Speech House Central 4 - Round the Bend. Traditional Cache
Speech House Central 4 - Round the Bend.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Here is another of our circular routes this time with Speech House at its centre. The trail is along the cycle track that follows the route of the old forest mining railway, with various starting points along the way. We started the trail from the bottom of Speech House Hill where there is free parking (outside the barriers) for 8-10 cars. Other suitable parking places are available.
This trail may be done on bikes or on foot. It is just over 7 miles however so is more suitable for bikers or fit walkers. The trail may be split into 2 sections for those on foot, with routes back to parking spots via Spruce Ride or the Gloucestershire Way, but by the time you have done this you might as well have walked the total distance on the easier cycle track. The trail is also on very good made up tracks and the gradient is never severe – as long as you attempt the caches in numerical order. Attempt the circuit in reverse numerical order & you will see why we put that bit in bold.
The caches are quite widely spaced apart, to avoid cyclists having to hop on & off too frequently. We would also suggest a local Explorer map (OL14) may be useful, or download one from the Internet, or use the marvels of technology on your GPS – they show the route accurately and have the local parking and picnic spots on them.
If you fancy a break for lunch there are quite a few places to consider – New Fancy picnic site, Beechenhurst picnic site and BBQs, Speculation picnic site off the New Road or Folders Green/Cannop picnic site – depends where & when you set off from on the circuit. Don’t forget, if you are parked up inside a barrier get back to the car by 5pm in the winter months, or you could have a long journey home that night. In the summer you have at least 2 hours more time available.
Cache 4 is, as the title suggests, round the large bend in which the old track wound south and east towards Crump Meadow and Foxes Bridge collieries. Both collieries were producers of household coal and both closed due to decreasing amounts of workable coal and increasing amounts of water that had to be pumped out of the pits. Crump Meadow closed late in 1929 whilst Foxes Bridge followed soon after in 1931.
The third and premier household coal producer in the Cinderford area was Lightmoor which is further along our route, beyond Dilke Hospital, and which remained open until 1940.
Cache 4 is a small to medium sized clip lock box with camouflage.
With thanks to the Forestry Commission for permission to place this cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zhygv gehaxrq Snthf flyingvpn.