This Cache can be collected as
an individual Multi cache or as part of the circular Wellow Wood
Nature trail series. While the walk is very pleasant it can also
get very muddy after rain so walking boots or even Wellingtons are
recommended. And don’t forget to have a big breakfast
(see
GC1XTYN).
Quite interesting facts:
The ancient monument of Jordan Castle, which has a documented
history stretching back to the 13th century. This was the fortified
manor house of successive members of the Foliot family who were
actually lords of the now disappeared manor of Grimston, which lay
on either side of the road between Wellow and Ompton. Jordan Castle
takes the form of a medieval castle known as a
‘ringwork’. It is a very simple enclosure with a
circular bank and ditch enclosing a courtyard within which the
buildings would have stood. The bank and ditch can still be seen
today, together with surrounding earthworks known as ‘ridge
and furrow’. These extensive parallel humps and bumps are the
result of medieval ploughing. The castle site itself is also
crossed by ridge and furrow, which indicates that, sometime after
the castle fell out of use in the 14th century, even the internal
area was turned over to farming.
Hard evidence of habitation is actually in the form of a
carpenter’s mark in the doorframe of Jordan Castle
Farm’s oldest barn, which proclaims the date of 1796. Various
maps from the early 1800s onwards chart the progress in the size of
the farmstead, with barns being added at intervals in the first
half of that century. The land was part of the Rufford estate, with
various families in successive occupation as tenants until the
whole estate was sold in 1938. Jordan Castle was scheduled as an
ancient monument in 1935. In order to preserve and maintain the
earthworks, the area of the castle and its associated ridge and
furrow are given over to pasture. In the summer of 2005
Nottinghamshire County Council commissioned a
geo-physical survey of the site.
Next Cache:
Continue for (Approx 0.1miles) down the path to the next
cache. You are defiantly on the homeward stretch now. You should
see numerous rabbits and even evidence of badgers along the
way.