St Mary the Virgin Church (better known as the Abbey Church) was built in a plain early English style from local limestone sourced from Scarlett Point south of Castletown.
The land upon which it stands was gifted from the ancient Abbey of Rushen in 1853 but due to the lack of funds the foundation stone was only laid in 1895 by Lady Ridgeway, the wife of the then Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, Sir Joseph West Ridgeway.
The church was consecrated in 1896 and remains in regular use today, with its own substantial church hall within its grounds.
There is also a superb church organ which is unusual in the fact that it was made by the Aeolian Organ Company most probably at their factory in Garwood, New Jersey. In their earlier years Aeolian did not make church organs; they even advertised this fact and only made organs for the homes of the wealthy and ballrooms.
The church is Church of England in the Diocese of Sodor and Man.
The cache
Go to the church at the above co-ordinates and solve the following for the final cache location.
- How many windows on the round tower = A
- How many stone crosses on the church roof = B
- How many round windows can be seen on the outside of the church = C
- There is a plaque remembering Billy at the front of the church by the Rowan Tree (Mountain Ash), the year mentioned on the plaque = DEFG
The final co-ordinates are at :
N 54 0A.GD(A+B)
W 004 3(A+D).(A+B)(4xC)(A-B)
Please bring your own pen.
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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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