The town of Melbourne in South Derbyshire has many churches of historical interest, and these Church Micros will introduce you to a few of them. Melbourne itself has some interesting historical links; Thomas Cook who is considered the founder of modern tourism was born in the town in 1808 (commemorated on a plaque on this church) and in case you're wondering where the major city of Melbourne, VIC, Australia got its name from, it was so named in 1837 for Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of Queen Victoria.
Melbourne Baptist Church, like the United Reformed Church, owes much to the spiritual legacy of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, in the 18th Century.
The original chapel was built around 1749-1750, had to be enlarged in 1768 and was raised in height in 1782 to permit the addition of galleries. The church was rebuilt in 1832.
Thomas Cook was baptised in the church in 1826 and although after three years as a Baptist missionary starting in 1828 he never returned to live in Melbourne, he did visit occasionally and gifted a set of memorial cottages to the town which were built on High Street in 1890-1891.
The cache is located a little distance away on a footpath that starts from the appropriately-named Selina Street. You will need to project from the posted co-ordinates based on the information on the stone at the top of the church (or deduceable from the information above). The church was erected in ABCD and enlarged in EFGH. Now project a distance of (C-A)(GxH)E metres on a bearing of HG(E+F) degrees.
At the final the area is likely to be very muggly with people approaching from all directions and the area being overlooked, so please be careful. Maximum stealth will be required; please handle the container gently and use the natural camo to help make it less obvious when you replace it.
Bonus information as mentioned reaching the final will take you along an appropriately-named street. Just in case we forget this influential lady, how many times is the street name shown when coming from Ashby Road (the main road) to the start of the footpath? Call this bonus digit D.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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