This Cache is placed at the original gates of Ladysmith Barracks. The barracks were completed in 1843 at a cost of £42,000 as one of a series of barracks built in Lancashire to house cavalry regiments available to assist the civil power in times of the frequent unrest against organised working class agitation for social and political reforms. The cotton towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Dukinfield and Hyde had been important centres of Chartist activity. Work began in 1841, the stone for the buildings coming from a nearby quarry. Many iron rings in the walls of the barracks bore witness to their original purpose for the use of cavalry.
In 1854/5, at the time of the Crimean War, they were occupied by the 6th Royal Lancashire Militia. Following the formation of the Rifle Volunteers in Ashton in 1859 and 1860 the Volunteers regularly drilled at the barracks during the evenings and had their annual inspection on the parade ground. In 1869 it is recorded that the 8th Foot, later to become the King's ( Liverpool ) Regiment occupied the barracks. In 1873 the barracks were enlarged and that year the 63rd and 96th Regiments were linked together with Headquarters in the Ashton under Lyne barracks. In 1881, when the two were joined together to become the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Manchester Regiment, the barracks became the Depot and Headquarters of the new Regiment.
In 1958, following the amalgamation of the Manchester Regiment with the King's Regiment, the Regimental Depot was closed. The barracks were eventually sold to the local hospital authority and then to a local firm of building developers. A housing estate was built on the site of the parade ground, the barrack blocks and all those buildings, which for so many years had reverberated to the noise, and activities of many thousands of young soldiers. Only the imposing entrance archway and the barrack wall facing Mossley Road were left. This was then designated as a scheduled historic monument and at an appropriate ceremony in 1984 Mr Roland Bardsley, Chairman of the Roland Bardsley Group, which had developed the site, handed the arch over to the permanent care of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.
The Cache is a magnetic nano which will require tweezers to access the log. Please replace it in the exact same place so it remains out of view. You will need a pen
You can park on the road opposite the gates. But take care when crossing the road, it can get busy.
Congrats to Hydeseeker on the FTF :-)