Parking is available at or near-by the starting co-ordinates. To get the final cache co-ordinates you will need to get the codes from various places near by the starting co-ordinates and from across the green.
The letter box by the post office – last post Mon – Fri is A.BApm
The Bus Stop sign – Bus’s serving Horsmonden are the 29H, 297
Heath Stores Mon opening hours are D.E0-Dpm (NB you will need to enter the garden and approach the shop door to get this information this is allowed even when the shop is shut)
Just over the road at N51 08 332 E000 25 747 is a map of the parish the inscription reads Horsmonden Parish FGGG
Across the green at the Social club (N51 08 368 E000 25 815) this building was built in 191C (Look at the wall behind the war memorial)
You can now drive to N51 07 895 E000 25 312 or you can walk down the Goudhurst rd to the footpath on your right to start the cache or you could do the full walk see below
There are 3 Caches in this series, done together they form a lovely meandering walk around the traditional Wealden village of Horsmonden. The full walk takes in 3 further caches already placed in Horsmonden. In total the walk will take about 2 hours. The walk starts and finishes at the Heath in the centre of the village. The Heath is surrounded by a number of pubs and shops including The Gun and Spitroast Inn and the Highway Man where you could stop for drinks, lunch or dinner before or after your walk. Alternatively the village has a thriving village shop The Heath Stores where you could get freshly filled rolls, pies, snacks, teas, coffee or even indulge in a cream tea to celebrate 6 caches completed!
A walk around Horsmonden
From the green go to “An Atlantic Inferno” GC1DG61 at N51 08.740 E000 25.259 Once retrieved re trace your steps, go back over the bridge and just past the entrance to the cottage is a footpath on your right. Follow this to N51 08 592 E000 25 258 if you have a geohound put them on a lead as there are horses in this field. Continue following the footpath to N51 08 302 E000 25 246, cross the road and enter Sprivers, find the cache at N51 08 GCC E000 24 CH8. Once you have the cache continue across the stile and through the 2 fields following the path to N51 07 952 E000 25 080 (NB there are sometimes sheep in these fields). Continue to the exit and cross the road, the next footpath is opposite at N51 07 895 E000 25 312. Keep Geohound on a lead here there are horses in the next field. Follow the footpath through the hops gardens (Hops used in Scotney Pale Ale and Scotney best Bitter) and through the Orchards to the cache at Lewis Heath N51 07 DHA E000 25 8ED. Follow the road (private rd, footpath only) to N51 08 040 E000 25 951 where you turn right to N51 08 46 E000 26 054 turn left down the road. (The grapes on the vines to your right are used in Horsmonden wine.)
Follow the road to N51 08 150 E000 26 155 (GC 2ZP8V, lost railway Stations #4 Horsmonden)
Continue on and at the main rd turn right to N51 08 213 E000 26 253 where you turn left and follow the footpath to Orchards Cache at N51 08 A4C E000 26 4AG. Follow the path to N51 08 583 E000 26 256 (here be Goats!). Then onto N51 08 484 E000 26 101 where you turn right. Follow the path back to N51 08 374 E000 25 858 where you turn right and you are back at the green Celebrate with your 6th Cache at GC1G7QF Kent lost pubs series N51 08 376 E000 25 757.
History of Horsmonden, a classic Wealden village
A neat, square green known as the Heath forms the centre of the village which is set among pastures and orchards. The church is 1.5 miles to the south. Plague in the Middle Ages may have made an earlier village around the church unacceptable, causing the survivors to move their homes to a 'healthier' site. Another theory is that a new village grew up around the forge of John Browne, gun-maker The Forge is now the Gun and Spitroast Inn.
Sprivers, an 18th-century mansion, is set in a wooded park half a mile south-west and is now owned by the National Trust.
A reminder of an old industry is Furnace Pond, reached by a short track to the left about half a mile along Furnace Lane. It is a 'hammer' pond, so called because water power from it was used to drive hammers which beat iron into shape.
On a sea of hops, the oast-house towers of Horsmonden seem almost to plough the rich soil of their Kentish hopfields like graceful yachts on a gently rolling sea. This is a Garden of England, and the village is surrounded by orchards and pastures, as well as hopfields - though it echoed once to the clangour of iron founders, who used the plentiful timber and water power of the region to make cannon.