Congratulations to JHNMINERS for FTF
The Church
The story of Nanpean Methodist Church is one of local commitment and determination against the odds.
A quinquennial inspection of the Chapel and Sunday School buildings was carried out in 1990. The report revealed that an enormous amount of work was needed to bring the premises up to standard and a decision was made in February 1991 to take down the original large chapel building , refurbish and extend the Sunday School to use as a multipurpose building. Even this scheme was felt to be too costly to undertake but eventually, after much prayer and discussion, the Church Council decided to work in stages.
In the meantime, in June 1991, a large area of the ceiling fell down and when an inspection was carried out, a second patch was dislodged and the ceiling declared unsafe. Services then had to the held in the Sunday School.
The chapel building was demolished in August 1994 though services were held for a week or two in a boarded up Sunday School. Our friends at St George’s Church very kindly invited us to hold our services in their Church, an offer accepted with gratitude.
As work on rebuilding progressed, we hit several snags. Two walls were found to be made of white brick which was not strong enough to carry the weight of the roof, so these walls had to be rebuilt. In order to check the foundations of one of these walls, part of the kitchen floor had to be dug up and it was decided to include the kitchen in the scheme. Building regulations required new beams to be reinforced with steel plates and later it was found that the wooden floor needed replacing, all adding greatly to the cost.
Fundraising began in April 1992 with an appeal to the village and people with Nanpean connections, since when a variety of events were organised, including coffee mornings, car boot sales, sponsored events and balloon races to name but a few. Donations and interest-free loans brought us to the stage where we could pay almost all of our bills but, of course, the loans had to be repaid, and fundraising continued for a time.
The church is now a well-supported place of worship and a multi-purpose general use community building.
The Cache
Parking on the roadside is normally available close to the headline coordinates. The gate into the church car park is normally open.
At the headline coordinates, you will see a plaque to the left of the door which indicates the date when this church was rebuilt.
This date is ABBC
In addition, viewable from the headline coordinates, you will also be able to see the date the church was originally built.
This date is ADEF
Checksum of A+B+C+D+E+F = 33
The cache can be found at N 50 22.(C-F)F(D-F) W 004 52.(B-E)B(F-A)
The cache is on a public permissive footpath which can be accessed back down the road about 60 metres towards Nanpean centre.
GPS accuracy under the tree cover may be tricky so please use the hint.
The cache is a small cylindrical tube approximately 3 cms in diameter and 10 cms long
Please Bring Your Own Pen (BYOP) and tweezers.
It is a popular dog walking route so please look out for muggles.
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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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