There's the Church Micro series started by sadexploration.
There's the Blind House series started by Hellspaw.
There's the Little Bridges series started by stanthews.
There's the Two Degress West series that we started.
And there are probably others...
To celebrate our 1000th find,
we'd like to start a UK Toll House series.
At the time of setting this cache there were only eight caches using the words 'Toll House' and they were all in the USA.
Shane's Castle is one of four toll houses that were on the roads leading from Devizes and is the only one remaining. It was built around 1830-40 and was in use as a toll house until 1868. In the 1960s and 70s it was the home of a retired gentleman who lived there until he was well into his nineties. It was empty for many years, except for some squatters who used it for a while, and then in 2002 it was purchased as a family residence. Much restoration work was done and now it is back in use as a home. Unfortunately, the website detailing the restoration of the building is no longer available.
We are grateful to the owners for permission to place the cache on their property.
Please do not knock on the door.
PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL APPROACHING AND AT THE CACHE SITE
AS YOU WILL BE VERY CLOSE TO A MAIN ROAD.
We have known Shane's Castle for many years. Back in the 1960s we both attended Devizes Grammar School, which was split between two buildings. One was across the A360 from Shane's Castle, known as Main School and was, until July 2012, the home of St Peter's Primary School, now closed. The other half of the Grammar School was just up the road on the other side at Braeside. At the end of each lesson a good number of pupils would walk from one building to the other for the next lesson. We always crossed the road at Shane's Castle: at the town end if going to Braeside and at the other if going to Main School.
There is a lay-by on the A360 where you should be able to park. Now that the school has closed there is no restriction on parking here.
If other geocachers would like to set caches near UK Toll Houses, please get in touch with us first and we'll number them in the same way as the Church Micro series. We would ask that the name is in the form "UK Toll House nnn - Local name". If you have a system of numbering your own caches, as we do, please put that at the end.
Many thanks to The Wobbly Club for being the first to set up another UK Toll House - details here. They have since set up another one.
All active UK Toll House caches can be found here.
