The Borough of Amber Valley is the local council area covering part of the eastern edge of Derbyshire, with Nottinghamshire to the east (much of the border is the River Erewash), Derby to the south, and the Derbyshire Dales to the west. It covers 102 square miles and has a population of around 128,000. It gets its name from the River Amber.
There is no need to visit the posted coordinates, which are at the council offices on Ripley Market Place – this is not relevant to the puzzle itself.
For this puzzle, you need to solve the cryptic clues below to identify 18 place names in the borough – some are sizeable places, others may be quite obscure. Local knowledge will certainly help, but if you are struggling a good map may well come in handy too. All the names are a single word.
- A basin of chalky fertilizer
- A cartographer in the pasture
- A metallic town
- Can rich inhabitants come here initially?
- Change the drain’s direction
- First daily action at a crossing place
- Fish, and not…
- Jackets for June, July & August
- Kate R Hooper perhaps?
- Large bird seen at a Scottish fishing port
- Loads of trees connect in
- Orange-coloured entrance
- River-crossing with lots of pebbles
- Someone who makes a metal tool
- That swell wand
- Three parts of Yorkshire (with an extra letter)
- Travel back and forth (if you change one letter)
- Tree on top of a vehicle
Once you have solved them, put the 18 place names into alphabetical order, and then use this to calculate the coordinates.
The cache is to be found at N53 AB.CDE W001 VW.XYZ, where:
A = Number of place names beginning with the letter B
B = Number of letters in the 13th place name, minus the number of letters in the 1st place name
C = Number of place names that end with the letter Y
D = Number of letters in the 15th place name
E = Number of place names beginning with the letter W.
V = Number of place names beginning with the letter M
W = Number of letters in the 9th place name, minus the number of letters in the 4th place name
X = Number of letters in the 11th place name
Y = Number of place names beginning with the letter S
Z = Number of letters in the 17th place name, minus the number of letters in the 8th place name
I make no apologies for pinching this idea from TooTsuite, whose “Town and Around” (GC8D5NM) in Nottingham was lots of fun. At the time of publication there’s another local example with Bleausardv2’s “Around and about Matlock” (GC98W1P) (but I’ve not cracked that one myself yet!). Also I have published an Erewash version of this puzzle (GC9CAC5).