The village of Stoke Row is at one of the highest points of the southern Chiltern Hills. The land is poor for farming with few natural sources of water. Deposits of clay and the surrounding woods have been an important local resource. The village is mainly along the 'main' road linking Sonning Common and Nuffield. The parish church is at one end of the village and the pub, the Cherry Tree, and the chapel are at the other. The village is most famous for its Indian-style well (see cache GC4MQ0M)
The Church
Stoke Row Independent Chapel was built in 1815, although there had been a history of Dissenters meeting in the village as far back as 1691. At that time they gathered in the drawing room of a local farmhouse.
In the early years, services were conducted by visiting Ministers or Licensed Lay Preachers, but in 1955 a wealthy local farmer, who had been a strong supporter all his life, bequeathed a large piece of land opposite the Chapel and on this houses were built. The resulting finance enabled a house to be built for the Minister and for a great deal of modernisation to be carried out at the Chapel, including modern heating and the provision of a kitchen and toilets.
The Chapel has always been independent, but it has neighbourly links with the local Church of England, St John’s of Stoke Row. There was once a move to integrate with the Congregational Church, but this idea did not materialise. The Chapel has an ecumenical attitude and residential Ministers come from varied denominational backgrounds and traditions.
The Cache
To find the cache you will need to visit the Main Street entrance to the Chapel, find a nearby postbox and a bench off Newlands Lane and look for the telegraph pole in between. Note that all the answers can be obtained from the road, there is no need to enter the church building or its grounds
The cache location is
N51 33.ABC
W001 00.DEF
A = The number of lights above the door facing Main Street
B = The number of diagonal bars on the gate leading from High Street
C = The postbox number is RG9 ?5D
D = The greater digit in the number on the telegraph pole above the yellow sign
E = 0
F = The number of letters in the second line of the plaque on the bench
The sum of the cache coordinates is 36.
The cache is a small loc-n-loc box a few minutes’ walk from the Chapel - the route is buggy friendly
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