I have made this cache to celebrate my parents Silver Wedding anniversary. This is the church that they were married at in August 1994.
St Mary’s church is octagonal in shape (if you exclude the chapel) and like all churches has an octagonal font. Since baptism is the beginning of new life and the resurrection from a spiritual death, the baptismal font was made in the shape of an octagon as a symbol to the eighth day (Jesus’s resurrection) and the start of eternal life. A second reason why baptismal fonts are in the shape of an octagon, is that on Noah’s ark only eight humans survived the flood.
There is a 13-minute film on You Tube entitled ‘Consecration of St Mary’s church, Hobs Moat, Solihull’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ledj39luJpo). It shows the construction of the church from the concrete foundations, including the service for the laying of the foundation stone (which can be seen inside the church), further construction of the chapel and steel frame of the church itself and finally the service for the consecration of the church in 1967. It is interesting to see the local area (no Tesco Express building) and the old clothes and cars.
The modern and traditional gifts for 25 years of marriage are both silver gifts. Silver is a word in the English language that isn’t supposed to rhyme (though a chilver is a female lamb). The modern tradition of giving silver gifts may have originated in medieval Germany where, if a married couple lived to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their wedding, the wife was presented by her friends and neighbours with a silver wreath to congratulate them for the good fortune that had prolonged the lives of the couple for so many years.
The flower associated with silver wedding anniversaries is an iris.
To open the cryptex and sign the log, you will need to answer the following questions and use the numbers to fill in the code.
1. Add the eleven digits of the vicarage telephone number together
(Use the notice boards at the church door or by the road)
2. What was the date in May 1955 that the stone was laid by Mrs Oliver Bird at the church hall?
3. How many windows are around the top of the church walls (just the main building)?
Cryptex code (reading from left to right) X X Y Y Z Z
XX is answer to question 1
YY is answer to question 2
ZZ is answer to question 3
Note: you need to get the numbers exactly in line, or the cryptex will not slide open. Please close cryptex and muddle numbers to reset for next finder.
The cache is outside the bounds of the ancient monument, but this is worth a wander round on a fine day.