The Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey, was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1083 by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire. It started life as a small, wooden, Saxon, chapel of St. Peter. The Abbey became the centre of Norman and Medieval power in the region. The Monks who formed the community here followed the rule of St. Benedict for 457 years and it became the centre for the daily round of prayer, study and manual work. In 1138, Prior Robert Pennant returned from Wales having acquired the bones of St. Gwenfrewi, known as St Winifred to the English. The relics were enshrined and made Shrewsbury Abbey a major centre of pilgrimage.
As is common with all English Abbeys and Priories, the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII saw monastic life come to an end. During the dissolution in 1540, the Abbey lost its domestic buildings and much of the church, leaving just a shortened nave to serve the parish.
In 1836, Thomas Telford built his A5 road through the remaining part of the Abbey and now only part of the original abbey church is still in existence. The old refectory pulpit is still visible across the road from the church and a single wall of an Abbey building, now an integral part of another building, which you can see if you drive around the gyratory system next to the church.
Today Shrewsbury Abbey stands on a large, harp-shaped green, planted with trees and laid out with gravestones. The Noble west tower, with its large decorated, stained glass window, was built in the 14th Century in the reign of Edward III, whose statue can be seen above the window. Inside, the Abbey retains four of the massive drum-shaped columns from the original Norman church, and fragments of the shrine of St Winefride, the 7th Century Welsh martyr. The First World War memorial below the tower includes the name of Lieutenant W.E.S. Owen, MC – the war poet Wilfred Owen who lived in Shrewsbury and was killed in action in 1918.
The Abbey is now famous for its links with the novelist Ellis Peters and her Cadfael books. The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, who was a medieval monk and gardener-cum-sleuth, were inspired and set in medieval Shrewsbury. Despite Ellis Peters' (whose real name was Edith Pargeter) death in 1995, her mystery novels are still popular and have even been adapted as a television series of dramas starring Sir Derek Jacobi, and it partly due to Ellis Peters' fictional monk Brother Cadfael that Shrewsbury Abbey attracts thousands of visitors each year, from all over the world.
You do not need to go inside the Abbey to find any of the answers. Take a look at the clock on the tower - it has unusual numbers - not true Roman numerals.
Parking
The parking co-ords below are for the Pay & Display car park next to the Abbey. You may be lucky to find one of the few free roadside parking spaces next to the Abbey itself. They are limited to 3 hours only and are patrolled regularly by the parking wardens.
The cache
You will need to find the locations of the following photos and look for the numerical answer to the question at each place. Each of these answers will give you a clue towards the final cache site - which is not on the Abbey grounds - but just a short walk away. Due to flooding at its original location, I have re-located the cache. Let's hope it will be safer here. The drawback is that there will be a few more muggles here so please be discrete in your hunt - thanks. This cache can be completed within 1 hour. You are looking for a magnetic container, which will hold geocoins and small TB’s.
Picture 1
How many drainpipes are there on this section of the Abbey wall? = A
Picture 2
Look for:- The Abbot sat in the House of Lords and parliament met in the Chapter House in 1B83”
And
The 1Cth century pulpit is situated in a small garden on the opposite side of the road
Picture 3
How many statues on this front of the Abbey? = D
Picture 4
How many steps up to this door? = E
Do not count the concrete block on the ground at the start of the steps.
Picture 5
The date here. 1F40
Picture 6
Look for this stone around the back of The Abbey. This stone was laid on St Andrews Day 1G86
Picture 7
Born at Whitchurch 20th February H797
Picture 8
"I am the enemy you killed, my friend” Line 4i of Poem. Strange Meeting. 1918
Picture 9
How many ARCHED windows? = J
You may need to look further afield for this one.
Now that you have all the answers the final cache can be found at:-
N52° ( F - B ) ( H + H ). ( A - C) ( B + H ) ( J - D )
W002° ( G - E ) ( C + i ). ( F - H ) ( D - D ) ( C - E )
To take the correct route to GZ, follow the footpath which goes behind the supermarket in the car park where you found the answer to Question 9 .