This is the fifth in a series of 7 caches that forms part of a circular walk around the village of Hurworth On Tees (incorporating Hurworth Place).
Each set of coordinates will take you to a cache site, and waypoints are shown for parking and navigation where necessary. If you are planning on doing all 7 caches in the series it will involve a round trip of approximately 2-3 miles, and in this case suitable parking can be found at the Local Community Centre Hurworth Grange (Parking N54 29.174 W001 32.548). Please note bicycles are prohibited on parts of the full circular route as they are classed as footpaths not as bridleways. Part of the route also involves the use of styles so if you have a pushchair you might have to man-handle it over the styles. In wet weather you are advised to where suitable footwear. Two caches in the series are wheelchair accessible and are located within approximately 2 meters of a roadway but assistance would be required to retrieve the final cache. THIS CACHE IS wheelchair accessible Please replace the caches carefully.
Enjoy!
The original Hurworth Rectory was situated close to this cache site (just beyond the small group of trees) but was demolished to make way for the new housing estate of Friars Pardon (but is colloquial known as The Vicar’s Hiccup) The house was built by the Reverend Faber in the late 1800’s who then gave it to the Church Commissioners so his son could continue to live there. The Reverend Lenard Piper was the last incumbent to live in the house before he moved to a new Rectory which was built on Croft Road in 1946. The house was then bought by a Darlington solicitor and his wife who lived there and ran a smallholding. It was a very elegant house with ornately carved door lintels and fireplaces, a panelled hall and a grand and magnificent staircase. There was another fine building at the rear with a pan-tiled roof and open archways on either side. The house was eventually sold to Shepherd's the Builders, but the Solicitors wife was given the special privilege of being allowed to choose the name of the new estate which Shepherd's intended to build there. She settled on Friars Pardon from a story by Rudyard Kipling in a book called Actions and Reactions which tells the story of an American couple who discover an old run down house in England called Friars Pardon. They buy it and farm the surrounding land. The solicitor's wife felt this mirrored her own story and chose it as a suitable name for the new housing estate. A picture of the original house can be seen in the background of this page. Ooh by the way don't forget to wave to the Geocachers who live under the acorn.