Great Somerford is a small rural village approximately 4 miles
South East of Malmesbusy in Wiltshire and has a population of
around 650.
Suggested parking coordinates for this series are N51 32.557
W002 03.245 where you should be able to park on the road nearby.
This is the centre of the village and nearby is The Volunteer Arms
public house and the village shop.
The series is made up of 6 small caches and a final bonus cache
which is at N51 32.292 W002 03.926. What? You’ve told us the
location of the bonus cache! Absolutely, and you’re quite welcome
to go straight to it. However, there is a small catch – the bonus
cache is padlocked shut and you won’t be able to open it unless you
solve a little puzzle....and no prizes for guessing where the clues
are!
The puzzle
I am a great fan of cryptic crosswords and have based the puzzle
around the following one:
Each of the 6 small caches contains one of the clues. Once
you’ve solved the crossword take the letters from the shaded
squares and arrange them to make a further 5 letter word – if it's
right it will open the padlock on the final cache.
Route information
If you complete the caches as I did the route will take you on
two loops both of which start and end at the village centre. The
first loop is around a mile in length and takes you around the
village itself, the second loop is just under two and a half miles
and is mostly through fields containing crops.
In some places you will be walking along roads that do not have
any pavements, they are not generally busy but please take extra
care whilst on these sections. I’ll leave it to you to decide the
exact route to take but the following notes of the route I took may
help and draw your attention to some points of interest along the
way.
On your way to the second cache of the series you will pass the
beautifully kept war memorial. Immediately before the second cache
you will see the path leading to the church dedicated to St. Peter
and St. Paul. On the left of the church path is Mount House which
is where one of the two manors was established here when William
the Conqueror divided the land surrounding the village after the
Battle of Hastings. The other manor is now Manor Farm in West
Street which you will pass on your way back to the parking
co-ordinates after you have finished the series – be sure to keep a
look out for it.
From the third cache if you make your way to the road nearby and
turn right it will lead you back to the village centre. On the left
hand side you will pass the Free Gardens – this is probably the
oldest allotment site in the country and was given to the
agricultural workers of the parish in 1809 as part of the village’s
enclosure act.
After cache number five, I took a little shortcut instead of
crossing the bridge. The aim was to cut across to another nearby
footpath, taking in cache number six along the way. To follow my
shortcut continue past the bridge along the edge of the field and
then turn left into the next field.
After cache six head towards the gate in the corner but before
you get there you should see where the other footpath comes in from
the left – turn right here to follow it across the field to another
gate. If you go straight ahead it does cut off the corner but the
gate in the corner is padlocked and marked private. When you’re
back on the road turn left heading back towards Honey Acre
Farm.
The actual footpath leads down the driveway to Honey Acre Farm
and then round to a house on the the right, through a gate into
their back garden and then over a stile. Sadly, the field over the
stile was taped off for horses cutting off the footpath.
Backtracking a little I discovered that if you turn right through a
large gap in the hedge just near the end of the main drive into the
field it’s a much easier path. It looks to me as though the terrain
has changed since it was last mapped – the wooded area extends
further across and the original footpath would now bisect it.
Walking around the edge of the adjacent field in this manner is far
simpler.
Stick to the edge of this field until you get past the wooded
area, now turn left into the adjacent field to walk along the edge
of the wood. When setting this series I saw plenty of rabbits and
several deer in this field.
After locating the bonus cache you can follow the footpath
straight across the middle of this field to the gate on the far
side. This will bring you out onto the road – turn right and follow
the road all the way back to the village centre. On the way you
will pass Manor Farm as previously mentioned.
I hope you managed to solve the puzzle and enjoyed finding this
series as much as I did setting it.
When replacing this bonus cache I would be grateful if you could
give the lock dials a good mix up, replace the small bag protecting
the lock as best as possible and make sure that it's well hidden
again. Thank you.