The church
The church of St Mary the Virgin, was built in 1822 on the outskirts of Bransgore village. It was a "Million Church" built from funds from the £1m put aside from the compensation from France to Britain after the 22 year old war ended in 1815 at Waterloo. The government supported the building of many new churches to accommodate the huge rise in population and to counter the rise of Dissent of the Church of England.
Grand ideas but locally someone had a more down-to-earth view. A squire wrote in 1823 that a huge transformation of the villagers had taken place after the church had been built and a minister arrived. “Our numerous population heretofore consisted in a very great degree of smugglers, poachers, etc... The Sabbath which heretofore was really a carnival – spent in boxing, riot, and debauchery is now a day of order, repose and solemnity, the public worship of the Church."
The church cost around £2700 and originally had a spire which was pulled down in the late 20th century when it became unsafe. Despite Bransgore's main industry being brick-making in that era and so tiles could have been made, the roof is of slate, bought to help keep the Welsh miners in work.
It is not clear who sold or donated the land but at that time the large manor house was at Holmsley. Beech House had been built in the 1600s and was the manor house for Winkton Lewan. Often the original landowner would have lived at the manor house. Old maps show a footpath from Beech House to the church and you wonder if it was this side of the village because of this connection.
The cache will take you to the grave of Mr and Mrs Henry Castleman who lived at Beech House in the mid nineteenth century. The surname is known locally mainly because of his brother Charles who helped finance the railway coming to Dorset and gave his name to Castleman Way. Henry was a solicitor who did well for himself and he also inherited the estate his father had acquired in Northamptonshire. Beech House was a fitting large home for a successful man and he lived there in the 1850s and 1860s with his wife and 7 servants.
The final cache location has significance for the church and Beech House.
(If you are interested in the Castleman brothers, you can see the grave of Charles by doing cache GC9AE72)
The cache
You are looking for the Castleman grave and its inscription.
Henry Castleman born 1BFA
Emma Castleman died 1DC?
E = (Number of posts holding the rail around the grave) - (number of letter of first word of first line of Henry's inscription which starts with an S)
Checksum=55
Final cache location is at
N 50 46.ABC
W 01 43.DEF
Once you've found the hide and seen the remains, the curious of you will work out the significance of the two 1895 photos of the church in the gallery.