This meet is on Saturday 19th November and will start at 1
o clock, however, some cachers have other commitments on Saturday
afternoons so you can attend the event from as early as 11 am. I
have chosen the same venue as it is very accommodating and serves
excellent food, The landlord has again kindly donated the usual 3
course meal for two with a bottle of wine which can be won with the
fun I am planning for this event.
Come and chat about your plans for caching and what caching you
have done, swap some trackables, you may even win a nice raffle
prize. Watch this listing for updates as there is some fun
planned.
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,
children 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
The event will start around 1pm until late, I will be there from 11
am if you need to be early because of afternoon commitments, this
will give cachers a wider time bracket so they can try and fit it
in their busy caching programs, if you have not cached in this area
before then you are in for a treat as there are now 422 caches within a 6 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
listing to your watch list so you will know about any updates. Hope
to see you soon.
Stan.