Having had much pleasure hunting down caches set by other Geocachers, we felt that it was high-time we set our own and this is our very first !
We have family that live in the village represented by the above co-ordinates and have enjoyed many a nice walk with the dogs along the disused railway line by the River Witham. Indeed this old railway line (tracks and sleepers all long gone) has recently been given a tarmac veneer and forms part the Water Rail Way, which itself provides links into the Viking Way (a long distance footpath running 147 miles between the Humber Bridge and Oakham in Rutland).
However, even in the 1960’s the line was active for the daily schedule, but also for special trips such as the ‘Anglers Excursion’.
To illustrate what the village station looked like when operational, the photograph below (August 1965) shows the 1515 Sunday service from Coningsby to Lincoln Central standing at the station.
Not only did British Rail offer the ‘Anglers Excursion’, but at this time it was also still possible to cross the River Witham by ferry.
The photograph shows the chain operated ferry itself. This was one of a number (others being at Stixwould and Fiskerton), which enabled foot passengers and vehicles to cross the River Witham.
In 1947 the ferry was owned by the brewers Ind Coope and was operated by the tenant of the White Horse Inn. Yet despite the fact that in the late 1940s it only carried 3 vehicles per week, the ferry managed to survive until 1965, largely to serve passenger needs at the nearby Southrey village railway station.
Sadly, this route into Lincoln closed to passengers on October 5th, 1970, although a section to Horncastle via Woodhall Junction remained open to freight, later being truncated so that Bardney was the terminus until it closed completely in 1981.
Subsequent documentation states that the station buildings were removed for reconstruction at Railworld some years ago but have yet to be reassembled.
Anyway, that’s enough history, back to the geocache.
27th August 2012 - on inspection, the cache was found to be missing - replaced with a 35mm film pot sized cache.
10th May 2023 - I will replace the log (reported to be wet) when I next visit the village, but in the meantime, could I request that the next finders of the cache replace the wet log with a simple dry piece of paper .. many thanks.
Please replace it carefully so that it is not too easy to see.