The Church
Stenalees is a rather unusual village in that it does not have an obvious centre. It originated as a set of agricultural, mining and, later, clay workers cottages. It is essentially concentrated down both sides of the Bodmin to St Austell turnpike that was built in 1836.
It is surrounded on all sides by the residue of long-closed china clay pits and tips although a number of the pits are maintained for the purpose of water storage where recycled water is pumped to and fro into the still active clay pits.
Evidence of ancient occupation can be identified by the nearby Scheduled Monument of Hensbarrow Beacon and by the mention of the nearby Treverbyn Manor in the Doomsday Book.
The original Methodist Church was built in the mid-1800's but was rebuilt in the years just before the Great War. This large church was in turn demolished in 1975 and some of the land made available for a small housing complex in Wesley Close where the smaller, modern church can still be found.
The Cache
Parking is best found on the roadside of the main road going down through Stenalees to Bugle but it is a busy road so please take care with Geokids and Geohounds. This is also a convenient starting point for the short walk to the cache location.
The headline coordinates take you to a terraced wall, adjacent to the church, faced in the stone taken from the earlier church in which there are embedded a number of commemorative plaques and two War Memorials.
You need to locate the plaque commemorating John Bassett who passed to his reward on:
September A th BCDE
The cache can be found at N 50 DD.A(C-D)A W 004 (D+D)(A-B).(C-D)(B+D)(A-B)
The cache is a small click lock box hidden on a public footpath which starts as Telephone Lane on the opposite side of the main road and about 150 metres up the hill from Wesley Close. Please take care when crossing the main road.
On the walk to the GZ you will, on a good day, be able to see panoramic views across central Cornwall all the way to the western edge of Bodmin Moor.
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CACHE AT NIGHT
Please Bring Your Own Pen (BYOP) and make sure that the cache is covered after signing the log.
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DRIVE UP TELEPHONE LANE
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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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