The church of St Aidan with St George stands on on the corner of Fir Tree Lane and Nicholas Lane in St George, Bristol. It stands in a prominent position on top of Nag's Head Hill. If you have time after finding the cache check out the great views of Trooper Hill, Crew's Hole and south Bristol.
St Aidan
In 634 AD, Aidan, an Irish monk was living at a monastery on the Island of Iona in Scotland. King Oswald had just regained kingship of Northumbria, and chose Aidan as a missionary to bring Christianity to the mostly pagan people there. Aidan chose Lindisfarne, an island like Iona and close to the royal fortress of Bamburgh, as the seat of his diocese.
An inspired missionary, Aidan would walk from one village to another, politely conversing with the people he saw and slowly interesting them in Christianity. According to legend, the king gave Aidan a horse so that he wouldn’t have to walk, but Aidan gave the horse to a beggar. By patiently talking to the people on their own level Aidan and his monks slowly brought Christianity to the Northumbrian communities.
In 651 a pagan army attacked Bamburgh and attempted to set its walls ablaze. According to legend, Aidan prayed for the city, after which the winds turned and blew the smoke and fire toward the enemy, repulsing them; hence his patronage for fire fighters. The monastery he founded grew and helped found churches and other monasteries throughout the area. It also became a centre of learning and a storehouse of scholarly knowledge. Saint Aidan’s feast day is on 31 August.
St George
Saint George is popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry, but actually he wasn’t English at all. Very little is known about the man who became St George. He is believed to have been born in Cappadocia (now Eastern Turkey) in the year 270 AD. At the age of seventeen he joined the Roman army and soon became renowned for his bravery. He served under a pagan Emperor but never forgot his Christian faith.
The Emperor Diocletian gave him many important missions. He heard the Emperor was putting all Christians to death and so he returned to Rome to help his brother Christians. He pleaded with the Emperor to spare their lives. Diocletian did all he could to persuade Saint George to give up his faith, but he refused and was finally beheaded on 23 April 303. It is said that the shield or flag of Saint George, with its red cross on a white background, represents his blood running across the white paving stones of the square where he was beheaded.
History of the churches
Bishop Butler of Bristol first founded a church in St George in 1756, in response to the growing population of the area. Towards the end of the 19th century it was decided to build a bigger church in the fashionable neo-gothic style and this opened in 1879.
The church of St. Aidan was founded in 1904. It was a replacement for a tin tabernacle on Cassey Bottom Lane, and was a daughter church of St. George. For some reason, the building work was never finished, as only the first two bays of the nave and aisle were built. Ironically, however, this has had a beneficial effect, since as a consequence, the building has excellent acoustics.
In 1976 the old St George church was demolished, with much resistance from the sturdy tower, and the congregation temporarily moved into the adjacent former Church Boys’ School. In the early 1990’s the congregation of Saint Aidan’s Church invited the Saint George members to join them and Saint Aidan’s PCC decided to include the name ‘Saint George’ in the parish title.
The cache
The cache is located nearby.
At the posed coordinates find the year of the drainpipes ABCD and the office number EFGHIJKLMNO
N51 27.OBD
W02 31.HHO
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http://www.15ddv.me.uk/geo/cm/index.html