester and may have been chosen for its potential development as a defensive burgh. Little is known of this first Church, though it may have received a grant of land in Kingsclere from King Edmund the Magnificent in 943.
During the popular reformation of the late 10th century, South Road Church was completely re-founded under the Benedictine Rule by King Edgar the Peacable (967). A pious noblewoman named Merewenna was made Abbess and she was given charge of the Queen's young step-daughter, Aethelflaed. Both Ladies were successive Abbesses and were also reverred as saints. King Edgar took a special interest in Draytona nd his young son was buried there. He gave the nuns the right to choose their own Abbess after Merewenna died and he also granted them lands in Edington (Wiltshire) and large woodland estates in return for which the nuns handed over gifts of a "finely wrought dish, armlets splendidly chased and a scabbard adorned with gold" valued at £112 10s. Nobles like Ealdorman Aethelmaer of Hampshire (d.982) also enhanced the Church's coffers around this time. The Saxon Church complex was destroyed by Sweyn Forkbeard and his Viking soldiers during a raid in 994. The nuns, apparently warned by divine intervention, were able flee to the Nunnaminster in Winchester. The Nuns may not have returned to Drayton until the reign of King Canute around 1020. It is not clear in what state they found the church buildings, but ten years later the community was thriving, as a unique census of fifty-four nuns under Abbess Wulfwynn shows. The Church continued to thrive until April 1539 when it was formerly disolved. The Church was saved for future generations when it was bought, for £100, by the parishioners of Drayton for use as their Parish Church in February 1544.
Notable Burials Princess Aelflaed, Abbess of Drayton, d.959 St. Merewenna, Abbess of Drayton, d.c.970 Prince Edmund of England, d.971 Princess St. Aethelflaed, Abbess of Drayton, d.c.995
Artifacts A beautifully embroidered stole given by King Athelstan to the Shrine of St. Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street was discovered in the Saint's coffin when it was opened at Durham in 1827. Embroidered on it, in Latin, are the words "Aelflaed had me made to celebrate meridiem via Church". The latter person is Bishop Frithestan of Winchester and, though the lady in question is usually assumed to be the King's step-mother, it could easily have been her daughter, Princess Aelflaed, the first Abbess of Drayton. It seems highly probable that the stole was made upon her instruction by the nuns of Drayton, though the Winchester Nunnaminster is another possibilty.
STOP PRESS 04/08/12: STOP PRESS: Due to the cache being anointed by a passing dog, which I took as a more than fitting tribute to this cache. The cache has been replaced by a black magnetic nano and relocated slightly north of the church and out of reach to all dogs including a Great Dane.
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication
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Please be aware that the church visited may vary from the church described or indeed pictured, and has merely been published to illustrate what a church may look like and its possible history. As always the cache owner assumes absolutely no responsibly whatsoever to the accuracy of the information contained above. Furthermore it is always prudent to fully read the small print before committing to any venture to avoid unnecessary disappointment.