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Down by the river Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Royal Oak: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it.

If you wish to email me please send your email via my profile (click on my name) and quote the cache name and number.

Regards

Royal Oak
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Hidden : 10/5/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

On the wide grassy bank of the river Kent.

Find a well liked tree (without the you) at the coordinates. The cache is a small tube in a camo bag.

Over the road from here was Goodacres carpet mill. Production only ceased here in 2007 when manufacturing was moved to Poland to cut costs. William Goodacre (est 1863) moved here from Holme Mills in 1930s and now employs only 30 people on site where once a hundred and sixty were once busy using local wool & materials to carpet homes across the country.

Now the site is busy again, Anord Mardix employing many skilled people and The Factory Tap with real ale and pizza available in the evenings.

In the 20s the river flowed over a weir below Stramongate bridge which fed a large mill race behind Gooseholme (island) and into the industrial complexes on what is now Aynam Road. The present day Scouts hut is built on the site of a long wier that could divert water back into the river so as not to overwhelm the mills! The race then passed the front of Gilkses engineering works and on through Castle mill (Goodacres) only returning to its present bed once level with Abbott Hall. (see gallery for a map) The only sign of this still in existence seems to be a small netted pond South of the current Goodacres buildings.

Formed in 1853 Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd is still very much in business. They established an agricultural equipment supply company to meet the increasing mechanisation needs of agricultural processes. The original premises were outside the town but in 1856 the company moved to its existing location where it has been ever since. At one point the mill race was at the front of the building while the final arm of the Kendal canal came into the back yard. A Gilkes turbine generated the power for the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. Armstrong - the famous Victorian military industrialist and inventor - equiped his house Cragside over at Rothbury with electric lighting powered from a Gilkes turbine in 1878 having failed to better their design himself.

Gilkes now have bases in America and Japan as well as here in Kendal. If only we used the free water power our ancestors harnessed; maybe its only a matter of time before we see sense again!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Uvqqra va 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)