The Church
The Parish Church of St Mary, Copythorne was built in 1834 following an increase in the population of the Parish of Eling. A chancel was added in 1892 and in 1905 the organ was built and installed by Brindley and Foster at a cost of £440. After the First World War a clock was supplied and installed by Mr Alfred Peglar of Southampton and the church has remained largely unchanged since then. The clock was manufactured by Thwaites and Reed (who maintained the clock of Big Ben until 2002) and was one of the last hand wound tower clocks they made. On 10th June 1987 the church became a Grade II listed building with the following listing:
“Parish church. 1834 by T Benham and 1891 by Butterfield. Walls of red brickwork in English bond with stone dressings, stepped buttresses (diagonal at corners),tall bands, window heads, eave fascia. Slate roofs. Nave of three bays with very narrow aisles, western tower incorporating the entrance lobby and west door, with taller chancel added at the second date. Coupled lancets, the eastern bay (original east end) having triple lancets beneath two lancets beneath two quatrefoils, two lancets to each wall of the chancel, one east end with higher quatrefoil window. Tower of three stages, with pointed and chamfered arches within hoodmoulds, a crenellated parapet and plain (cemented) corner pinnacles. Plain interior with slender columns, the arcading being opening timber framing, repeated at a higher level across the chancel. The lower chancel walls are panelled. The pulpit and lectern are on the line of the first step, half way related to the original layout. There is an octagonal font of C15 style. A western gallery is supported on slender columns. A Royal Coat of Arms (1834?) hangs on the north wall.”
The Cache
Please Note: 14/01/2018 The cache location has moved slightly, so if you have previously gathered the information but not yet found the cache then you will need to re-calculate the coordinates. None of the information has changed, only the final coordinates.
In order to find the cache you will need to find the answers to the following questions:
Starting at the given coordinates you should be able to see a bench in memory of Paula and Robbie. Paula was born 19AB and died 19CD, Robbie was born 19EF and died 20GH.
Turn around and go to the church door.
The total number of hinges on the doors = J
The number of keyholes in the church door = K
The number of clocks on the church tower = L
Walk around the church and count the total number of drain pipes = M
The cache can be found at:
N 50 (A+B)(K+L) . (H-K)(C-E)(F-J) W 001 (B+G)(L+E) . (J-A)(D-F)(M+G)
Checksum of all digits = 52
NOTE:
Please leave the rubber stamp and ink pad in the cache for other finders to use when they visit. If you have your own Letterboxing stamp then please feel free to use it in the log book.
Please be subtle when finding the cache and re-hide carefully to prevent accidental discovery. Thank you.
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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.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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Logging Etiquette: Geocache hiders sometimes go through a great deal of planning to place their caches. As a result, they'd like to hear your feedback on whether you liked or disliked any aspect of the hide, the journey or location, or if you feel that some cache maintenance is required. Single word, acronym, or "copy and paste" logs may be easier when you have a lot of caches to log, but it doesn't tell the hider or other finders anything about your adventure (or lack thereof) in finding the cache. Please keep this in mind when entering your log.
