Tockholes Treat - No 1, Moss Farm Traditional Cache
vido: Time to put it to bed. I cannot maintain it any more, sorry.
Tockholes Treat - No 1, Moss Farm
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The ‘Treat’ is a series of caches, taking in ruins, old churches and a battlefield, based round Tockholes. For the more energetic, or those with a couple of hours to spare, the Treat can be completed as a 3.5 mile walk, but each cache can be done individually.
Best place to park is at Roddlesworth Info Centre & Café.
Tockholes itself is a quaint collection of hamlets just ‘ower t’hill’ from Darwen and covers about 2000 acres. The majority of the hamlets contain a farmhouse with outbuildings, nearby cottages , usually hand or silk loom weavers, and at least 200 years old and in most cases a 17th century gentleman’s residence. Some of the cottages became alehouses and some became shops selling provisions fro both humans and animals.
Rural cottagers supplemented their income by spinning and weaving cloth, mostly cotton but occasionally silk. Inventions such as the Spinning Jenny and Crompton’s Mule enabled factory yarn to be mass-produced and this increased demand for hand loom weaving. At the end of the 18th century or early 19th century, several short terraces for hand loom weavers’ cottages were built to cope with the increased demand. These had to be situated near springs or wells and so Tockholes didn’t develop an obvious centre of population.
The population peaked at 1,269 in 1821 after which factory weaving gradually replaced hand loom weaving and the population, by the end of the 19th century declined to about 500. This decline was slowed by the building of two mills in Tockholes: Victoria Mill (1838-1869) in Pleasant View and Hollinshead Mill (1859-1903) which was situated on what is now the car park at Roddlesworth Info. Centre. Both these mills employed about 150 people.
Concentration of population in the industrial towns and cities posed serious health problems in the 19th century and there was an urgent need for clean water supplies. Roddlesworth and Earnsdale reservoirs were created in the middle of the century and by the end of the century their catchment area had been cleared of livestock and human habitation in order to reduce pollution. Woodlands were planted to consolidate the soil and prevent it silting up the reservoirs.
MOSS FARM
Nothing much remains of this now but it was last occupied in 1915 when it had 26 acres. It was described then as a very basic 4 roomed house with attached barn and bedrooms that were open to the roof. It had one door and 4 windows and was tenanted by the Hollinshead Manor estate.
The much better preserved ruin visible is Green Hill, last occupied in the 1860’s and incorporated a hand loom weaving shop. There is no public right of way to this building.
THE CACHE IS ON THE PATH SIDE OF THE WALL & NOT IN THE WALL ITSELF SO PLEASE DON'T GO POKING AROUND IN IT.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
onfr bs jnyy orgjrra srapr cbfgf
Treasures
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