St John's Beck Row is a late Victorian church building that was the daughter church of St. Mary’s Mildenhall. Marriages were only performed in the church from 1957 onwards. During the war years the church had strong links with the RAF station. These diminished with the turnover of the station to the USAF but links have never totally ceased and Americans are often a welcome part of the congregation. There is a small war graves cemetery behind the church and a good sized hall within the grounds.
St. John’s has strong congregational participation in a wide range of activities and a willingness to try new things and new forms of worship. Their church family is friendly and welcoming to newcomers. The church seeks to care for the people of the village.
There is one 1914-18 war grave and 76 war graves of the 1939-45 war, all except one having served with the air forces of the Commonwealth. All the airmen are buried in a war graves plot set aside for casualties from the nearby airfield at Mildenhall during the Second World War. Five of the airmen are unidentified.
“If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”
To find the final cache co-ordinates you will need to visit the war graves section of the graveyard ( at the back of the church ) and read some of the gravestones.
Out of respect to these brave soles who gave their lives, all the numbers you need can be obtained from the first row of stones, so there is no need to grave stomp.
The starting co-ordinates will get you to parking by a lovely lychgate which forms the entrance to this lovely church.
In addition, you will need to get one number from a bright white grave stone found as soon as you go through the lychgate, I couldn’t resist using this one as the names are so unusual.
I hope you enjoy this lovely church and this cache.
While you are here you can recycle your glass, paper and clothes in the car park, and take advantage of the Aspal Close nature reserve and have your lunch at the picnic tables in this lovely area.
Here is your challenge.
1) Sergeant J L Mathias Air Gunner died aged AB
2) Sergeant J A De Angelis Flight Engineer air force number 1880ECD
3) Flight Lieutenant H A W Williams Navigator died aged FG
4) Sergeant A B Pilbeam Flight Engineer air force number 16HI064
5) Hiram Wilson’s wife’s name has J letters in it. ( remember this is near the lychgate )
FINAL COORDINATES N 52 AB.CDE E 000 FG.HIJ
N 52 _ _._ _ _ E 000 _ _ ._ _ _
There is a lovely bench you can rest on while you input your final co-ords, then after paying your respects to these brave souls, it’s off for a short walk to find the cache.
Cache is a small cammo box with log book and room for small swaps, BYOP
Happy hunting.