One afternoon towards the end of June, Marzipan fell asleep in
the warm sunshine. Let the dream begin...... there were Pirates
visiting from Shropshire, who had hidden some treasure near a
famous holiday camp in Prestatyn. Marzipan knew this treasure could
not stay there (see Easy as A-B-C GC1DFVD), so sniffed out a great
plan. Marzipan led her kind owners to its location and together
they moved it to a new place, he remembered from 1999/2000, when
they had visited to watch the New Year fireworks going off over the
North West and Liverpool. This made the Pirates very, very, happy
and its wasn't long before Marzipan's thoughts returned to the BBQ
cache event and how many sausages he could consume. Was this just a
dream ? ..... go to this location and discover the cache for
yourself.....remember, you are what you dream, so dream well...
Hidden in the village of Halkyn, this drive-by cache offers
excellent views over the Wirral (on a clear day). Stealth MUST be
used if there are any muggles parked up.
Halkyn Mountain is an area of upland forming the backbone of the
old Flintshire. It has extensive areas of open common land, which
have been exploited for their rich veins of lead ore since Roman
times.
The lead ore was taken by the Romans for smelting at Flint, and
pigs of lead produced there were stamped with the inscription
Deceangli, the name of the British tribe occupying the area. The
later years of the seventeenth century witnessed the start of an
intensive period of lead mining with much outside investment such
as by the London Lead Company and Derbyshire mining
entrepreneurs.
New rich veins of ore were discovered and exploited, bringing
into the area a large number of skilled miners, particularly from
Derbyshire. Many of these stayed, intermarrying with local Welsh
families and becoming Welsh-speaking themselves. Their descendants,
bearing non-Welsh surnames such as Bagshaw, Bateman, Carrington,
Harrison, Hooson, Ingleby, Martin, Nuttall, Oldfield, Redfern,
Spencer, and Stealey, are still to be found in the area.
Existing villages such as Halkyn, Pentre Halkyn and Rhosesmor
grew rapidly to house these newcomers. New communities were also
established, many of them beginning as encroachments on to the
common land under squatters rights or tai unnos. This is how the
villages or hamlets of Rhes-y-cae, Moel-y-Crio, Wern-y-Gaer,
Berthddu, Pantygo, and Windmill developed.
By the nineteenth century lead mines had become large concerns
necessitating deeper mining techniques. This brought problems of
flooding resulting in the digging of deep drainage tunnels, the
most important being the Milwr tunnel from Bagillt.
Mining ended in the mid 1970s. Quarrying has also been an
important local industry and today two large limestone quarries
dominate the area. New institutions were needed to serve the
growing population and new churches, chapels, schools and village
halls were opened during the nineteenth century.
This cache has been a joint venture between the Pirates of
Shropshire and Team Marzipan (top man Mike...on,on) Let the dream
begin.... Nearby caches Pie and Fort GC1A6VK