'Mr West's first, second and third stations will be easily
discovered on the East side of this map, betwixt the road and the
lake; and his fourth is upon the Lake, one Mile and one furlong
from its Head'
writes Peter Crosthwaite on his outline map of Coniston Water, near Hawkshead, Lancashire in 1794.
Additional waypoints will take you to all these stations which are used here, and answer the questions to find final location and log book. West's book was reprinted in 2008, by Cumbria University,
Thomas West, in 1778, wrote about twenty one stations (viewpoints) around the lakes in English Lake District, in his book, 'A guide to the Lakes Cumberland and Westmorland'. There are the four stations around Coniston Water, Windermere has five, Derwentwater has eight and Bassenthwaite Lake has four. You will need a boat to visit West's station four. But as a cacher we may not need to. All other waypoints can be visited by boat or on foot using a bicycle, car or commercial ferry service to get between waypoints. West's readers would have used horse drawn transport or walked, and hired a local boatman for the fourth station. Boats are still for hire, nowadays self drive.
'West knew the right time to make his approach, choosing the
morning when the sun is behind the traveller .... In the evening
..... if you want to see the lake, you must go out in a boat and
look back to the eastern shore, and watch all the tide-mark of oaks
and alders held in a yellow level light.'
writes Norman Nicholson in his book, 'The Lakers'.
- Station 1 at South end of Coniston Water. This is a cache and dash clue. You barely need to get out of the car.
- Stations 2 and 3 are the actual West stations on National Trust public access land. The woodland around station two is a charming old oak wood. The view from the shore near station 3 is superb. Easy short walk.
- Station 4 'is upon the lake one mile and one furlong from its head', writes Peter Crosthwaite on his map, 1794. In West's day there were few of the large houses visible from the shore. Crosthwaite marked the 'slate keys' (sic), presumably to aid finding a boat. When I'm working on Coniston, station 4 is the best vantage point. I can just sit here, letting group splash around, gawping at scenery. The fells loom majestically with ribbons of silver water, as its usually raining or just stopped. They seam to rise up straight from the shore. Thomas West knew his subject well.
Unfortunately the trees have matured at Stations 1 and 2 to obscure the views, although Old Man of Coniston is just visible from West's Station 1, and woodland floor can be iridescent with bluebells near Station 2 in May. Due to the tree cover giving poor signal, and popularity of area, this a multi cache, rather than a series of micros.
Download multiple waypoints with GRABBER.
FINAL CACHE MOVED BACK NEAR TO ORIGINAL HIDING PLACE, January 2012. NEW Co-ordinates
Final cache = N 54 21.(A+F) (G) (A+F) W 03 03.(F+B) (H/2) (E-F-G)
Questions.
- Station 1. Nibthwaite N 54 18.134 W 003 05.258 How many stone balls? This is A (South Entrance)
How many horizontal metal rails topping the wall? This is B
- Station 2. Near Peel
A choice of three questions, one suited to boaters, two for walkers. Each question has same answer.
2a. N 54 19.028 W 003 04.958 (for boaters) Whom? Number of letters in surname is E.
2b. N 54 18.982 W 003 05.037 (for walkers) Micro with answer inside under piece of slate.
2c. N 54 19.030 W 003 05.001 (easy for walkers) How many intact wheels on the caravan?
added to
How many (boarded up probably) windows on the caravan?
Not including doors.
Add these two caravan questions together to get E.
No need to cross the wall. Can see all windows.
- Station 3. Machell Coppice N 54 20.884 W 003 03.809
How many drain holes (scuppers) in base of eastern wall of bridge? This is F.
How many pipes under the bridge does stream flow through? This is G.
- Station 4 On Coniston Water N 54 21.426 W 003 03.897
You should be 'one mile and one furlong from the head of the lake'.
When in position, divide the angle between mouth of Yewdale Beck and the 'slate key' (sic) [stone jetty] in front of Coniston Hall by 10. Now used by Coniston Sailing Club as their main jetty.
Round result down to an integer. This is H. If no boat, do the maths.
Final cache = N 54 21.(A+F) (G) (A+F) W 03 03.(F+B) (H/2) (E-F-G)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com See if you are within 8 metres.
Coniston launch operate a commercial scheduled launch service, on Coniston Water along with National Trust Gondola. Walking round Coniston Water is not recommended, as it is 14 miles and each May done as an organised run. Instead use Coniston Launch. You could visit all four Thomas West stations by walking or cycling on tarmac road. Coniston Launch will take bikes. Breaking your journey on a roundabout ticket. Launch landing points would be:
Rigg Wood jetty for Station 1 and 2.
Brantwood jetty for Station 3.
On way to Brantwood from Bluebird café for station 4, perhaps.
BlueBird jetty for final cache.
Otherwise use your own boat or hire from Coniston Boating Centre, if needed :-}
Parking
- Free parking at Bluebird café. Café is at mouth of Church Beck (stream) on the NW shore.
- LDNPA Pay and display at Coniston Boating Centre which is paradoxically next to Bluebird café FREE parking. Toilets, payphone, picnic tables, beach, slipway and launching (fee).
- LDNPA Pay and display at Monk Coniston. Toilets, good Free launching.
- Brantwood and Jumping Jennies café, free car park for patrons. Toilets and views of Station Four.
- LDNPA Pay and display at Machell Coppice. Toilets, picnic tables. Can you see Station Four?
- Many pull ins and road side free parking between Brantwood and Nibthwaite.
Should not need to pay for parking.
Boat Launching
- Slipways at Coniston Boating Centre and Coniston Sailing club.
- Beaches along whole of east side of lake with many FREE car parks and pull ins.
- Beach at Coniston Boating Centre.
- Campers at Coniston Hall camp-site can launch from the campsite shoreline.
Cache contents were lost after November 2009 and 2015 floods.
Seams to be a 'safe' cache for TBs.
Please rehide cache carefully. It may be possible to solve clues without a boat :-)
Look out for other Thomas West caches.
If you have read this far. Four of the Thomas West geocaches contain information to find a bonus Thomas West location and cache.
All the Thomas West caches are
- GCVVGF Thomas West Bassenthwaite Lake Stations (Cumbria)
- GCWAW0 Thomas West Bonus Station (Cumbria)
- GCVTDK Thomas West Brant Fell station (Cumbria)
- GCWZY0 Thomas West Coniston Water Stations (Cumbria)
- GCVZYX Thomas West Derwentwater stations (Cumbria)
- GCWVCW Thomas West Dunmallard station (Cumbria)
- GCVPHG Thomas West Rawlinson Nab (Cumbria)
- GCVPGK Thomas West Windermere on Water Station (Cumbria)
Things to remove from a cache and not to swap in the first instance. Food stuff, sweets, batteries, coins, plasters (Band-Aid) anything in a sachet, anything liquid, marker pens.
Read more about The Historic Geocaches' campaign.