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peat and turbary Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Pennine Way Ranger: No longer available.

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Hidden : 4/8/2009
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
4 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This cache and others along the Pennine Way are part of a Multi-Cache trail that have been set up by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Natural England with kind permission of the landowners.

This cache is part of a longer series of Caches, located along the Yorkshire Dales section of the Pennine Way Footpath. There are 10 caches in total along the trail (8 traditional caches and 2 finale puzzle caches). The two finale caches need a combination code to access them. The only way to gain the combination for the final two puzzle caches is to find all of the other 8 traditional caches along the trail. Inside each cache will be a ‘cache code’ consisting of a word and a number. You must obtain these to open either one of the final two caches. The caches are as follows:

cave and karst (GC1P2JX)
cistercian miners (GC1P2P3)
sinkhole stash (GC1P2PT)
hill of the winds (GC1P3F6)
jackdaw hideout (GC1P2PT)
bridge over troubled water (GC1P2RK)
devils causeway (GC1P2R6)
peat and turbary (GC1PPAB)

final caches choose from either:

malham finale (GC1P3D4) or hawes finale (GC1PPAA)
Once the final caches have been opened follow the instructions to obtain your treasure!

Note: The final two caches have been designed in the same way so you only need to visit one of the caches.

Ten End Peat Ground

Turbary is an ancient common that allowed tennats to cut peat for fuel and to strip turf for other uses including reparing hedgebanks and roofing. Peat has been very important in the yorkshire dales, where in recent centuries there has been very little tree cover. Blancket peat occurs mainly in the highest parts of the national park with the deeepest peats occuring on the northern and western sides.

The borders between turbary plots were often subject to fierce disputes particularly by the seventeenth century, as tree cover lessened and the pressure on peat cutting grounds intensified. Turbary stones were used to demarcate those boundaries, showing the limits of one commoners (or more often group of commoners) rights on the ground. Turbary poaching between manors could lead to hefty fines, although in some cases a village would pay an annual fee to its neighbor for permission to dig turf on their land. Many peat cutting grounds appear not to have turbary stones, and it may be that they were originally marked in a different way, perhaps with wooden markers.

Peat was also used in the mining industry, and became the fuel of choice in many smelt mills. Grinton, Old Gang and Surrender smelt mills each had substantial buildings for storing peat. Turbary rights could be held to cut turf for both smelting and for the roofing of the mine buildings. It is not known if turbary grounds associated with different smelt mills would have been marked by boundary stones.
Peat cutting grounds can often be located through obvious place names, for example, ‘Burnsall Peat Pits’ in Wharfedale. The name ‘Moss’ is frequently associated with peat cutting grounds.

The boundary stones themselves are simple in design. Generally made from roughly shaped stone, they stand up to a metre in height and frequently bear carved initials. It is easy to confuse turbary stones with boundary stones that mark the edges of parish boundaries - both types of markers are often very much alike. One can be sure that a stone is a turbary stone when it located off the line of a parish boundary.

The cache is located on one of the many turbary peat cutting grounds, (ten end peat grounds).The location is high upon the peatland moors, therefore it is likely bad weather can oftern close in without warning. Please ensure before attempting this cache that you have sufficent knowlege of walking on the high fells.

More information on the Pennine Way can be found at www.nationaltrail.co.uk

Additional Hints (No hints available.)