The abbey became the final burial place of the famed beauty Rosamund Clifford (died circa 1176), a long-term mistress of Henry II. Henry's liaison with Rosamund became public knowledge in 1174; it ended when she retired to the nunnery at Godstow in 1176, shortly before her death. The Abbey precincts were entered from the Wolvercote-Wytham road, which ran through the outer court. Here there was a two-storey main gatehouse which had one large gate for carts and a second smaller one beside it for foot traffic. The abbey was suppressed in 1539 under the Second Act of Dissolution. Then abbey was converted into Godstow House by George Owen. It was occupied by his family until 1645, when the building was badly damaged in the Civil War. After this damage, the building fell into disrepair and was used by the locals as a source of stone for their buildings. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the ruined abbey was used for collecting livestock during the annual rounding up of animals on Port Meadow. In Victorian times, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) brought Alice Liddell (aka Alice in Wonderland) and her sisters, Edith and Lorina, for river trips and picnics at Godstow. Also alongside the Thames at Lower Wolvercote and Godstow is a very well-known public house, close to Godstow Bridge. The bridge, in two spans, was built in 1792, the southern span being rebuilt in 1892.
To find the cache you will need to answer the following questions, then using these answers you need to work out what A, B, C & D are.
Work out the simple calcultaion to give you the result of GZ At the listed coordinates:
Q1= How many wooden beams are used above the doorway?
A=___The second letter of the number
B=___Third letter
At reference point 1:
Q2= What is the name of the rare plant used by the nuns and found in the area (Latin)?
C=___Third letter
D=___Fourth letter
Transpose the letters to numbers in the time honoured fashion of A = 1 to Z = 6 where all leading digits in two digit numbers are omitted so Z= 26 but is taken as 6.
N51 46.(C-2)(D-2)(B+1) W001 1(C-1).(A-2)(B-4)(B-1)
PLEASE NOTE: The cache is not hidden within the abbey's structure and to answer the questions you will not need to climb any part of the ruins or pull out any rocks in the wall to find the cache.
Updated 12th August 2025 to add checker:
geochecker