The cache contains the usual items PLUS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION so that you can find out more about the history of this interesting and beautiful area.
The co-ordinates for the Carperby Communities multi-cache are NOT THE ACTUAL CO-ORDINATES for the cache site, but for the National Park Centre and car park in Aysgarth (charge).
The co-ordinates for the actual geocache are:
N A B ° C D . E F G , W 001° H I . J K L
Your task is to complete the co-ordinates for the geocache by taking a walk of approximately 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometres) around Aysgarth Falls and Carperby village. Use the map to guide you.
A and B: Find the interpretation board to the left of the Aysgarth Falls National Park Centre entrance. Look for the date that the Wensleydale railway closed. The third number in the year will give you A and the last number will give you B.
All of the other clues can be found around the neighbouring village of Carperby. The safest way to get there is to follow the signpost at the car park exit to the Middle and Lower Falls. This will take you down a steep fenced path to a road crossing – be careful of fast moving traffic as you cross the road here. Go through the gate and enter the wood. At the signpost, take the path to the left towards Bolton Castle.
You are now walking through Freeholders’ Wood, so called because from medieval times permissions were given to the people of Carperby (the freeholders) to collect deadwood from the woodland floor to use in their homesteads for such things as fires. They were also allowed to cut back the hazel trees in such a way that encouraged future growth as tall, thin stems which made flexible poles. These pieces of wood could be woven to make fences, baskets or the larger ones would be used as stakes or handles for tools. Managing the hazel in this way is called coppicing and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority rangers and volunteers continue to manage the wood in this way to conserve the range of plants within the area.
Follow the path, ignoring all side turnings and carrying straight on past a signpost that points backwards and forwards, simply displaying the word ‘footpath’ both ways. After a short while, you will reach a second similar signpost – this time you should turn left off the main path and walk up the hill through a cutting in an embankment that carried the railway in years gone by.
The route bears to the left and if you have a good sense of direction, you might feel as if you are heading back to the start of the walk. You are now looking for a path on the right that leads to a small gate in the wall that encloses the wood – both the gate and the field beyond it are visible from the start of this path. If you look straight ahead along the main path at this point, you will see that there is a fork in the path ahead.
Once through the gate the path continues straight on through fields before bearing diagonally left towards the village (from the edge of the wood to the bend in the path you should cross four walls using stiles or lambing gates). After a little way you will cross a tarmac farm road - simply cross it and continue on through the fields to the village.
When you reach the main road you have arrived in Carperby, a small settlement that has seen many changes in its people over the years. Essentially a village based on agriculture, it has seen the hustle and bustle of a weekly market and even the scandal of a new religion! Turn left and follow the road towards the village green and war memorial, where the clues start.
Take care with traffic again here as there is no pavement in the village.
C: Once at the village green, look around for the Wesleyan chapel. Use the first number of the year inscribed on the date stone to get C.
The Methodist church as it is now known started out as small groups following the preaching of John Wesley whose vision was a simple version of the mainstream Christian religion. He aimed to reach out to labourers and the like rather than just the elite class the Church of England engaged with at that time. They often formed small communities who congregated to offer support and advice to each other. A complete break from the Church of England was not encouraged whilst Wesley was alive but as a group they weren’t welcome in the established churches, so they resorted to preaching outdoors. In time their numbers increased and they eventually built new chapels to house their growing congregations.
Prior to this, an earlier group called the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, had paved the way for non-conformist religion (against the ideals of the Church of England), as there was a growing amount of unrest amongst the peasantry that the Church shielded power and money rather than supporting the lowly worker.
D and E: Look for the Quaker meeting house nearby and find the date stone that shows the year it was built. Take the second number of the date to get D, and subtract 1 from the third number to get E.
The Quakers emerged 100 years or so earlier than the Methodist movement from a group of people who believed that the right spiritual path could be found within themselves, not from listening to preachers or clergy, perhaps for the reasons above.
F and G: Now find the market cross and look around the area to find the year that Edna died. The third number of the date will give you F, while subtracting 1 from the last number will give you G.
H: Now look more closely at the market cross to find the date on the side. Take the second number of the year and subtract 1 to get H.
George Fox, the founder of the Quaker religion, is said to have stood on these very steps to preach to a small community of onlookers in the mid 17th century, before the Friends Meeting House was built. He must have been passionate in his views to stand up in the open and preach in such a fashion against the Church of England. It was an activity that landed him in jail several times over his lifetime.
Despite the dates on the cross, the village of Carperby had a license granted for a weekly market as early as 1305, when people would have travelled to exchange wool, cheese and butter for food grown outside the valley. Over the centuries the growth of nearby Askrigg may have rendered this smaller market out of fashion and the date perhaps refers to when the market was revived in the 17th century.
Return now along the road in the direction you originally came in from. Look out for St Matthew’s well on your left hand side. As in many villages the war memorial is a reminder of how many fathers and grandfathers along with horses commandeered by the army would have been lost in the First World War. In an area that essentially still earned its living from farming this must have made quite an impact.
I and J: Carry on along the road and look out for the Wheatsheaf pub. This is where Mr and Mrs Alf Wight stayed on their honeymoon. You might think this an unremarkable fact until you know that Alf is better known by his alias, James Herriot, the vet turned author who brought international fame to the Yorkshire Dales.
Take the second number of the honeymoon year to get I and the third number to get J.
K and L: Continue to walk along the road until you find the village hall and find the original date plaque (take care as there are different dates at each end of the building - you are looking for the year when the hall was first built). Use the final number of the year for K and the third number for L.
The village hall maintains a vital role within the community, for instance during the war years it doubled up as a platoon headquarters. Modified in 2005 to become a venue with easier access, today its main purpose it to provide a venue for parties and other gatherings.
You now have all of the digits that make up the co-ordinates of the cache location. For peace of mind, the total sum of the digits A to L should be 61. The final cache is just under four tenths miles from the village hall.
Once you have found the cache, you can return to Aysgarth Falls National Park car park by taking the path that goes out of Carperby opposite the pub and re-tracing your steps across the fields and through Freeholders’ Wood.