The year is 1840. Box is booming, thanks largely to the ongoing construction of Box Tunnel, which began in 1836 and will complete in 1841. Between 1831 and 1841, the population in this area will grow by over 45%, from 1,550 to 2,274 – a significant impact on the local community.
Around this time, a new main road was built in Box. It ran from the village up to the crossroads to the south of Chapel Plaister, turning that junction into what is now known as Five Ways. The last house on the left, as you travel up this road out of the village, was the Melksham Road Toll House, where our tale is set (now Devizes Road).
First, let's meet Tom the Tollkeeper. He's of sound character, but a bit of a jobsworth – nothing gets past him! Next, meet Conn the Carter, a sort of Victorian White Van Man. He's in and out of Box most days, transporting various goods for different customers. Today, he's got a cartload of building materials, destined for Melksham.
Tom stops him at the Toll House. It turns out that the County Auditors, Lookard & Fyneham, are due their annual visit, and Tom needs to balance his ledgers. He has a number of outstanding toll charges that Conn owes him, spanning back a few months.
[For this next bit, we have to apply some further artistic licence. Once more, Gralorn pointed us towards some suitable material, and we've unsubtly adapted it!]
Tom runs through assorted outstanding items with Conn. Here are some ledger excerpts that we’ve elaborated on, although we don't seem to have a record of the actual amounts:
| 26/03 |
A drove of cattle (very neatly turned out they were too); but as there were only 19 of them (a calf had wandered off, while a little ale was being supped back at The Bear Inn), Tom has generously given Conn a discount of 1d over the normal tariff for a score. |
| 07/04 |
One cart which was NOT solely employed in lime/manure business; furthermore, this cart's wheels were only 2 inches wide (oh dear). |
| 15/06 |
One score of sheep; plus two unladen (and unartistic) mules. |
| 01/07 |
One score of pigs went up to Wadswick for fattening. |
| 19/09 |
Remember those pigs that went up to Wadswick for fattening? Once duly fattened, they came back down again for an appointment with Dave the Butcher down at the Market Place. |
| 30/10 |
Conn got hold of one of those new-fangled springy coach things and took it for a spin to Bradford. |
Well, as Tom and Conn were negotiating over the fine print, quite a crowd gathered, sensing a little tension and excitement. Unfortunately, Ben, Conn's normally docile carthorse, was agitated by the hubbub. He reared, and the cart's contents spilled everywhere on the road. Gravity took over, and anything that could roll, did roll.
To cut a long story short, most items were either recovered by Conn, else mysteriously found their way into nearby villagers' homes and yards. However, sadly one item was never found. Conn always used to carry with him on his cart a little casket of treasures and keepsakes; nothing of too much value, but it was much missed by Conn. Perhaps modern-day Geocachers will have more success in locating Conn's keepsakes?
Now for the all-important small print. The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. The posted coordinates are for the Toll House itself. This is now a private residence; please respect their privacy, and I repeat, do NOT look for the cache there.
A waypoint is given below for a possible parking place on the main road. Please be careful if you park here. This is a busy road, so keep any youngsters (and not-so-youngsters) under control.
So where is the cache? It's very close by, but you first need to work out the code below:
N 51° 24. MTW
W 002° 14. TFS
The cache should be accessible for virtually all, but please take care on the lanes. Also, a little stealth is required, as the cache site is potentially overlooked by one or two homes nearby. We couldn't decide whether the cache was a large Small, or a small Regular, so we clicked on the side of caution.
Remember, this is a simple cache and dash, so there's no long hunt through Box countryside like some of our other caches; however, if you do fancy combining this cache with such a hunt, you could attempt it part-way through GC1ZD4D Highs and Lows of Box. Just divert to this cache after waypoint S4/STAG04 of Highs and Lows and, when finished, jump straight to waypoint S6/STAG06. The route will be self-evident and you'll miss nothing significant.
You can check your answer for this puzzle here.
All active UK Toll House caches can be found here.