Church Micro 4300...Whitstable Traditional Cache
Hidden : 10/15/2013
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

The cache you are looking for is a nano. This cache has been placed with the kind permission from the Reverend of St Alphege church. The area can be very busy as the church is on the main road through the town centre. Stealth will be required at busy times. The cache is situated on Kemp Alley opposite the church. Please bring your own pen to sign the log. Please replace the cache as found so that it is hidden from view and be careful not to be seen.


History of St Alphege Church

With the arrival of the railway and Whitstable's growing importance as a fishing port, there was a need for a Christian presence in the town. In 1844, the first stone of the new Saint Alphege church in Whitstable High Street was laid, designed by the architect Marshall. It replaced the small medieval church at Seasalter. St Alphege church is set back from the High Street. The front is of squared ragstone blocks, typical of the period, but around the corner the church is actually built of stock brick. In the 1860s, a west gallery was erected to increase the seating accommodation and to take a bold organ (now in the north transept). The minimal chancel still has its original Decalogue and Lord’s Prayer on display, whilst above it three late nineteenth century paintings include a vision of St Alphege whose body passed through here on its way to reburial in Canterbury Cathedral. Unusually, although this church never charged pew rent, the bench ends are numbered so that each parishioner had an allotted seat. It was not until 1984, when local churches were amalgamated to form the Whitstable Team Ministry, that the church in High Street was officially called Whitstable, St Alphege. A solitary painting on the end wall depicts the saint.  In 2013, the church had the story of St Alphege’s martyrdom etched on twelve one metre high glass doors just inside the entrance dividing the main part of the church and the hall. 

History of Alphege the Saint

St Alphege was born of a noble family near Bath in 954 and died in 1012. He was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1005 at a time when England was being ravaged by the Danes. In 1011 he was captured and taken to Greenwich, but would not allow a ransom to be paid. On April 19th 1012, during a drunken feast, the Danes pelted him with bones, and he was killed with a blow to his head by an axe. His body was buried at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. However in 1023 King Canute decided to return the saint's body to Canterbury, and according to legend, Alphege was transported down the Thames and lay for 3 days in the Saxon church at Seasalter before his final journey to Canterbury. In 1078, Pope Gregory VII canonised Alphege with a feast day of 19th April. By an act of prescience, St Thomas Becket, in his last sermon at Canterbury before his murder, praised Alphege as the first Canterbury martyr.

 

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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him.

See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Zntargvp. unir n ybbx qbja orybj - jurer gur jngre sybjf, cyrnfr ercynpr rknpgyl nf sbhaq

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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