Havant United Reformed Church
The origins of the United Reformed Church in Havant go back to the very beginnings of "Nonconformity" in the town. With the restoration of the Stuart monarchy, and the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, many ministers of the Established Church dissented from, and refused to conform with, the doctrines and disciplines then imposed, and resigned, or were "ejected" from their livings. The Act of Toleration in 1689 brought many changes allowing Nonconformists to worship according to their consciences without fear of legal retribution.
In 1728 a chapel was built in The Pallant, Havant and licenced from Winchester. Over the door ran the inscription: "A Temple dedicated to Divine Worship when sacred Liberty was flourishing under the rule of George Augustus". The original was in Latin and, strangely, gave the date as 1718 - someone, it seems, having inadvertently missed out an "X" (as well as a letter from the Latin word for "dedicated"!). This chapel was known as the Free Church or the Dissenters Chapel.
By the late 1880's it had quite clearly outlived its usefulness and it was decided to erect a new Chapel and School in North Street. That building was opened for worship on 26th May 1891 as a Congregational Church. In 1972 the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales joined forces under the name United Reformed Church.
Before 1851, Havant’s only burial ground for those of any religious denomination was the graveyard adjacent to St Faith’s church (also a Church Micro - GC4YCX7), but this became full and Sir George Staunton, a local land owner, gave some land in New Lane as a new burial ground. One acre was used to provide for those of the Church of England under the control of St Faith’s church and one quarter of an acre for Dissenters under the control of the Dissenters’ Chapel and then the United Reformed Church. The cemetery is now cared for by the independent organisation, "Friends of Havant Cemeteries"
The Cache
To find the cache, first visit the church at the published coordinates.
(A) Look at the main noticeboard and count the number of letters in the 4th word of the bottom line of the welcome message. This is A.
(B) Next visit waypoint 2 – N50 51.119 W000 58.835 - the Dissenters Chapel, now used as a private residence. B is the number of rectangular (or almost rectangular!) panes of glass in the left hand window of the front elevation.
(C) Now visit waypoint 3 – N50 51.292 W000 58.489 – New Lane cemetery, and look at the main noticeboard at the entrance. The location of the Dissenters’ cemetery is shown and it is said to have 31C plots on the grave plan.
(D & E) Nearly done! Now visit waypoint 4 – inside the Dissenters’ cemetery. The coordinates should take you to the grave marker for ELIZABETH ARTER. She died on November x8 186E. Digit D is 2x.
Note! Please do not climb the wall into the Dissenters’ cemetery. There is a gate if you travel by road!
To check your figures, the sum of A+B+C+D+E is 27, but you also need to know that F is E minus B and G is 2A.
The cache is quite close by and can be found at N50 51.AEF W000 58.CDG.
GZ is quite a mugglesome area, especially at going to work/coming home times, and is also popular with driving instructors. Please replace the cache so as to minimise visibility to muggles.
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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 at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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