The stated coordinates bring you to the place known as Belper Unitarian Church or Chapel.
The origins of this place of worship cannot be fully verified but it would appear that the Statham’s & Strutts were very much closely involved in its initiation.
We do not pretend to be religiously motivated to suggest that you visit a church for any other purpose than our aim, to take you there through the medium of Geocaching, but for the interest of the participants in search of this cache, we have gathered together what we can through a little local research.
First some background to this aspect of religious worship for this denomination.
To quote a short history of non-conformist religion:
"Henry VIII's break from the Pope which began the Reformation in 1537 allowed people to find their own forms of religion that satisfied their own needs and beliefs. To begin with the Reformation caused two new religious groups to be formed. Puritans wanted to reform the practices of the Church of England from within the institution, whilst Separatists could see no way that change was going to occur without leaving and setting up on their own.
By 1567 congregations belonging to these nonconformists groups (also known as Dissenters) began to meet together in private for religious services. These 'Independent' units gave rise to the Congregational Churches, with the Baptists emerging later in 1603. The Presbyterians came into their own during the Civil Wars. Presbyterians were part of the Church of England who had tried to modify the way that the church was governed. In 1662 the Act of Uniformity was passed, which called for all ministers to swear by all that was written in the Common Book of Prayer according to the Church of England. All those who refused to comply were ousted from the Church of England. Presbyterians split further into two groups: Independents and Unitarians."
*Dissenters were liable to be imprisoned, and further notes state*:
“The Toleration Act in 1689 allowed the permanent right of non-conformist worship. This meant that preachers could officially be appointed to congregations, and houses could be licensed for worship.
In that same year therefore, John Taylor - who was a Belper man - applied for registration in 1689. In 1709, George Webster, and in 1714 Joseph Statham (see note**) likewise had their houses licensed for worship. In nearby Shottle, another Statham - William Statham - applied for a license in 1713.”
“With the arrival of Jedediah Strutt and the building of the mills in Belper, things took an altogether new turn. An impressive new stone chapel was built, this time a lot further out of town. It was situated right in the middle of the block of houses Strutt was erecting for his mills workers and their families, perhaps in an attempt to improve their lives spiritually as well as physically.
The central portion of the chapel had been built by 1789, when a new permanent minister arrived to serve the Belper community.”
Further working off information gleaned from http://www.belper-research.com/ (**Please note we cannot verify the voracity of this link or other links in the text – you must only click on those if you choose to do so, at your own risk**)
The source writer has put forward some potential dates, having researched the sale of parcels of land – that appear to support some theoretical dates for both the construction and inception of this building.
“The starting date for construction is normally given these days as 1788. In the absence of any definite data to the contrary, I can only agree with that date, although pointing out that Glover's "History of Derbyshire" written in 1829 has the date as 1782. Another work, a booklet on Derbyshire Nonconformity written by Stephen Orchard (produced for the Derbyshire Family History Society in 2001) gives the date as 1786.
The Deeds relating to the chapel land purchases have been compiled and deposited in the Matlock Record Office. The earliest date mentioned is December 1789 and refers to the land as having already "a building thereon used as a Unitarian Chapel" thus we can safely assume the chapel was built by the end of 1789.
In order to discover the exact start-date for the building, we need to discover when Jedediah bought, or was given, the land owned by the Statham family ("Shortlands") on which he built the first part of the chapel.
Amongst the deeds of the Statham family, we see one relating to the very piece of land, and it seems to have changed hands in April 1788. The money owed to Henry Statham was paid off in full by April 1789. Whether or not the chapel was planned and its building begun before that time, we cannot know.”
So, to the Cache itself. ***PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ENTER THE CHURCHYARD TO SEE THE GRAVESTONE INFORMATION***.
Northings: N53 01. A B C.
A= John Millner was aged 7A years when he died on October 13th 1827.
B= On the decorative plaque on the railings near to the grave of John Millner and his daughter - How many letters are in last name of the poet?
C = On this plaque -ignoring the "Heading" in larger letters - look at the first line of the poem and add together the numbers of letters in the first two words.
Westings : W001 28. D E F
Going back to the gravestone - John Millners daughter died on Sept 19th.
D, E & F. She died in the year : 1 *(D) *(E) * (F)
The checksum for ALL co-ordinates (N 28 &W 24) is 52.
HAPPY HUNTING and a NOTE to CACHERS : Children and Pets should be carefully supervised at all times.
This area - though in a quiet part of town - vehicles use the road where the church & cache is situated.
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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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