The Church
There is documentary evidence that a church has existed on this site since at least 1282. However, Roman bricks were found when the tower was underpinned in 1913, so it is probable that there were even earlier buildings on the site. Following the break with Rome under Henry VIII in 1538, the vestments, silver and gold plate and other gifts of the cathedral were sold to provide money to repair the mediaeval church. Some remains of the mediaeval building can still be seen, for example the stone blocks incorporated into the walls on each side of the organ. In the crypt, parts of the old church walls of chalk and flint are visible, and some later Tudor brickwork.
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist, Chapter 50. The fateful chapter opens "Near to that part of the Thames on which the church at Rotherhithe abuts, where the buildings on the banks are dirtiest and the vessels on the river blackest with the dust of colliers and the smoke of close-built low-roofed houses".
Turner’s HMS Temeraire
As befits a church near the merchant activity on the river, there are several maritime connections. The communion table in the Lady Chapel and two bishop's chairs are made from salvaged timber from the warship HMS Temeraire. The ship's final journey to the breaker's yard at Rotherhithe was made famous by Turner in his evocative painting. (See my nearby cache GC76QR0 - The Fighting Temeraire)
The Pilgrim Fathers and The Mayflower
In the church a memorial marks the final resting place of Christopher Jones, captain of the Mayflower, which took the Pilgrim Fathers to North America in 1620, setting sail from Rotherhithe before heading to Southampton and then Plymouth.
Nearby are some of London's Nordic churches and missions to seafarers. (See my nearby Church Micro 5846...Rotherhithe - Sjomannskirken GC55CXR.)
On to the cache. In the churchyard there is a bench -
“In Loving Memory Of Peter Edward Atkinson - AB Oct CDEF - G Aug HJKL”
You know what to do! Substitute the following to find the final co-ordinates -
N LB HF.FLA W KKK JA.EE(H+L)
The final is where it is due to the proximity of other caches in the area.
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See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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