Bournemouth Bicentenary - Oldest Church Multi-Cache
Long Man: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it.
If you wish to email me please send your email via my profile (click on my name) and quote the cache name and number.
Andy
Long Man
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Bournemouth Bicentenary - Oldest Church
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is one of a series of caches celebrating the Bournemouth Bicentenary 2010 - 200 years since Bournemouth was placed on the map and the first house was built.
Feel free to add to the series ensuring that the cache is hidden somewhere which has relevant local Bournemouth history.
This multi takes you from St Andrew's Church round Millhams Mead Nature Reserve. Despite the google map, you cannot get to the reserve by car through the Millhams Tip anymore. You need to approach it through Kinson and Pelhams Park.
Not recommended after dark. Above co-ords are for the first clue.
This cache takes you to St Andrews Church, Kinson - possibly the oldest church in Bournemouth. Kinson Parish, within the Manor of Canford Magna, is centred on the site of a Saxon church. The parish boundaries extend far beyond Kinson Village, taking in various hamlets, Cudnell (or Bear Cross), High Howe, West Howe, Howe, East Howe, and Ensbury. These hamlets gave rise to the names of several 20th century housing estates, although the origins of their names is debatable. The 'howe' form appears to be an old English word for a mound. This could either be a topographical feature, as the gravel terraces along the south of the River Stour have been carved into rounded promentaries by small rills and streams; but 'howe' could also refer to the various burial mounds which covered the slopes.
The area was historically used by the smuggler Isaac Gulliver whose men would carry the contraband up from The Chines in Poole Bay and take it across Cranborne Chase to be distributed to patrons all over Southern England. Gulliver had several properties in the area; however, all of the contraband were stored in the tower of St Andrew's Church (the marks of the ropes used to haul it up can still be seen in the soft sandstone walls of the tower) and in several stone graves in the churchyard which were constructed for this purpose and never saw a coffin. A tunnel was also reputed to exist to allow smugglers to escape to the local river under cover (this has never been proved, however).
Also in the churchyard is the grave of one Robert Trotman, who was killed when trying to land contraband on the shore near Poole. Smugglers at the time were regarded by some as folk heroes, as they circumvented high government taxes on goods such as alcohol, tobacco, etc. The presence of this grave openly in the churchyard, with its rhyming elegy to the deceased, is an interesting comment on the social status at the time of people who were technically criminals.
Near this church is a bridge over Millham's Splash, a small offshoot of the River Stour. In the early years of the twentieth century this was a ford, and while travelling by carriage from Canford House to Highcliffe Castle the future Kaiser of Germany became bogged in the water and had to be rescued by the locals. They had cause to regret this act before very long with the outbreak of World War I.
Some descendants of Isaac Gulliver remained in Kinson and brought it a further notable connection. Isaac's grandson Isaac Fryer lived at Kinson House, which passed to his daughter Ada Russell. Ada's sister-in-law Isabella Russell was the grandmother of Agnes Sybil Thorndike, the actress, who spent several childhood holidays at Kinson. In the hamlet of Ensbury the Rev. John Hiley Austen lived in the ancient Ensbury Manor. He was an antiquarian, collector of fossils, and the author of 'A Guide to the Geology of the Isle of Purbeck and the South-West Coast of Hampshire'. Some of these people's graves can be found in the churchyard.
The cache is a 1 litre camouflaged clip-top box - room for toy swaps, geo coins and travel bugs.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre onex oruvaq onfr bs zhygv fgrzzrq ohful (va fhzzre)/ gjvttl (va jvagre) gerr gb fvqr bs genpx
Treasures
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