The Crabchurch Conspiracy Traditional Geocache
Hanoosh: As this cache is need of some maintenance and it is clear the CO's are no longer caching having not logged on in over two years, I am archiving this cache.
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Brenda
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The Crabchurch Conspiracy
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This cache celebrates a relatively unknown episode from the English Civil War. Due to its proximity to muggles you are looking for a Nano cache, please bring a pen/pencil to sign the log, EXTREME STEALTH will be required. PLEASE REPLACE AS FOUND The cache is a short walk from the town centre with various street parking options nearby.
Apart from the Boot Inn and Old Town Hall (nearby at N 50° 36.395 W002° 27.539), little remains here of old Weymouth, but with a bit of imagination…… let Mr DANMARLITE take you on a journey back in time to the year of 1645
It’s nearly midnight on the 27th February, the old narrow streets around this part of the harbour are about to run with blood, a brutal and ferocious battle is imminent. This is the culmination of three and a half weeks of subterfuge, siege, battle and intrigue.
Just a month earlier the Parliamentarian Garrison towns of Weymouth and Melcombe (modern day Weymouth Town centre), both linked by a bridge, were under control of the Governor William Sydenham. His 900 Roundheads had just been supplemented by the arrival of a regiment under the control of Colonel Ralph Weldon.
The area felt secure, as described in the diary of the Parliamentarian preacher Peter Ince who wrote “we were in as sweet a quiet and security as any garrison in the Kingdom; no enemy near us but one at Portland, and that not very considerable, being but about 300 or 400 men”'.
However, a daring and audacious plot to bring the strategic towns under Royalist control was about to unfold. Charles I needed a South Coast Port to land French Catholic troops, which he hoped could help sway the Civil War in his favour. The Crabchurch Conspiracy was hatched by one of Weymouth’s leading citizens, the Royalist Sympathizer Fabian Hodder, his wife, her friend Eliazabeth Wall and many others.
Hodder and Royalists from Portland garrison planned to gain control of the Nothe Fort, and the Chapel Fort of St Nicholas (in the area now known as Chapelhay on the hillside no far from the cache) in Weymouth in a surprise attack at midnight on the 9th February. Simultaneously, a force from the surrounding villages to the North, was to rendezvous with 1500 Royalists marching from Sherborne under by Sir Lewis Dyve Their role was to attack Melcombe under the tutelage of a tailor Thomas Samways, the man whose role it was to let them into the town.
To find out what happened in those bloody and desperate three and half weeks, the twists and turns, and tales of intrigue and revenge try (visit link)
This video (visit link) featuring local historian and author Mark Vine also helps to explain the story.
Today a cannonball lodged high in the wall of a house in Maiden Street (in Melcombe, now a Ladies WC) serves as a reminder of this tumultuous period (10mins stroll away) at N50° 36.456 W002°27.239. As is the dent in the wall adjacent to our Hope you Find it cache.
It is possible to combine this nano with our Weymouth - Old Town Wander cache (GC1RX1H).
The local Chapelhay Community Partnership is currently in the process of restoring the Old Town Hall as a heritage and arts centre. Dog Friendly Refreshments are available at N 50° 36.395 W002° 27.539 beware of the 5 ghosts and 3 poltergeists.
It is also said that every year at midnight on the 9th February the sounds of battle reverberate from phantom armies in what is today Franchise Street near the site of the old Chapel Fort.
Happy Caching ……..Mwhhaaaahhaahhahahha.
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