Bang goes the Witch Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

Professor Xavier: As this cache hasn't been attended to within the required 7 days I am archiving the listing.

Ed - Professor Xavier

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Hidden : 3/28/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

The Witch part of the cache name is obvious if you look at the OS map, you are on Great Witch hill, but why 'Bang goes the Witch'?

It all goes back to the Second World War and the nearby Ashley Walk bombing range, in use from 1940 to 1946. Aerial photos from this period show a large bank, around 100m long across the top of Great Witch Hill. No surviving documentation gives any hint on its use, other than that it was not part of the bombing range. Even Norman Parker's definitive history of the range does not mention it.

However, in 2010 the mystery was solved on a range walk when two old gentlemen in the group reminisced about their childhood explorations of the bombing range.
The ‘feature’ was not the bank, but a 20ft deep trench, the spoil from which the bank had been created. Periodically an army lorry would wind its way up the hill with the unexploded bombs from the range. These would be lowered into the trench from a large beam spanning its centre, to be followed by a large BANG.
Today no trace of the trench or bank remains, but you can still see evidence of cratering.
More details can be found at:  http://www.newforest.hampshire.org.uk/forest_notes/notes_apr10.pdf
 
This cache is on Forestry Commission land and has been placed in accordance with the GAGB - Forestry Commission Agreement. As part of this Agreement, it is not permitted to seek the cache during the hours of darkness

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Unaql fcbg gb fvg naq fvta gur ybt

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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