[May 2021 - Cache hide given permission to be moved onto Forestry England land. Walk a little longer, now a loop, and puzzle made easier.]
This is multi-cache with clues to each stage. As it goes into the New Forest, no night-caching is allowed. Please close the gates and generally respect the area. You will need to cross the A35 twice and part of the walk is near the site of old gravel pits, some with steep banks, many with water or muddy clay at the bottom. Please take care with both.
The terrain is higher because in places the clay which typifies this area, makes for deep mud or dried pinnacles that can twist ankles. As this area is rarely visited you could find yourself climbing over fallen trees and working out how to get over small streams and mud. Come prepared for the adventure.
THE CACHE
Park your car at N50 47.093 W001 41.709. Take care crossing the A35 and enter the Forest through the horse-size kissing gates. Walk to the geocache’s co-ordinates.
During the 6 stages. you are looking to find the values for J K L A B C D E and F. There are some calculations but they are only to add one to keep it straight-forward.
Stage 1
For those of you interested in history, look left and right and you will see the medieval bank and ditch boundary of the New Forest. To find what you need, use this hint - ‘lift in the drain piece’. Once you’ve found the words:
J is number of letter ‘b’ (for bank) in the words
K is number of letter ‘f’ (for forest) in the words
L is number of letters in the first word
B is number of letters in the second word
Go to N50 47. (J+1) (K+1) J W1 4 J. (B+1) (B+1) 3
Stage 2
Look for ‘blue and yellow squares’. If you love flowers, look around, especially at the irises just to the north which should be in flower around May and June.
C is the bottom right single number on the yellow square
The GPS signal here is poor so follow these instructions. Follow the stream southwards, keeping it on your left, until you come to a fence. Turn right and walk alongside the fence until you are around the point where it turns.
Stage 3
Look for the boundary stone which appears as if it’s been untouched for centuries. This is the most southern, surviving point in this area of the original forest boundary.
What is the shape of the top of the boundary stone?
If it’s curved, E = 0
If it’s deteriorated so you can’t tell, E = 1
If it’s more or less square, E = 2
Go to N50 47. (E+1) (E+1) C W1 4 E. (B+1) 3 (C+1)
Stage 4
This is another forest boundary stone. There is one more further along this fence-line which is unusual as there are many on old maps but few still exist.
Where is the stone?
If it’s on the top of a bank, D = 6
If it’s next to a bridge, D = 7
If it’s on the edge of a ditch, D = 8
Go to N50 47. (E+1) D (E+1) W1 4 E. B B C
Stage 5
This is a much more modern boundary and it’s hard to work out why it’s here.
F is the total number of diagonal pieces of wood on both sides
Go to N50 47. L F 3 W1 4 (E+1). (E+1) 3 D
Stage 6
Here’s an interesting modern anomaly. You are in the New Forest National Park, on Forestry England land, and part of the original Nova Foresta. This explains the older part of this boundary and its older signage. However, the newer part of the boundary is maintained by HCC, presumably as they have responsibility for the nearby man-made item.
A is the first number of the price of the fine on the older sign.
Go to find the cache at N50 47.ABC W1 41.DEF which is at the site of another ancient boundary, although the marker is long gone.
THE HISTORY
The medieval bank and ditch boundary
The bank and ditch at the first co-ordinates are recorded as being the only surviving stretch of the medieval boundary of the New Forest. It would have been a clear message that this was where only the King had the rights to hunt. There would have been a palisade on top (upright wooden sticks making a fence) to stop the deer leaping out of the Forest and no doubt, to keep commoners out. The entry on the National monuments database says it dates between 1086 and 1327.
To the west of the co-ordinates given, it is very distinct and about 4ft wide on top with ditches on both sides. It is cut through by the road which was straightened a few decades ago and continues for just a short distance on the other side.
If you look at the 1959-62 1:2500 OS map the bank is very clearly marked. This was where I learnt of its existence, then after a visit out of curiosity, google provided the detail. It also gives some explanation for why the parish of Bransgore is such a bizarre shape. It follows this ancient boundary as the parish was an area annexed from Christchurch parish in 1874.
Bank and ditches aren’t that unusual across the Forest as they are an ancient way of marking boundaries. What is unusual about this bit is that it is the only part left that marks the medieval perambulation (outer limits).
The pits, marl and tropical seas
The old ‘gravel’ pits are marked as such on the OS maps of 1869 although it wasn’t gravel that was dug here. Earlier OS maps seem to distinguish between types of pit but it appears that some standardisation had happened. These pits were caused by digging out marl. Marl is one of the commoning rights, no longer given, “to collect a certain type of clay, rich in lime, for fertilisation of garden plots. The clay had to be dug from certain named pits in the south of the Forest”. The presence of marl here may explain the unusual shape of the boundary.
Why here? The British Geological Society’s website states this small area is made up of the Headon Formation of Clay, silt and sand; “Sedimentary Bedrock formed approximately 37 to 41 million years ago in the Palaeogene Period. Local environment previously dominated by swamps, estuaries and deltas.” It shows a very narrow deposit which explains the extent west and east.
The late eighteenth century ‘Driver’s’ map of the New Forest calls this area Marlborough Deep. Hardcastle’s book “Record of Burley” states that it was previously known as “Marbrade Deep alias Bury Peere” in the 1681 Perambulation of Forest. She suggests the name was changing due to the constant digging of marl. By 1802 it was known as “Old Hole” and “Deeper Slade” and gradually the name developed from Marbrade to Marlbury to Marlborough, and the word Deep was adopted to reflect many holes. Back in 1289 it was known as Byaweriper but you’re going to have to puzzle that name for yourself.
Boundary Stones
When I first saw these, I was curious and wondered if they were connected to the pits’ activity. When I checked old maps, they are marked as Stones and at the southern point you see BP for Boundary Post. Given the stones are along the old forest boundary, I concluded they are marking it, like the bank and ditches. The first one you visit isn’t on the map but it seems logical that one was placed where the boundary changed direction. The second you visit is on the map, again where the boundary changes direction. There’s another stone as you go NE, also on the map. If you look at the map here, you can follow stone locations moving east and one day I’ll have the time to go and see if they exist. There is another stone I do know of locally which is at Lugden Barrow, you could do GC8B59C to see glimpses of that one.
Boundary Posts
The cache is hidden reasonably close to Winkton Post (good luck if you try and find it without doing the walk!). There is now no sign of the post at all and if there was something there in 1942, it was flattened to build the runway for the WW2 airfield which was here. (There are several caches round here which will explain about the airfield.) The nearby parish of Bransgore was created in 1874 taking part of Christchurch and Sopley parish. But go further back and what was Bransgore Common was part of the Winkton manor (or Wyneketon if you go back to the 1200s, or Wineca’s farm if you go back to Saxon times). Winkton Manor ran from the river Avon, all the way to the King’s land of the forest, following good farming land. Its when you consider these old boundaries, you can start to understand why some of our modern ones may seem bizarre.