The town of Melbourne in South Derbyshire has many churches of historical interest, and these Church Micros will introduce you to a few of them. Melbourne itself has some interesting historical links; Thomas Cook who is considered the founder of modern tourism was born in the town in 1808 (see the Baptist Church Micro) and in case you're wondering where the major city of Melbourne, VIC, Australia got its name from, it was so named in 1837 for Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of Queen Victoria.
This cache was placed to co-incide with the 150th Anniversary of the Methodist Church building on Church Street. To many this building is still known as the "New" Methodist Church as it opened on 30 May 1870 to replace the so-called "Old Chapel" which was built in 1826 at a cost of £600. That building can still be seen next door and is now the Melbourne Antiques Centre. However the history of Methodism in Melbourne goes back much further, with a visit by John Wesley taking place in 1741 and a modest building being erected around 1800.
Back to the "New" Methodist Church, a major refurbishment took place in 1926 and again in 1970 with the ceiling being lowered and many historical fixtures such as the organ, choir stalls, preaching rostrum and pews being removed. Further developments over the years included the acquisition of the "Athenaeum" on Potter Street, which now serves as the church's Wesley Hall, and the construction of an Annex to the main building which opened in 2019. There are some oddities visible on the buildings, such as the base of the since-removed tower at the front of the church, and the blank clock face on the Athenaeum.
Now to the cache, due to the proximity of other caches in the area it's a simple multi cache based on collecting some information about the church and its buildings.
- Standing at the front of the church there is a noticeboard. What is the first digit of the service time = A?
- Still looking at this noticeboard, what is the ninth digit of the telephone number shown = B?
- Now walk along the short distance to the old chapel. How many letters in the second word of the property name (to the right of the door) = C?
- How many letters in the name to the left of the door (look up, there is an arrow underneath it) = D?
- Now walk round to the Athenaeum (Wesley Hall) on Potter Street, on the blue plaque it states that the hall was "Repaired with (two words)". E = How many letters in total in those two words?
The final is now a short distance away at N 52° 49.CDE' W 001° 25.EAB'. Please exercise extreme stealth as the location is overlooked; rehide where found and ideally cover with some of the natural camo that is on hand.
The checksum of digits A through E is 22.
Bonus information on the host object at the final location there is a stencilled number. Presumably it's written in decimal (base 10) but supposing it was written in binary (base 2) what would the decimal equivalent be? This is bonus digit B.
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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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