John had a family connection with Italy (his mother was born near Montevarchi in Tuscany) and he was planning to retire to a small village near there called Caposelvi.
Sadly in March 2011, at the age of 63, John was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died 8 months later in November of the same year. John now lies buried in the churchyard not far from this spot, together with his parents, James and Dina Foxall.
We hope that through the geocaching community we can realise John’s ambition of moving to Italy – albeit only in a symbolic fashion. The trackable we have included with this cache has a small purse attached to it containing a photo of John. Let’s see if we can get John to Italy, preferably Tuscany, Montevarchi would be even better and as close as possible to Caposelvi would be perfect!
The Parish of Rock is believed to be named not for its position or any geological formation, but for an old oak tree; “Rock” being a corruption of the Saxon “Aka” meaning Oak.
The land in this area was owned by William the Conqueror’s standard bearer Ralph de Todeni .
The church of St Peter and Paul is early Norman. The nave and the western part of the chancel were built in the first half of the 12th century, the chancel being extended 10 ft. eastward and a north vestry added during the 14th century, while the south chapel, south aisle and west tower were built by Judge Coningsby in 1510. The church was restored in 1861 and the tower in 1881. On the south wall of the tower there are bullet marks ascribed by some to the action of Cromwell’s Ironsides but they are more likely to have been caused by the Duke of York’s Volunteers who used the tower as a target in the 1800s.
Worcestershire historian Isaac Wedley, writing in 1928, claims that Rock has some curious customs and beliefs. Among them:
“A loaf of bread baked on Good Friday and kept until the following Good Friday was grated when required and used as a cure for cholera”
“Rain drops caught on Ascension Day and bottled were a certain cure for sore eyes”
“Children suffering from whooping cough were invariably cured by holding a frog in the mouth of the child. The frog would get the whooping cough and die, and the child would be saved.”
Whether these beliefs were unique to Rock isn’t clear, but Wedley also tells the story of a man sent to the stocks for behaving badly in Rock church. The parish constable locked him in the stocks, then went to fetch a gallon of cider, sat down beside his prisoner and they got drunk together!