This Daughter went to Wat's Dyke Traditional Cache
Sheilaj0: Now the livery yard is open and the fields are used constantly it's time to archive this one.
This Daughter went to Wat's Dyke
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To celebrate their milestone, the 100th cache placed by Team Marzipan was called The Mother Cache (GC15RYZ). The object of The Mother Cache is for finders to take one of the ready-prepared caches, and hide it as a Daughter Cache. It’s taken a while but finally another daughter is born!
Wat's Dyke is a 40 mile earthwork running through the northern Welsh Marches from Basinwerk Abbey in Greenfield, passing to the east of Oswestry and onto Maesbury in Shropshire. It runs generally parallel to Offa‘s Dyke.
It consists of the usual bank and ditch of an ancient dyke, with the ditch on the western side, meaning that the dyke faces Wales and by implication can been seen as protecting the English lands to the east. The placement of the dyke in the terrain also shows that care was taken to provide clear views to the west and to use local features to the best defensive advantage.
The date of construction is probably 8th Century by Aethelbald king of Mercia who reigned from 716 to 757 but there is no firm dating for Wat‘s Dyke, Aethelbald's successor Offa built the dyke which carries his name sometime during his reign 757 to 796. Offa's Dyke is viewed as being an 'improved' version, longer, possibly bigger and placed further west in order to acquire more land.
From the ground, it is often visually disappointing, especially when its profile is compared with that of Offa’s Dyke, as the latter follows an impressive course across higher land, to the west. The linear landscape feature bearing the name of Wat looks much like any other field boundary: a high standing line of hedgerow, with its once west-facing ditch mostly invisible, long filled in or ploughed up. Sometimes it simply appears in the distance as nothing more than a ‘crop mark.’ But present-day views are misleading. Strategically, Wat’s Dyke is considered to be a more sophisticated construction than its near counterpart to the west - Offa’s Dyke.
Parking is available in Northop at N53 12.416 W003 07.849 - the main village car park, from here it is just under a mile’s walk up The Green towards the cache.
There is parking in a layby close to the cache at N53 12.113 W003 08.743 but the lanes are narrow and are used frequently by dog walkers and horse riders so please drive slowly.
Nearby Caches
GC15YNQ Northop Ford & Walk
GC1224C Northop Village Vexation
Well done to Fly Fifers on FTF and congratulations on this, your 800th find 
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gerr