Welcome to the heart of the City of Sheffield and to the Peace Gardens, a beautiful public space located adjacent to the Town Hall and close to many other attractions including the Winter Garden, the Crucible theatre, the Millennium Gallery, the Moor Market and, of course, a good variety of geocaches!
The Gardens were first laid out in 1938, following the demolition of St Paul's Church which dated from the early eighteenth century. Although they were officially named St Paul's Gardens, they were immediately nicknamed the Peace Gardens to mark the signing of the Munich Agreement (which Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rather optimistically described as heralding "peace for our time"). The space wasn't formally renamed the Peace Gardens until 1985.
The Gardens now have a fountain at the centre, which boasts 89 individual jets and which children (and others who are young at heart) enjoy running through on a hot day. Around the Gardens are a number of cascades which represent the flowing molten steel which made Sheffield famous, as well as the water of Sheffield's five rivers which was used to power the mills driving the city's industry. Some 57,000 litres are pumped through a water re-circulation system, kept clean using brine solution rather than chemicals.
To claim this Virtual, please visit the four waypoints and answer the following questions. There are many photos of the Peace Gardens on the internet, so I have chosen some more obscure features for you to spot. This should be quite easy, though, especially if you use the waypoints.
Question 1: At the first waypoint there is a plaque set low down into the wall. I'm not sure it's very effective given that it's so hard to spot and to read! In any case, what is the subject of this plaque?
Question 2: Now head towards the second waypoint behind the fountain, which is dedicated to the "memory and generosity" of Sir Stuart Goodwin (1886-1969) and his wife. In the inscription found here, which one-word job title is used to describe Sir Stuart?
Question 3: Now make your way to the third waypoint where there is an oval-shaped plaque commemorating Sheffield Chartist leader Samuel Holberry (1814-1842) to whose memory the cascades are dedicated. The plaque is on the base of one of the cascades, and carved into the stone of this base are a number of aquatic creatures. How many of them are there on this base?
Here is one of the creatures you're looking for:
Question 4: Finally, go and stand at the fourth waypoint and look back towards the Peace Gardens. Now look at the photo below of the scene before you taken on 6th September 2017. A change has been made to one of the fixtures in the photo so that it differs from what you actually see at the waypoint - what is it?
Please message me (Dominicus1975) with your answers using my profile on geocaching.com. You can then log your find. If there are any issues with your answers, I will contact you. Please make sure that you have messaged me with your answers within 48 hours of posting your log.
It would be great if you could include a photo of yourself or your GPS device somewhere in the Peace Gardens, being careful not to include any other people in the photo or giving away any of the answers, but this isn't necessary to log the find.
I hope you enjoy your visit to the Peace Gardens.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.