Church Micro 3344 ... Stoke Dry, St Andrew Multi-cache
Church Micro 3344 ... Stoke Dry, St Andrew
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The above coordinates are for a place where you will find a number of the answers that you are seeking. To find the cache you will need to allow some time to explore the churchyard area looking for more answers to reveal its coordinates.
St Andrew’s Church is in the small village of Stoke Dry, on the hill above the Eyebrook Reservoir with spectacular views from the churchyard over the reservoir.
If needed there is more space for parking at the Stoke Dry car park by the Eyebrook Reservoir. It is a short walk from here up the hill to the church.
The cache is placed within the churchyard grounds with kind permission from the vicar and church wardens.
We would encourage you to explore the church itself as part of your time here and hope that your visit will encourage the people of this small parish who have to maintain this historic building.
The church is very old and full of historical interest, going back to 10th, 13th and 14th centuries. The village was at one time owned by the Digby family. Sir Everard Digby was connected to the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and met a brave but terrible end as a consequence of his sentence of high treason. (It is interesting to explore his story on the internet). There is a small room above the church porch, where it could be imagined that secret meetings concerning the plot were held - but it is unlikely to have been the case. However it is worth climbing the stairs to have a look at this old room, allowing your imagination to time travel!
There are also some amazing 13th Century wall paintings in the church, which seem to portray Red Indians – painted at a time when North America was yet unknown to Europe. The picture shows the Martyrdom of St. Edmund which happened in C 896, who was King of East Anglia. He was killed by the Vikings, being tied to a tree and shot with many arrows. It is believed that a possible reason for these ‘Indian’ headdresses could be that Viking settlers told of encounters of such peoples from their own voyages and that these images found their way into art, at that time, as a way to portray heathens. (Could this mean that the Vikings were ahead of Christopher Columbus discovering the American continents?)
To find the exact location of the cache you will need to solve the puzzle. All the answers can be found in or near the churchyard. Some may be easier to spot than others, but all the answers to the puzzle are clearly readable on a variety of graves or plaques. Please take care to respect any graves that you explore.
The cache can be found at:
N 52° ( A+B ) . ( C+D+E+F+G )
W 000° ( G+H ) . (I – J ) + Sum of K
A = Age of Sir Everard Digby when he died
B = Number of letters in the last word on stone in memory of Andrew Lammie
C = Lancaster bomber squadron which used the reservoir
D = Length of time Willi Tamosius was a resident of Stoke Dry
E = Age of Violet Glenn Norris when she died
F = Number of houses in Stoke Dry
G = Number of Stoke Dry men serving as privates who died in World War 1
H = Number of residents in Stoke Dry
I = The year the reservoir was recognised as an important wildlife site
J = The Date of John Speed’s map of Rutland
K = The year Sir Everard Digby died
You are looking for a disguised container with a bison tube inside. Bring your own pen. Please take care as you open the cache container and carefully replace the cache as found.
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, we would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. (sadexploration@yahoo.co.uk )
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
'Lbh jbhyq' arrq gb ybbx pybfryl gb svaq guvf bar!