Southwood is a suburb of Farnborough, in the borough of Rushmoor and adjacent to Cove. It is part of the Cove and Southwood ward. This modern housing estate was built in the 1980s and 1990s and occupies land that was once the location of Southwood army camp, Cove Radio Station and ancient farmland and woodland.
Already committed to an existing church plant, in 1992 the Parish of Cove bravely decided to reach out to the new Southwood estate. Philip Dobson was appointed team vicar for Southwood, a commuter village made up largely of families with young children or teenagers.
As the pioneer evangelist, Philip’s first job was to find ‘people of peace’ through involvement with the community. His style was very much to turn up on the doorstep and park himself in the kitchen with a coffee to listen and respond. This created a core group for a new church and Sunday worship began in November ‘93. Those who joined were either unchurched or lapsed since their youth.
There was no church building on the estate, so the plant met in a community centre that doubled as a sports hall. Everything echoed - like a Cathedral! With lots of imported technology like OHP and instruments, Philip was able to enroll his wife and four sons to lead the music, and with one or two others do most of the leading, readings and prayers.
The regular congregation is now around eighty with at least half of those aged under eleven.
At the given co-ordinates, you will find a noticeboard.
On this notice board is a telephone number for the church. This is ABCDE-FGHJKL.
The cache can be found at:
N 51 G(H+J).(B+C)(E+F)(K+L)
W 000 (D-B)(F+C).(A+L)(D+G)(C+F)