Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Newcastle upon Tyne
Cathedral with Cardinal Hume statue in foreground
The Cathedral Church of St Mary is a Catholic cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the mother church of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and seat of the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. The Cathedral, situated on Clayton Street, was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and built between 1842 and 1844. The cathedral is a grade I listed building and a fine example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture championed by Pugin. There is a monument dedicated to Cardinal Basil Hume, who was born in Newcastle, in the Monument Garden outside of the cathedral, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth I1 in 2002. St Mary's Cathedral is the fifth tallest structure in the city.
By decree of Pope Pius IX on 29 September 1850, the Catholic hierarchy was restored on a regular pattern to England and Wales. Much of what had been known as the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern District became the new See of Hexham.
Bishop William Hogarth was appointed to be the first bishop of the new diocese, and as such, required a church in which to place his seat or cathedra. St Mary's was chosen for this purpose and thus it gained the status of a cathedral church in 1850, becoming the first cathedral in Newcastle, as the Anglican St. Nicholas' Cathedral didn't become a cathedral until 1882.
Because of the proximity of the cathedral to other caches in the city centre, it has been necessary to make this a multi cache. Go to the published coordinates and gather the information needed to work out the northings, and then move to the back of the cathedral via Bewick Street to the second stage waypoint to get the information for the westings. Please note that the coordinates may be a bit unreliable because of the tall buildings around - we used four devices and took an average and people are still struggling with them.
The cache can be located at N54 57.ABC and W001 37.DEF
A = Number of posts in the black fence separating the cathedral from the road plus 1
B = Number of steps up to the arched front door multiplied by 2
C = Number of iron crosses above the arched front door multiplied by 4
D = Number of times the word "God" is mentioned on the plaque at the back of the cathedral
E = Number of lines of text on the plaque at the back of the cathedral
F = Number of letters in the fifth word on the second line
Checksum = 40
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