Perrott's Folly Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

adamandbeckychater: As the cache has gone missing and someone has found a used needle in the area we have sadly decided to archive this one. Many thanks to everyone who found this cache.

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Hidden : 3/25/2012
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


Perrott's Folly


John Perrott's Tower
A nice quick cache and dash next to an interesting local feature.

About the location
The tower is one of Birmingham's oldest architectural features. Built in 1758 by John Perrot, who lived in Belbroughton, the tower still stands high above the local residential and business housing. Sadly the tower isn't open to the public but occasionally (every few years, it seems!) the tower is used to host art exhibitions and the lucky visitors can then climb to the top.

Reason for construction
Many stories exist to explain why the tower was built. One is that John Perrot owned a lot of land around the tower and he wanted to be able to survey what he owned and perhaps when entertaining guests use the tower to spot animals that he and his friends would later ride out on horses to hunt. Another is that he built the tower so that he could see his wife's grave, ten miles away. Though this would have been possible at the time, buildings constructed since have obscured the view.

Use as a weather observatory
During the period from 1884 to 1979 the tower was used as a weather recording station. In 1966 the Geography Department of the University of Birmingham took over the running of the observatory until operations were transferred to the main campus.

The Tolkien connection
Tolkien lived within a few miles of the tower for much of his childhood. Local lore has long held that Perrott's Folly, along with a nearby tower for Edgbaston Waterworks, were the inspirations for the Two Towers, after which the second volume of Lord of the Rings is named. The windows down the side of Perrott's Folly are similar to Tolkien's sketches of Orthanc and the waterworks tower has a smaller section rising above the parapet similar to Tolkien's representation of Minas Morgul.

Our visit
On Sunday 25th March 2012 we were lucky enough to explore the inside of Perrott’s Folly - you can see the photographs of our visit on our Tumblr site, here: http://adamandbecky.tumblr.com/folly

You are looking for a magnetic keyholder. Please note that you do not need to enter the Folly's courtyard to access the cache - the cache can be found and retrieved from the footpath. The cache location is very overlooked so please use stealth when searching!

Parking can be found directly next to the cache, on Waterworks Road.




Congratulations to rowley104 for being first to find!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fubeg uvag: Haqre oynpx. Ybat uvag: Zntargvp xrlubyqre uvqqra ba gur oynpx zrgny srapr, evtug arkg gb gur jnyy bs gur Sbyyl'f pbheglneq.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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