Church Micro 6062...Canterbury - St Paul's Traditional Geocache
Church Micro 6062...Canterbury - St Paul's
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Welcome to my Church Micro for St. Paul's, Canterbury. This is a quick cache and dash near the City centre. Please use stealth and replace the cache exactly as you found it. This is the sister Church to St. Martin's which is close by in North Holmes Road and also has a Church Micro (short multicache) associated with it. You will need tweezers or similar to extract the log.
A brief history of St Paul's Why ‘St. Paul’s without the Walls’? The word ‘without’ once meant ‘outside’. This Church was built ‘without’ (outside) the city walls now just across the ring road. We refer to it here also as just ‘St. Paul’s’. Why was St. Paul’s built? The origins of St. Paul's Church and the reason for its existence lie in the proximity of the ruins of the Abbey (now called St. Augustine’s). It is believed that it was built as a chapel by the abbey for local people and overseen by them as a place of worship and instruction. In 1300 however there was a controversy between the Abbey and the Archbishop in regard to the right to present a priest to the ‘living’ (install a priest paid to minister here). The Archbishop seems to have won. Parishioners had the right to be buried in the Abbey cemetery and in 1591 a burial area was created in Longport (now closed and since 1951 an open space at the bottom of St. Martin’s Hill). St. Paul's from the Reformation to the 19th century. The Reformation and Dissolution of the Monasteries c1540 had a serious economic effect on the City of Canterbury. The destruction of Thomas Becket’s tomb meant no more pilgrims and a great loss of income. In 1570 a Visitation (inspection by senior clergy) recorded that there were 90 houses in this Parish and 243 communicants. In 1681 St. Paul's was united with the ancient church of St. Martin. The 19th Century. The print of St. Paul's in 1828 shows a rather shabby building in a busy street. In 1842 William John Chesshyre arrived as Parish Priest. The tower was substantially rebuilt and a third aisle built southwards creating the space we enjoy today. An elaborate altarpiece was created in the sanctuary with the choir seated in the traditional chancel under a decorated ceiling. A new font replaced the ancient one now stored in the Church cellar in three pieces. Whatever nave seating existed was replaced by pews provided under a national church scheme to help clergy pew their churches. Later changes In 1985 Canon Reg Humphriss oversaw a reordering (programme of interior changes) project that brought the altar forward, removed the altarpiece and moved the choir to the north aisle. The font was also moved from its traditional place at the back of the Church to its present position. This opening up of space reflected changes in worship patterns but it meant the loss of the chapel and the positioning of the choir rather close to the very powerful organ. ************************************** If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats Information page found via the Bookmark list. *************************************
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(Decrypt)
Zntargvp. Oruvaq naq haqrearngu.