Whilst on holiday in Charmouth we enjoyed doing the '...Calling' series and so wanted to develop this type of cache back in our home area. This links on from our other caches, including; Poulner Calling (GC66FT3), Rockford Calling (GC6N5JC) and Ripley Calling (GC6Z33D). We often geocache with our children and their grandparents, and so wanted to develop a series that has easy parking and good facilities nearby.
Unfortunately BT no longer allow geocaches in or on their phone boxes, so this one is located a very short distance away. It is an unusual magnetic cache, you will need your own pen and tweezers! There is parking right next to the cache. We also highly recommend the R.S. series around here, particuarly if you have children, as there are lots of unusual caches in it!
Fascinating Fact: There has been settlement in the area since the Bronze age and it has existed as a manor since before the Norman conquest. Sopley is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. A mill in Sopley is recorded in the Domesday book when an annual levy of 10 shillings and 875 eels was imposed. The mill remained in service until 1946.
In 1834 the manor house, then known as Sopley Park, was sold to wealthy London merchant and owner of the Schweppes company; John Kemp-Welch. He in turn sold it in 1885. The house was used as nursing home and two independent schools at various times during its post war history and was demolished in 1988 to make way for Moorlands College, one of the largest evangelical theological seminaries in the country.
Congratulations on FTF: Oscar Cache Cockatiel :-)