There is some controversy over the name of the first church built on this site - was it St Mark's or St Bartholomew's??? I have not found any definitive newspaper clippings from it's opening but there are early articles referring to the church as St Mark's assuming then that it was later renamed St Bartholomew's. An alternate view, backed up by church records, are that it was always called St Bartholomew's. The story goes that the name St Mark's was preferred and used by an early minister resulting in "St Mark's" finding its way into history. In any case the church here is now, and has for a very long time been, called St Bartholomew's.
The first Anglican church was designed by Rev Richard Leigh to accommodate 100 people, built at a cost of £289/10/- and opened in June 1866. It was built of local stones with a shingled roof. The funding was primarily donated by the the Warn and Stephenson families. The foundation stone of that church is not located here - perhaps lost to history??? When the 2nd church was built next to it, the original church building remained and was used as a Sunday School for many decades. In 1969 the original church was dismantled and the stones were given away to parishioners as souvenirs.
In 1903, when Rector Bryant took charge of the parish, the original church had seen better days "I need not relate my sorrow and disappointment when I entered the old Church and found it so miserably furnished, only a bare four legged table and an altar and a white pudding basin for a font placed on the table." Initially, Bryant intended to decline the offer of the role in Crookwell but was convinced to take it on by Bishop Barlow and he went on to build a replacement St Bartholomew's. He also built the church of St George in Kialla and refurbished the churches in Pejar and Woodhouselee. The replacement church was built from McAlister bluestone with a slate roof and a stone belfrey. It was demolished in the late 1960's to make way for the current church.
The 3rd and current St Bart's is an "A" frame design with steeply pitched gabled rook and reflective glass windows. It is the proud home of the largest digital pipe organ in the Southern Hemisphere. The organ was dedicated on Sunday November 16th 2003. It is quite impressive to listen to and is a star of the "Last Night of the Proms" celebrations during the Crookwell Heritage and Potato Festival each year.
At the cache marker co-ordinates you will find foundation stone #1 (bottom larger stone) which was laid for the 2nd St Bartholomew's. At these co-ordinates, you'll also find foundation stone #2 (top smaller stone) for another church/building that I have not yet identified.
At the next waypoint you will find the foundation stone #3 for the current St Bartholomew's.
At the last waypoint you will find the foundation stone #4 for the church hall.
Foundation stone #1 was laid on A0/0B/19KC.
Foundation stone #2 was laid on JH/1G/191F.
Foundation stone #3 was set on 1E/02/1969.
Foundation stone #4 was set on 02/0D/1955.
Cache location is S34 A(B+C).DEF E149 G(H-J).KBF
Checksum: S31 E32
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Thanks to trove.nla.gov.au for such a wealth of information that I used to research this cache. Also, huge thanks to the Crookwell Historical Society who trusted me with their St Bart's file while I did my research.