The Moonrakers
The Moonrakers legend can be interpreted two ways and it takes on
several forms as to time and place.
One version is that a traveller came upon drunken Wiltshire
yokels trying to rake a reflection of the full moon in a village
pond convinced it was a cheese. This one conveys the notion that
Wiltshire men were drunk and stupid.
However, another (true?) version says the legend shows these
yokels to be very clever and that they originated back in the 17th
century in Devizes. A group of smugglers were forced to hide their
loot in a pond, the Crammer, when they were tipped off that the
Revenue men were waiting in ambush. They returned on the night of a
full moon to the Crammer with rakes. This again attracted the
attention of the Revenue men. When asked what they were about they
pretended that they were raking a cheese, the moons reflection,
from the water. No doubt the Revenue men walked away shaking their
heads at the stupidity of the ‘simple’ Wiltshire folk
leaving them to recover their contraband at their leisure.
This legend has become firmly embedded in the folklore of
Wiltshire and the natives of Wiltshire were known. The name has
spread throughout Wiltshire with pubs, clubs, hotels and even
learned societies named after them.
I recollect hearing of a local after-hours Wiltshire drinking
den being renamed the lofty title The Moonrakers Literary Society
to get around the antiquated English licensing laws of that time.
Thus members could quite legally be served liquor beyond the 2230hr
deadline of those days. I believe that the local police were
forever encountering drunks after a late night at the Literary
Society. A modern take on an old legend shows us again how our
‘simple’ Wiltshire man once again has the last
laugh.
The Venue
The Moonrakers is run by Russell and his family and they serve
high quality meals every day from 1200 till 2100, there is a nice
beer garden where we can meet if the weather is ok, the pub is dog
and cacher friendly. There are wheelchair ramps into the lounge,
parking in the pub car park and if the car park if full there is
plenty of street parking.
The Event
As I stated earlier on, the event will start around 2pm until late,
this will give cachers a wider time bracket so they can try and fit
it in their busy caching programs, Russell the landlord has kindly
donated a prize for the raffle, the proceeds of which will be going
towards the MEGA WALES EVENT.[/, if anybody has anything else that
they would like to contribute to the raffle it will be warmly
welcomed, if you have not cached in this area before then you are
in for a treat as there are 192 caches within a 4 mile radius of
the pub, should keep you going for an hour or so.
If you have never been to an event before don’t be shy, this
little event is just the job for a first time meet, add this cache
to your watch list so you’ll know about any updates. Hope to
see you soon.
Stan.
Mollyjak (from Wales) will be attending this event and will be
running a tombola and will be bringing some Mega Wales calendars
and coins for sale.
There will be a new cache nearby and should be
listed in time for the event.