Weets Cross Traditional Cache
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In medieval times Fountains Abbey owned great estates covering vast areas as far afield as the Lake District and Teeside.
Two-thirds or more of the community were recruited from amongst uneducated men whose contribution to the order was their labour skills. They embraced their work and considered themselves as having the same commitment as the monks themselves. Without the lay brothers [from which is derived our modern word, ’labourer’], Fountains could never have attained its great wealth or economic importance. Many served the Abbey in a wide range of capacities such as tanners, shoemakers, smiths, brewers and bakers, but their primary role was to tend the abbey's flocks of sheep. These animals were kept on the huge estates obtained by the abbey, including much of the grazing land above Malhamdale, and by the mid 13th century, Fountains had become one of the richest and largest of the religious houses in England.
Many of the lay brothers spent much of their lives on the abbey granges but would return regularly to their home monastery. In Malhamdale & Wharfedale the lay brothers evolved the pattern of roads and green lanes on the surrounding limestone uplands, with drove roads such as Mastiles Lane, but many of their routes were no more than moorland paths and these were often marked by wayside crosses to guide them in fog or when the paths became obscured.
Weets Cross is one such cross but it may not only have served as a route marker, it was probably also a gathering point at which monks and lay brothers might meet to say or sing the main services of each day. A third purpose for Weets Cross could be as a boundary stone for it stands very close to the junction of five townships. A township is the word given to a small settlement within a parish. There are ten separate townships in the parish of Kirkby in Malhamdale. The cross was restored in 1955 and only the base or socket stone, made from gritstone, is original. In 1947 the base was moved a little to the north and built into the south side of Weets Gate.
As you visit the cross, spare a thought for the lay brothers gathering to pray in this windswept place five hundred or more years ago, or trudging past it on their journey to Fountains Abbey, possibly from The Lake District, knowing that they still had thirty miles to go!
This cache is one of seven to be visited to gather co-ordinates for ‘A Malhamdale Meander Challenge’ multi cache. Part of the co-ordinates for that cache are fixed to the bottom of this cache and written on the cover of the log book.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nobhg 100z jrfg bs gur tngr ol gur pebff, haqre n guebhtu fgbar
Treasures
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