Walcot Street follows the course of the ancient Roman road, the Fosse Way. Over the years it has housed the city's artisans, the local corn and livestock markets, a tramshed, and even a combined Asylum for Penitent Prostitutes and Lock Hospital (which was a kind of early C19th STD clinic). Nowadays it is still regarded as the Artisan Quarter of Bath, with a strong tradition of independent traders.
It is one of my favourite streets in Bath. Appearing a little scruffy at times, admittedly it does not have the elegance of any of the grand Crescents; but it has a vibrancy and a buzz thanks to the many and varied small businesses along it. I have bought all sorts of things here ranging from high-tech laptops to low-tech wellies.
There have been a few stone faces embedded in the wall of Walcot Street for over thirty years. They are often referred to as gargoyles but strictly speaking they have no water spout so are more correctly grotesques, or just plain old stone faces.
Recently one of business owners on Walcot Street was inspired to add a new series of stone faces to the wall. Traders and residents joined together with a local stone mason to create this series of faces, all of which mean something to those concerned, some even being caricatures of the owners. There are about twenty faces there now.
Your geocaching task is a straightforward multicache, comprising a handful of easy virtual stages followed by a micro-sized final: a cylindrical container measuring 75mm by 30mm. There is no room for trades but it could probably hold a micro geocoin. I haven't left a pencil for now so please bring your own writing implement. Time and effort-wise, it is designed as a lunch-break cache, so it shouldn't take you longer than half an hour or so.
The posted coordinates will take you near the bottom of the street close to the first cluster of stone faces. From there you will wander uphill spotting the other faces. They are pretty close together so not much walking is involved, and they are all on the same side of the street, embedded in the wall. The only hazard is if you wish to cross back and forth across the street to get a better view, so just watch out for traffic.
The clues are easy and close together so I decided to mix them up; don't necessarily expect to find the faces in the exact order presented below. Note that I have omitted the letters I and O to avoid confusion with their lookalike digits.
AB: Use your general knowledge to decide what connects William Tell (and his son Walter) with Sir Isaac Newton. Find it and stand directly beneath it (like a very short Walter Tell). Look* straight across the street and record the pair of digits that best align with you. Record them as AB.
*Oct 2017: Since some redecoration, you can no longer see the digits from this distance, so carefully cross Walcot Street (look both ways!) and you should see a smallish black-on-black 2-digit number a little above head height.
CDEF: Find the Shady Lady (who incidentally owns a Scandinavian design shop in the street). Stand beneath her and look across the street. Find a neatly carved date quite high up. Record it as CDEF.
GH: Find the Egg-Head. He represents the Natural Theatre Company, which originated in Walcot (it now resides in Widcombe). Stand directly beneath him and look across the street. Look for a golden pair of digits. Record them as GH.
JK: Find the fierce-looking Green Warrior* with leaf-like warpaint; he is one of the original Walcot faces. Stand directly beneath him and look across the street. Look for a white 2-digit number, whose background is usually dark but which is occasionally light. Record it as JK.
*Oct 2017: Green Warrior is much harder to spot nowadays as he has some natural camouflage. To help you, he looks like this.
LMNP / QRST: Find the lovely old wide-faced character depicted above on the cache page, another of the original Walcot figures. Stand beneath him and look across the street. Find a pair of carved dates. Record the older date as LMNP and the more recent one as QRST.
If you add together A through to T, the checksum should equal XCIII (in honour of Walcot Street's link with the Roman Fosse Way).
The cache may be found at the following coordinates:
N51 23. (R+K-F) (T+Q-B) (H+M-C-N)
W002 21. (P+D-A-Q) (R+S-J) (G-E-L)
This hide is unlikely to get muggled unless cachers are observed retrieving/replacing, so please use an element of stealth if possible and replace exactly as found.
Of course, it's possible that you may be able to use Street View for some or all of the answers, but I really can't be bothered to check and neither should you.
As a postscript, the image below has nothing directly to do with the cache, but as you are walking up and down Walcot Street, just for fun see if you can spot all the views in the montage; most are pretty straightforward.
