Church Micro 2568...Bedford-Italian Pentecostal
This cache has been placed to bring you to the Emmanuel Pentecostal Italian Church, Bedford. The cache and cache location and hint have changed (Nov 2015). The cache is a magnetic 5ml tube. It only contains a log - you are a geocacher, you should have a writing implement! Please note that the final cache is NOT located on the church premises.
This church is arguably here as a result of the post World War 2 reconstruction, when economic necessities in Britain and Italy triggered migration from impoverished villages in southern Italy - known as the "Mezzogiorno" - to England.
The post-war building boom in Britain created a shortage of labour in the Bedford brickworks industry, which Englishmen were reluctant to fill. To overcome this, the brick companies began to look overseas for workers, and found the Italians more than willing. 'Paid passage' schemes offered by the brick companies were attractive to those unable to afford the costs of emigration.
In 1951, the Marston Valley Brick Company established an office in Naples, sending two employees to recruit 250 men, and this was the start of the recruitment of over 7,500 Italians during the 1950's and 1960's. At first it was mainly single men who travelled to Bedford, under the brickworks’ bulk recruitment schemes. Many chose to stay and the number of Italians was swollen by families making the journey to join them.
The Italian Community remains an essential part of Bedford life.
To find the location of the final cache, you will need to calculate a simple offset, using a number on the church door (A).
The final cache can be found at N 52° 08.1(A-2)(A+5) W 000° 28.(A+3)(A-A)(A-1)
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.
To view the church micro stats page, please click here