Tractor tour 2 (High Street) Traditional Cache
Tractorboy80: Sadly I no longer have time to maintain these so this should give someone else a chance to put some out in the village.
Tractor tour 2 (High Street)
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It’s about time that this historic village had some caches! I’ve placed a series of 5 magnetic nanos on a circular route which also lends itself to a cache-and-dash by car. Please bring your own pen/pencil (initials only in the log please).
Parking is available throughout the village, and the route is suitable for all; the greatest challenge for this series will be muggles!
Willingham’s early history is closely linked with the Bishops of Ely. From the time when the Diocese of Ely was founded, in 1109, strong links developed between the Bishops of Ely and the village (then known as Wivelingham, a spelling which persisted until the 18th century). Willingham manor was given to the Bishop and was held by his successors for the next five centuries. In 1599 the then Bishop handed the manor to the Queen (Elizabeth l) who sold it to Sir Miles Sandys.
A practical consideration which must have helped the link to last for so long was the fact that the Aldreth Causeway, which crosses the eastern area of Willingham, was the main route between Ely and Cambridge throughout the Middle Ages – and Willingham is at roughly the half way point. It was not until the late 17th century that a bridge was built across the Ouse at Earith (where the current road north from Willingham runs).
In fact the links between Ely and Willingham went back even further than the 12th century. When Elsin was Abbot of Ely (981-1016) Uva, ‘a good man’, gave the village of Wivelingham ‘to God and his dear Virgin Etheldreda’ to be held in perpetuity. This was set down, in the presence of witnesses, in a formal document, as a title deed. It appears to be the earliest documentary reference to Willingham.
Etheldreda was the foundress of the monastery that later became Ely Cathedral. Appropriately, the oldest known painting of Etheldreda is to be found in St Mary & All Saints Church, Willingham – the oldest in its remarkable collection of medieval wall paintings. (St Mary & All Saints has been the parish church since 1763. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was St Matthews).
This cache meets the GAGB Urban Placement Guidelines
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nobir urnq urvtug
Treasures
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