St John's, Boscombe
EXTERIOR: In a rich Decorated style, with a shingled fleche on the ridge. The six-light west window has inventive tracery, and is set in a large relieving arch between two coped buttresses. There is a traceried oculus in the west gable, and a shallow projecting porch below with a blind trefoil in the gable. North-west porch of 1919-20 (costing £4,896), on the site of an intended tower. The porch is oddly detailed, the complex roof lines with raised corners fronted by pinnacles, then a gabled attic tier above. A narrow square bell-turret rises in the re-entrant angle to the west; rectangular belfry lights with wayward tracery, and a pyramid roof. The aisles have buttresses and a solid parapet with flint and stone chequerwork and gabled copings. The north aisle has two-light windows, the south side has windows of four lights in the aisle and of three lights in the chapel, with varied Dec tracery. The chequerwork parapet of the aisle continues around the chapel. The south transept is largely hidden by the gabled vestry which sits in front of it, parallel with the chancel. The east end has an impressive five-light Geometric window with the mullions continued below to form a band of blind panelling. There are prominent coped gables around the east end, and several gables, including the chancel, with chequerwork in the apex. The windows in the north and south walls of the chancel and in the east end of the vestry have rich curvilinear tracery. The north-east transept has paired windows in its gable, separated by a big buttress. There is an unusual reversal of visual emphasis with the transepts fairly low and shallow, while the south-east vestry and north-west porch are developed as big transept-like volumes.
INTERIOR: An impressive and spacious interior, lined with cream ashlar. Over the chancel arch, in the east and west walls and upper nave are banding and chequerwork of cream, pale grey and darker grey stones, echoing the exterior. The nave arcade, the two-bay south transept and openings off the chancel have quatrefoil columns of pink Dumfries stone banded with Blue Lias. They have foliage capitals. The arcades have moulded arches rising from stilted vertical sections over the capitals. In the bottom of the spandrels between the nave arches are quirky cusped dagger motifs, a motif used later at All Saints, West Southbourne, by the same architects. The roof, raised on wall shafts with foliage corbels, is particularly impressive. In two tiers, of trefoil section with canted rafters rising to collar beams then a second stage forming a tunnel in the roof ridge. The chancel roof is similar, with more prominent arch-braces. Inner arches on colonnettes between the north aisle windows. The transept at the east end of the north aisle is arranged as a World War II memorial chapel, with a double arch opening into the chancel. The transeptal organ chamber at the south has a very high arcaded opening. At the chancel arch there is no screen, only a very low and short breast wall either side of semicircular steps opening out towards the nave; these features express Low Church liturgical ideals. The west end of the nave was divided off by Maurice Taylor, 1989-90; a free-standing structure was inserted, with concrete columns and unostentatious timber and glass partitions, to form foyer and offices. It avoids any disruption to the aisle windows etc.
Source: Historic England
The cache isn't at the published coordinates but it is close by.
Locate the engraved stone with eight lines of text (not six) at the published coordinates and count the number of occurrences of various letters in the text
The cache location is N 50 43.GMU W 001 50.(A+V)BC
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