About Christ Church
Southborough is a civil parish with the title of town in the Tunbridge Wells district of Kent. It expanded greatly during the Victorian era, with the building of 4 new churches between 1830 and 1886. One of these churches was Christ Church.
Christ Church is an evangelical Anglican church within the parish of St Peter's, part of the Diocese of Rochester. Building started in 1870 by T.K. Green of the Archer Green Firm. It was built as a chapel-of-ease to cater for the expanding population. Construction wasn't complete until 1889. It was known initially as the maids’ church because most of those who attended were poor – the gentry going to St Peter’s on Southborough Common or to St Thomas’s. The building consisted of sandstone walls and a tiled roof. It had a flèche (small lead covered timber spire) and a similar looking spire acting as a bell tower. The original building cost £2,400.
Christ Church became a grade II listed building in December 1986. The listing information gives details about the structure of the church: "Slate roof with varying slopes and eaves heights. Central flèche. Cross-shaped church with corner buttresses, and lower chancel. Porch with buttresses and small bell-tower on east side of south transept. Also porch at west end of north side of nave. 1 bay chancel, 2-bay nave, both with triple windows. Very wide and high chancel, almost as large as nave. Interior: Cast iron nave columns. Boarded roofs with arched braces and scissor trusses. Exposed brickwork now whitewashed, capitals of columns gilded."
Today the church has a capacity of up to 240 people, chairs have replaced traditional pews.
The Cache
In order to find this geocache, you need to answer the following questions about Christ Church. It is not necessary to enter the church grounds, but you will have to walk down the joining side road and look carefully.
A: How many flèches are there?
B: How many bells?
C: Main door, high up, how many petals on the window?
D: Time of the morning communion?
E: How many yards of humps?
F: From the side gate, you will see a pair of windows. How many vertical panes in total?
G: Total number of red doors (a double door =2) (look very carefully!)? +1
(15th Sept 2016 note: construction work has covered over one red door at the very back of the church, so please add one to the number of red doors you can actually see)
N 51 (G-F-A)(D-A+B).(E-C-B)
E 000 (D+C+B). E+(F*D)+(D-B)
To confirm you have the correct answers: A+B+C+D+E+F+G = 331
The final cache is a short distance away. Log book only. Please bring your own pen.
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If anybody would like to expand 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”