Kirkharle & Lancelot "Capability" Brown Traditional Cache
Phil100: Unfortunately, this cache is "blocking" some plans to create a new series of caches being placed to celebrate the tercentenary of Lancelot "Capability" Brown's birthday. I have therefore, reluctantly, archived it! [:(]
Kirkharle & Lancelot "Capability" Brown
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A small cache with a log and pencil and a few small trinkets. Can probably accommodate small trackables.
Kirkharle is probably best known as the birthplace of Lancelot “Capability” Brown, arguably Britain’s greatest landscape architect. He was born in 1716 and was baptised at St Wilfred’s Church, Kirkharle which stands just a short distance off the A696, Newcastle to Jedburgh road.
After attending nearby Cambo School, Capability Brown started his career as a gardener for Sir William Loraine at Kirkharle Park. In 1739 he left Northumberland and moved firstly, to Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, and then Stowe where he worked under Sir William Kent, one of the founders of the English style of landscape gardening. His skills as a designer became greatly sought after and he worked on many of the finest houses and estates of England, including Hampton Court Palace where he was appointed Head Gardener in 1761. Brown returned often to Northumberland to visit his family and to oversee commissions. He drew up plans for Kirkharle, probably in about 1770, but these were never implemented.
One partly rebuilt wing of the Loraine mansion is now Kirkharle Courtyard which, as well as being a working farm, has been converted to artists’ and craft studios, small retail outlets and a coffee house. Between the Courtyard and St Wilfred’s Church is Kirkharle Manor which is an early 19th century former vicarage.
The cache is located between the Courtyard and the church near to a memorial stone which was erected in 1728 by Sir William Loraine replacing an older stone marking where Robert Loraine “was barbarously murdered in this place by the Scots in 1483, for his good services to his country against their thefts and robbery, as he was returning from the church alone, where he had been at his private devotions.”
A new exhibition has recently opened celebrating the work of Capability Brown and the history of Kirkharle using information panels set around the Courtyard site. Further display panels are positioned at the Loraine Monument and inside St Wilfred’s Church.
There is free parking for visitors to the exhibition and facilities at Kirkharle Courtyard.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n fgbar.
Treasures
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