The published co-ordinates take you to the church. The cache is NOT placed here. To the right of the building is a black telecommunications box. To the left of that, is a metal cover at ground level. The last number on it is the value A, needed to help solve the formula that will lead you to the cache which is a short walk away. Read on to find five other values.
The origins of St Francis Church in Hollow Way, came through Rev. M. H. Beauchamp, who became vicar of St James Church in Cowley in November 1928. He had a great devotion to St Francis of Assisi, inflamed by visits to Assisi itself and by much reading.
By February 1929 Rev. Beauchamp had contracted architect Lawrence Dale to develop plans for a church hall and priest’s house for the Bullingdon Estate, dedicated to St Francis. When Mr Dale’s exciting plans for the project arrived, it was clear that the full plan could not be implemented for many years, but a church hall could go ahead which could be converted to a church for services at weekends, with a screened sanctuary that could be used for weekday services and for prayer and meditation.
St Francis Church was the first of four churches in Oxford designed by Laurence Dale. The church was built on a site provided by Morris Motors as a temporary daughter church of St. James, Cowley. Its Foundation Stone laid was on 1B September 19CD. It was made a permanent church and eventually dedicated in 19EF. The church is a simple building with only a small chancel. The reredos screen behind the high altar is a fine example of Murano glass and marble artwork. Information about the church is included in the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust website.
St Francis Church website describes itself as a warm, welcoming and inclusive church serving its community in Cowley and Headington. The Eucharist is at the heart of worship, through which they meet God in Word and in Sacrament.
The cache is at: N51° 44.(CxA)(BxE) 6 W001° 11.(C+E) 9 (FxD)
This cache is one of two Church Micros placed in Oxford in March 2019. Both are the nearest churches to where people well known to the cache owner, who have experienced social exclusion, live. For each person, geocaching has played a part to improve their circumstances. The other cache is Church Micro 12566…Donnington – St Luke’s.
The checksum is 53. The cache is a 35ml (camo) film pot. It is not on church property. The container includes a self-inking stamp. This is not to be removed, or it will no longer be a letterbox cache. Please provide your own writing means.
Geocaching Etiquette. geocaching.com states under 'Help Center' in Paragraph 1.7: 'We like to keep things fun for everyone, so we have a few rules we encourage everyone to follow. Sign both the logbook and log your find online to get your smiley. Geocache owners love reading about your experience'. There are more rules, but this is the first one. This cache owner requests that if on the rare occasion geocachers are unable to sign, an explanation is given in their log. A photo of the cache, if possible should then be sent through the messaging system.
If you would like to add to the Church Micro series yourself then please look here
http://churchmicro.co.uk/
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page that can be found at
http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html