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Saxon Secret Multi-Cache

This cache has been archived.

Alba15: This cache has been unavailable for a considerable period and as the owner has not responded to logs nor logged into geocaching.com for sometime I am archiving it.

If you wish to email me please send your email via my profile (click on my name) and quote the cache name and number.

Alba15
Volunteer UK Reviewer

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Hidden : 4/28/2006
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Located near to the Church, but NOT in the Church Grounds!!. No terrain difficulties but small children should be encouraged to stay off the actual stones of the church itself Watch out for Muggles....

THE CHURCH

All Saints' Church Brixworth is the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon building in this country. It stands majestically on its hilltop, a fascinating study for archaeologists, geologists and historians alike. The Church also has a unique appeal to the thousands of people worldwide who visit it every year, some having been several times before. It has been in continuous use as a place of Christian worship since its foundation by the monks of Peterborough in circa 680 A.D. The building, though impressive today, once had porticus extending from the north and south sides of the nave. The former entrances to these side chambers can be seen today outlined by Roman brick arches on both sides of the nave. At the west end of the church an external stair turret is one of only four similar ones to be found in England. The ring crypt around the apse at the east end is one of only three of this kind in Europe and is thought to have provided an ambulatory for pilgrims to glimpse a relic set in the wall of the apse.

THE BRIXWORTH RELIC
The relic was discovered in 1809 when some pews were being altered in the Lady Chapel. Workmen found a projecting stone in the south wall underneath the middle window and removed it. This stone turned out to be a reliquary, or relic container, dating from the 14th century. Inside the lower section of the reliquary was a wooden box containing a small human throat bone wrapped in cloth on which was probably the name of the saint whose bone it was. Unfortunately the cloth disintegrated when exposed to the air leaving the mystery of whose bone it was, who put it in the church and why. Various historians have offered possible solutions to the mystery of the Brixworth relic, based, it must be emphasised, on little documented evidence. By far the most plausible of these theories suggests the bone belonged to a St Boniface who had some measure of popularity in the village in medieval times. He was born around 675 in Devon and was christened Winfrith by his Anglo-Saxon parents. At an early age he entered a monastery in the south of England where he stayed until he went abroad to Holland and Germany as a missionary at the age of forty. Under his Roman name of Boniface he eventually became the Archbishop of Mainz. In 754 St Boniface was murdered in his own cathedral and his body was taken to Fulda for burial, where he is, to this day, honoured as 'Apostle of Germany. After his death doubtless many tried to get a part of his body as a relic and perhaps someone did get his larynx bone and took it to a place which was both an important missionary centre and a place of pilgrimage like Brixworth. Other St Boniface links to Brixworth can be found in parish documents where references are made to a gild under the patronage of St Boniface and the dates of the three day annual fair and market granted to the people of Brixworth by Henry 111 in 1268, 4 June, 5 June (St Boniface's Day) and 6 June. The Church and The Friends have maintained this ancient association between St Boniface and Brixworth by having the annual Church fete and Friend's Day at this time of the year.

The cache is located OUTSIDE the Church Grounds but the search begins inside the grounds as this is a Multi-Cache site.

You need to start at the location by facing NW. Look at the date of this fallen local hero in the South Atlantic conflict and use this date as "Date XXXX" = ABCD.

The Cache is located at :

N52 AB.BB(D+1) W0 54.DBD

Good Luck.....

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Gur pnpur vf ybpngrq ba gur gbc bs gur pbeare bs gur jnyy. Lbh arrq gb or n yvggyr gnyy gb ernpu.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)