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The Brook Barn Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Swarbie: I've not been able to source a similar container since the last one was destroyed, so archiving to free the area for another cacher to hide one in, unless I get one hid first! ;)

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Hidden : 9/1/2016
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Trickier than most of the caches around this area, but nothing a good hunt wont find. Be gentle when looking as cache may become dislodged and need repairing.

Once a site of some interest until the planners got their hands on it! 

This cache is accessible from the road, and requires no access to surrounding properties. This is a high muggle area at times so stealth may be required, but try not to worry the locals by lingering for longer than absolutely necessary.

Just a few metres from this site for nearly 600 years stood Brook Barn. Directly north of what is now Patricia Avenue and bordered now by Cowdray Drive was where for half a millennia the farm land was worked and administered from.  The nearby Brook Barn Way road was named from the ancient track that led east to west between this important site and the other farming centres, including Wallace Barn, after which Wallace Avenue was named,

The name was given not after a long lost stream as some would think, but after the feudal lord, William atte Brouk (although 'atte Brouk' can mean 'by the stream'). He was given the land around Goring and built his home on the site in 1296.  A wealthy man, William was recorded as being one of the five largest tax payers in the area for the subsidy roll in that same year.

As with many lordly homes, it eventually became a simple farm, and William's relatives were anecdotally still living in the area in the late 1700s.

With the expansion of Worthing, and historical preservation not being a priority for planners of this generation, Brook Barn was swallowed by the flick of a planner's pen between the wars, with bungalows needed more urgently than an old building standing in the way of progress.  The original plans did  have Alinora Crescent miss the barn and allow it to remain, but at some point this appears to have been rejected and the land given over to more housing as Worthing's size increased along the coast.

Nothing now remains of the estate, farm or barn, that served a family for so many generations, other than the nearby road, 'Brook Barn Way', which was ironically laid out and built prior to Alinora Crescent, and before the decision to demolish the barn to which it referred and once would had led.

 

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Abg ng tebhaq yriry, naq abg zntargvp.

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)