Camberley Now and Then is a stroll through Camberley, taking in a few of the sites. On the way round you will pick up clues to the final location of the cache. Like all my Max Booty caches (well the other one, but you have to start somewhere!), the cache itself is fairly large, and filled with booty to suit young and old alike. I bought most of the contents from local charity shops, so if you are stuck for swappable booty why not pop into one of them on your way round?
Unfortunately, the above is no longer true. The cache got vandalised and has been replaced by something a lot smaller in a different location. All the waypoints stay the same though.
There are lots of places to park in Camberley, most however charge, so if you want free parking then look to some of the side roads like Gordon Road.
Wherever you park, we start out fairly centrally. If you are at the starting coordinates you need to locate a sign on the pub. The sign gives a brief history of the area, and includes a biblical reference. Use that reference to determine A:
If for some reason, the sign is not [A=3] there (say, they may be refurbishing the pub) then we will have [A=3] to rely on [A=3] telepathy for me to [A=3] get the correct solution [A=3] to you. So concentrate [A=3] really hard and see [A=3] if you can determine what the [A=3] correct value for 3 is. Oops, I meant the correct value for A. (Hint: it rhymes with tree)
Mark 6:A.
Now you need to walk up to the following coordinates:
N 51° 20.127 W 000° 45.128
You should be outside London Road Playing Fields. The road you walked up is called Southwell Park Road. On your left you will have walked past France Hill Drive. Down there is an example of one of the very grand old mansions that used to make up large parts of Camberley. What is now the Adult Education Centre used to be the home of Lord and Lady Southwell. These playing fields are a former home of Camberley Town Football Club, and you may find their history an interesting read:
History of Camberley Town Football Club
Anyway, the park gate should be open, so you can walk through past the bowling green and tennis courts, to the main park. As you go through the gate though, take a note from the park sign what time it opens. The first digit is our second number B.
The park opens at B:30
Incidently, the park closes at 8:30 PM in summer, and earlier in the winter. If it is closed, retrace your steps and take the first left to get on course for the next location.
Now continue along to St Tarcisius Church.
N 51° 20.312 W 000° 45.032
You can see the history of this church here:
History of St Tarcisius
It was built on land left by Lady Southwell, and the current building was built as a memorial to the Great War. There is a stone in the wall by the entrance, with a Latin Inscription. Using you best O’Level Latin, you need to translate this into English, and count the number of times the letter J is used. No you don’t. In order to find number C all you really need to do is count how many letters there are in the first line of the inscription.
There are C letters in the first line of the inscription.
Once you have that, you need to cross the A30 to the war memorial.
N 51° 20.345 W 000° 44.952
The main memorial is to the Great War, though supplementary stones also remember the dead of WW2. To find the number D, you need to count how many people with the surname Goddard died in WW1. UPDATE it has been pointed out that there is another Goddard remembered away from the main group of Goddards. I was unaware of this at the time, so please, only count the number of Goddards that are in the same group on the wall:
There are D Goddards remembered for WW1.
Now you need to cross back over and head on up to the shops along the A30 relief road.
N 51° 20.370 W 000° 44.825
The old buildings in this parade of shops have certainly seen better days but still have a lot of character. In the gallery you can see a picture of what one of them used to looked like. It hasn’t changed much. I found the picture on this site, which is well worth a visit:
Camberley Historian
To find number E, you need to stand outside the shop and look to its left, for a BT box on the wall. There are some numbers there:
Writing on the BT Box: 40-E0
Now, continue on up to the High Street. Your next destination will find you standing where an old church used to be, on St George’s Road.
N 51° 20.351 W 000° 44.667
St George’s Church was knocked down years ago. The building that replaced it now has a rather glamourous shop on the ground floor. Above the front door to the shop, is a 2 digit number. To get F, add these two digits together.
F = sum of the two digits in the number
To get to the next set of coordinates, you will find yourself walking between Camberley Library and the Surrey Heath Museum. This is a small museum but will worth a visit if you have an hour to spare. There is a picture of St George’s church in there too.
N 51° 20.368 W 000° 44.442
Anyway, you should now be standing in a relatively new park. There used to be a school here, but now its just an adventure playground. There is a sign here though, which gives you a potted history of your final destination. Nobody knows for sure why the Obelisk was built, but personally I favour the Hellfire Club explanation. At the bottom Right of this sign you will see quote taken from Patterson’s Roads. The decade it was published will give you G.
Patterson’s Roads: 18G8 Edition
We are nearly there now, but a walk around Camberley is incomplete without a trip to the Obelisk:
N 51° 20.412 W 000° 44.355
One of the first things you will notice about the obelisk is all the signatures that have been carved into it over the years. Some of them date back over 100 years. Indeed, some of the names on the war memorial will no doubt appear here too. To locate the final letter H, you need to find J G Richards name, and use the final digit of the year he carved his name.
J G RICHARDS 187H
Now that you have all the letters, you can find the cache at the following location:
N 51° 20. ((H - A) - D) (E + 1) ((B - C) - D)
W 000° 44. (D + 1) ((C + G) - 1) (E - F)
Have fun!
Congratulations to Mashworth for being First To Find!!!