Quaker Quest: Garsdale Multi-Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is the first of a series of Quaker caches (depending on obtaining permissions).
George Fox visited this area in 1652, and convinced many of the local families to dedicate their lives to God. The middle of the seventeenth century was a time when traditional local family farms were being split into smaller holdings, and the better weather at that time (global warming?) meant that farms could support a growing population. Around 1690, William Raw built a Quaker meeting house on his land above Long House. It is not known exactly when the burial ground was opened, but the first to be buried here was William Raw himself in 1698.
The Quakers did not see the need to mark the sites of decaying remains with headstones, so nearly all graves are unmarked, but more than eighty Quakers were buried here, the last being Agnes Harker in 1796. There are no records of burials here in the last 200 years, except for Thomas Moore and John Richard Wilkinson, both descendants of the original Quakers. The burial ground above Dandra Garth was sold by the Quakers in 1988 and bought by three of the descendants of families buried there. It is still available for burials without charge! (For permission, e-mail the owner of the cache.)
The cache is in two stages: an easily accessible mini, and the main cache. The mini-cache here should be easy to find - not much choice of hiding places. (It is NOT in the wall; just rest a while.) It contains instructions for finding the traditional cache nearby. The mini is just two-star rating, but the main cache can be tricky because it involves a short "scramble" over difficult terrain which can be very wet at times – avoid the mire in the middle! – there is a ridge for relatively dry access. There is also a problem with GPS reception around the main cache, so finding it might be difficult without the clue. Try walking along the road to get your GPSr to work, but the cache is not visible from the road.
The parking and main cache area was once a gold mine (except that no real gold was found), then a quarry. During the second world war, the Home Guard placed concrete "sandbags" here to form a defence against invading Germans who never came!
Hundreds of years ago, there was probably a blacksmith's here because it is known as "Smith Well" and until about ten years ago there was a trough with running water for horses and weary travellers to drink.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[micro:] Ybbx qbja nf lbh cenl.
[main cache:] Fznyyrfg pnir ng onfr bs pyvss orgjrra snyyra gerrf. Arne snyyra oybpx.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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