This cache has "History" - it has been a bit of a toil and subject to a few manifestations!
I was - however - determined to get a cache in place to celebrate the delightful St Mary's Church at Rudford.
Some, who had done the nearby "Rudford Trackside" (GC5W3A2) had called into the church grounds. Perhaps that cache should have been this cache? But, that's not the way the cookie crumbled!
So - here, after a few false starts is my celebration of a really lovely little church.
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St Mary's at Rudford was originally a medieval church (I understand that it was 'founded' pre-1066) and I have been fortunate enough to see fragments of this long distant past. Whilst I was wandering around the church grounds, a kind gentleman asked if I would like to see inside. I wasn't going to turn down this offer!!
Being a small outlying place of worship, it suffered from considerable neglect but was saved by a Victorian philanthropist who sits very nicely in the Three Choirs Tale!
Thomas Gambier-Parry funded the restoration of the church and fundamentally saved it.
His approach drew some criticism and was regarded as overly "modern" and ignorant of its medieval origins.
This, in the aesthetic sense may be so - but, he preserved the church and breathed new life into its decaying heart.
To the left of the main entrance - inside the church, you can still see some of the beautiful medieval tiles. However, the mainstay of the restoration is blatantly Victorian.
It has an exquisite organ which - by all accounts, was "overlooked". This, too, has been lovingly restored.
The church is delightful.
Close to it, within the grounds is the schoolroom which was built in 1873 by the landowner - William Philip Price for the church’s use.
Standing on the site of the poor house, it was given to the parish by Price in 1890 and was enlarged in 2008. Its bell is perhaps a recasting of one of the bells removed from the church in 1869.
The schoolroom has recently been respectfully restored and upgraded.
Where does this fit in to the Three Choirs Series?
Well - the trail is close by, AND Hubert Parry - a friend of Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams was Thomas Gambier Parry's son!
(Just to remind you - Hubert Parry wrote/composed "Jerusalem")
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Now to find the cache.
Note the FIVE Christian names on the back of the seat - they are in order - left to right A, B, C, D, and E.
Count the number of letters in each name. You want numbers!
The cache is at: -
N51 53.UVW
W002 19.XYZ
U = A
V = C multiplied by 2, then minus 2
W = B minus 7
X = E
Y = D minus 5
Z = A + B + C + D + E all (total number), divided by fourteen
The sum total of all the INDIVIDUAL numbers of the final coordinates should total 46.
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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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