One of six caches placed on the main road approaches to the town, the idea being to take you around the outside of the town and end with a bonus in the middle. Due to major road works, one of them (number 5) cannot be placed for now but it will be hidden after the road works are completed. All are on fairly busy roads so please take care especially with young cachers and think about where it is appropriate and safe to pull over the cachemobile.
All, except the bonus, are similar types, but not identical, and are hidden in a similar way, 1 to 6 each has a little bit of potted history of the town in sort of chronological order, and each has information to make up co-ordinates for the bonus. Because number 5 is missing the bonus information is included in the description of the bonus until number 5 can be placed.
Northallerton, in the Second World War, had a population of about 3500. There was no major industry, no buildings of strategic importance and apart from being on the main railway line from Edinburgh to London it was not well known, but this was to change. As Army recruitment gathered pace the closeness of the main railway to Catterick was vital, and areas of land nearby were used for several major RAF airfields. Being away from major industrial areas the town was considered a ‘safe area’ and some evacuee children were brought to the town from likely target areas. Most, however, returned home after a year or two. Still in High Street is the Golden Lion Hotel which was a popular venue for aircrew from the many airfields and it was featured in the film “The Way to the Stars”, a wartime drama made in 1945 with Michael Redgrave and John Mills.
A hospital to cater for casualties from the airfields was built, basically some large wooden huts, sited at the north east side of town. Over the years thousands of airmen passed through its gates and it continues as a major hospital for the area to this day but the old buildings have gone replaced by a fully modern hospital. The airfields were mainly bomber stations operating with, large aircraft such as Whitley, Wellington and Halifax bombers. A prisoner of war camp for Italian prisoners was set up about 2 miles out of town and as it was thought they were unlikely to escape being reluctant participants in the war some were given employment on farms in the area. When in town they wore rough brown uniforms with a large yellow patch on the back of their jackets.
Air raid sirens did go off at intervals mainly due to attacks on the Teesside area but occasionally an enemy bomber would unload bombs in the area but they fell mainly in the fields and did little harm. Once, an enemy fighter let fly strafing the railway station, but, apart from some holes in the roof, caused no casualties. The closest to any danger from bombing was when four high explosive bombs and some incendiaries were dropped. One person died and a house was severely damaged but the other bombs fell in gardens. The house was repaired and still stands.
On one occasion a large RAF bomber flew low over the town trailing black smoke. Seconds later an explosion confirmed it had crashed, falling on and partly demolishing a bungalow on the edge of town. Sadly, all the aircrew died as a result of that tragedy.
A feature of Northallerton today is its wide High Street, nearly half a mile long with a fine range of shops and a thriving Market on Wednesday and Saturday with a Farmers Market on the 4th Wednesday each month. Parking is plentiful at reasonable cost or free.
Using the information in each cache, the bonus can be found at N54° AB.CDE W001° FG.HIJ