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Bawming the Thorn Multi-Cache

Hidden : 5/12/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Rates 1.5 because there is high muggle potential!

The co-ordinates will take you to the location of the Appleton thorn tree, the site of the unique bawming ceremony. This ceremony takes place once a year, usually the third Saturday in June where children dance around the tree and sing the bawming song. There will be lots of muggles about on this day, so retrieving the cache will prove very difficult, especially in the afternoon.
The tree is on a busy road and parking is available by the church.
Bawming is an ancient word of Saxon derivation meaning to decorate or adorn. Each bawming day the children of Appleton Thorn Primary School decorate the tree with red ribbons and garlands, perform the dance and sing the bawming song. The song was written by R.E. Egerton-Warburton a local land owner in Victorian times. Here is the chorus:

Up with red ribbons this midsummer morn
Up with fresh garlands on Appleton Thorn
Come lasses and lads to the Thorn tree today
To bawm it and shout as you bawm it – “Hooray!”

Also at the ceremony a child dresses as a crusader and re-enacts the planting of the thorn tree. The legend has it that the original thorn tree was a cutting from the famous Glastonbury holy thorn tree in Somerset and brought to the village by Adam De Dutton, a local land owner, as a token of thanks for his safe return from the crusades in 1178. There has always been a thorn tree in the area and the present one was planted in 1967, after the previous one had blown down in 1965.
This tree was one of the fifty trees named a ‘Great British Tree’ by The Tree Council to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s golden jubilee in 2002.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Abegu Jrfg pbeare bs puhepu lneq jnyy nobhg 30z sebz gerr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)