Speech House Central 6 - The Big 'S' Traditional Cache
Speech House Central 6 - The Big 'S'
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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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.
Between cache 5 and cache 6 the cycleway passes alongside Dilke Hospital and under the road from Speech House to Cinderford. The track then passes alongside the old Lightmoor Colliery and present day saw mill. All that remains of the once thriving colliery today is the engine house which contained the Neath Abbey Ironworks built engine. Rather a pity to see it all gone but probably not so for the hundreds of men who had to work down the pit in unbelievably dangerous conditions.
My own grandfather and great grandfather worked at Lightmoor and travelled to work every weekday from Pillowell via Yorkley and what is now Mallards Pike. They shared a bike between them and whilst the older man set out on the bike (after waking up his son-in-law by rubbing a stone on the front wall of the cottage) my grandfather would follow on foot. At a pre-arranged point in the woods the bike would be left and the old man would walk the rest of the way, allowing his son-in-law to catch him up on the bike as they arrived for their shift. The journey would be done in reverse after a full day down the pit – little wonder my grandfather died in his mid fifties leaving nan as a widow for nearly 30 years. You could perhaps make a film about it but it would probably be far too dismal and depressing for modern audiences.
Cache 6 is placed on the big ‘S’ bend after the saw mill and is a small camouflaged screw top container. If you do not understand the clue please blame Mrs CB who has far too much strange information in her memory banks (Google may also help).
With thanks to the Forestry Commission for allowing us to place this cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Eri. Gbcynql'f 1775 ulza - svefg naq ynfg gjb yvarf.