I was going to try and make this into an Earthcache but geoaware do not approve EarthCaches that are solely based on a visitor center, museum of other facility display so it’s now a multi based on the site below.
The listing co-ordinates are for the Parkridge Centre in Brueton Park, Solihull which is one of two centres belonging to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. WWT holds regular hands-on activities for children here and provides interactive exhibits & information on matters concerning the environment and conservation. The Centre was opened in October 2002 by Professor David Bellamy and, thanks to a donation from Birmingham International Airport, it has a ramp for the disabled so that the pleasant woodland walk around a wildfowl lake, the café & shop and bird-feeding viewing area are now easily accessible to all. Also in the grounds is a comprehensive set of display panels, complete with rock and fossil specimens, which gives visitors an excellent appreciation of the previous climatic conditions the land which is now the county of Warwickshire experienced in the past.
Parking is available at N 52 24.524 W 001 45.720.
Please note the Parkridge Centre is currently open 10 am to 4 pm from Nov to March and 10 am to 4.30 pm from April to October. The cache itself is available 24 hours a day and accessible to wheelchairs as it is sited only a short distance from a tarmac path across some short grass.
The Display Panels & Rock Specimens
The display called A Walk Through Geological Time in Warwickshire was created by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group and funded jointly by the WGCG, the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, The Geology Trusts & Warwickshire County Council. It starts with a Precambrian and Cambrian board at N 52 24.407 W 001 45.878 and then runs back towards the centre (where there are some other specimens and panels which are interesting but not part of the cache!) You will need to look at the panels and specimens shown in the listing photo to find the answers to the following questions which will then give you the location of the cache. The questions roughly follow the order of the panels in terms of geological time.
According to the first board, the area we know as Warwickshire was under the sea ‘A’ hundred million years ago.
How many hundred million years ago was it that Warwickshire was situated close to the equator? This number is B.
During the Permian era, Warwickshire was situated about 2 C degrees N of the equator.
Towards the end of the Triassic period what sort of place was Warwickshire?
If it was under the sea with layers of mud and sand being deposited D = 1
If it was a featureless mosaic of arid salt flats and lakes D = 4
If it was a humid swamp with remains of primitive forest trees D = 8
For how many million years was a shallow, sunlit sea spread across what was to become Central England? Divide this figure by 10 to find E.
Beneath one of the panels are specimens of Warwickshire (W) & Kenilworth (K) sandstones. What colours would you say they were?
If W = red and K = yellow then F = 1; if W = yellow and K = red then F = 2; if W = orange and K = grey then F = 3 and if both are the same colour then F = 4
Note you may have to scratch a bit of the surface to remove green algal growth to see the real colour.
Reg Stokes donated a glacial erratic which was carried into Warwickshire from the north by a glacier. It is to be seen below the Quaternary “Ice Age” board and the value of G depends where it came from
If Northfield G = 6, Shirley G = 7, Castle Bromwich G = 8 or if Olton G = 9
Now you can work out ‘p’ to ‘y’
p = E minus F
q = A minus B
r = G minus B
s = D minus F
t = G minus D
w = C plus F
x = C minus F
y = A minus C
Cache co-ordinates are N 52 2 p . q r s W 001 4 t . w x y
When you (hopefully) log your ‘find’, feel free to post a photo of yourself in the grounds or in the café but please not in front of parts of the display which would reveal the answers! Good luck
~~~ Roll of Honour ~~~
FTF - Stokesy
STF - leftrightorstraighton
TTF - pete3
Congratulations!!
& special thanks to Stokesy for pointing out a major mistake on my part ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~