The Bronte Trail

The Bronte Trail is a 5 mile (8km) walk along public footpaths through fields, woodland and along quiet lanes taking in the villages of Great Ouseburn, Little Ouseburn and Thorpe Underwood. This route follows follows an existing route, with details being found about the trail on the information board in the car park for Great Ouseburn Village Hall (which is also the first waypoint for multicache GC439K9). There is ample parking at Great Ouseburn Village Hall. There is generally very little traffic along the route, with the exception of a short walk along Boat Lane, which is usually rather busy and has no footway. We would therefore not advise this route for the smallest of cachers. None of the caches should be too tricky to find, but there are a couple of field puzzles and short multicaches along the way. You will need 1.5 liters (2.5 pints) of water (in addition to any drinking water you will need) to complete one of the caches. Teamwork is encouraged. All hints are spoilers, which you should not need, so try not to use them. The walk will take around 4 hours to complete at a moderate pace.

The Bronte Link

This route is called the Bronte Trail, as Anne Bronte used to work as a governess to the Robinson family at Thorpe Green Hall between 1841 and 1845. Her brother, Branwell, also worked at Thorpe Green Hall between 1843 and 1845.

The Thorpe Green area is now known as Thorpe Underwood, but one of the lanes you will walk along is still called Thorpe Green Lane today. Thorpe Green Hall was on the site of Queen Ethelberga's private school, but burned down in 1898. Very little remains of the original hall except a 40ft by 8ft section of the east wall. A similar sized house named Thorpe Underwood Hall was built adjacent to the site of the original hall a few years later, and reused many of the oak beams. Anne Bronte would have had a bedroom within Thorpe Green Hall.

Anne Bronte’s first novel Agnes Grey, published under the pen name of Acton Bell in 1847, follows the life of Agnes Grey, who is herself a governess working for the families of the English gentry. In this novel, Agnes Grey’s bedroom overlooks Moss Lane along which she sees one of the local vicars, Mr Hatfield, walk on his way to the church. On route, you will pass by the end of Moss Hill Lane, which would have been a short distance to the east of Thorpe Green Hall, running to a building known as The Monk’s Lodge (behind the wall of the junction between Thorpe Green Hall and Score Ray Lane, also on the route). Branwell would have lived in this building when working for the Robinson family. The route will also take you along the end of The Long Plantation, which is where Anne Bronte wrote the poem Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day.

There exist sketches by Anne Bronte which bear a striking resemblance to Little Ouseburn Church and the hump back bridge a short distance north. There is also a sketch by Branwell which is known to be of The Monks Lodge.

You will therefore almost certainly be walking in the footsteps of Anne Bronte and Branwell Bronte on this route.

The Cache

At the given coordinates you will find a rather elegant stone bench with wooden roof structure. Carved into the stone around the bench there is a quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This ten word quote can be used to answer the following questions:

A = Letter value of the quote if A=1, B=2, …, Y = 25, Z = 26

B = Letter value of the quote if Z=1, Y=2, …, B = 25, A = 26

X = (A - 16) / 3

Y = (B - 60) / 2

The cache can be found a short distance away at coordinates N54 03.X W001 19.Y and is a magnetic clear plastic nano container.

The Route

Continue southeast along Main Street, to the junction with Church Field Lane.