SLB #8A: A Pheasant Place
The cache a camo-taped, preform tube, is hidden along the trail as it climbs up out of the Wharfe valley onto the lower grassy slopes of Rombald's Moor.
The placing of the cache became possible with the archiving of fat bloke's GC1Q33G Denton View which was hidden on 15/4/09 and archived on 20/8/22 after some 87 finds garnering 1 FP in the process.
Please note that the cache description contains an external link above to a jigsaw.
Although it is from a well-known source, it has 'not been checked by Groundspeak nor by the reviewer for possible malicious content and access to the site is therefore at your own risk'.
To Find the Cache:
Clicking on the image above will take you to a jigsaw, completion of which will reveal the cache coordinates - and a useful hint.
To Reach the Cache:
If doing the series in sequence: simply carry on up the trail from SLB #8
If doing as a one-off: either . . .
a) (from above) park roadside on Ben Rhydding Drive @ or near N 53 55.116 W 1 47.139 and follow the signed footpath (passing the location of IEW #8) down the long grassy field, through the gates to the cache location.
b) (from below) park at or near N 53 55.248 W 1 46.517 in the large car park of the Indian restaurant, which should have plenty of spare spaces. Starting at the Public Footpath sign @ N 53 55.259 W 1 46.520 head up the narrow lane turning right at the top, then passing under the railway bridge (location of SLB #7) and on up the trail (passing the location of SLB #8) to the cache location.
En route to the placing the cache, descending from Ben Rhydding Drive, as I approached the fenced area of Rowley Wood, several of these common but spectacular birds were seen scurrying around the edge of the wood.
Common (or ring-necked) pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are bred to be hunted and shot in great numbers in Europe, especially the UK, where they are shot on traditional formal 'driven shoots' whereby paying guns have birds driven over them by beaters, and on smaller 'rough shoots' where the birds are flushed out by gundogs with the shooters walking behind. Under the Game Act 1831, the open season in the UK is 1 October – 1 February. See here for video of pheasant shooting in the Yorkshire Dales.
The best dog breeds for pheasant (and other gamebird) shooting are English cocker spaniel, golden retriever, German wirehaired pointer, labrador retriever, brittany, English setter, English springer spaniel and viszla. These are breeds which retrieve fallen game (often at long distances) and bring them back to their owners without damaging it. They are expert hunters and will find game & flush it out for the guns. They will alert their owner to the presence of game by freezing so as not to alert them until the guns can get closer.
The doggerel 'Up gets a guinea, bang goes a penny-halfpenny, and down comes a half a crown' reflects the expensive sport of C19 driven shoots in Britain, when pheasants were often shot for sport, rather than as food. Pheasant shooting was a popular royal pastime in Britain. King George V shot over 1,000 out of a total bag of 3,937 over a 6-day period in December 1913 during a competition with a friend - however, it was not enough to beat him!
They are traditionally a target of small game poachers in the UK but, due to the low current value of pheasants, some have resorted to stealing pheasant chicks or poults from pens. The 1975 Roald Dahl novel Danny the Champion of the World and subsequent 1989 movie dealt with a UK poacher (and his son) who illegally hunted pheasants.
According to the Lancashire Police website, poaching is not the quaint picture of the days of yore where one man and his dog were shooting a rabbit or pheasant to eat. Poachers may roam in numbers often driving 4x4 motor vehicles, with a number of dogs and weapons. Animals are rarely poached just for food - more often animals like badgers are taken off to kill for the takers pleasure and those involved are usually also pursuing other criminal activities.
Poachers often pursue animals such as rabbits, deer and species that fall under the heading of 'game'. Under the Game Act 1831, game refers to hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor game and black game. Under the Night Poaching Act 1828 it includes the above and bustards! These huge birds became nationally extinct in UK 1832 when the last bird was shot. The birds were reintroduced onto Salisbury Plain in 2004, with limited success, although much useful info was obtained through the project.
See here for a fascinating 1891 free e-book on Poachers and Poaching - Knowledge Never Learned in Schools by John Watson, which also covers virtually all aspects of the British countryside and wildlife as it was over 130 years ago. In relation to pheasant poaching he writes . . . The most cruelly ingenious plan adopted by poachers, however, is also one of the most successful. If time and opportunity offer, there is scarcely any limit to the depredations which it allows. A number of dried peas are taken and steeped in boiling water; a hole is then made through the centre with a needle or some sharp instrument, and through this a stiff bristle is threaded. The ends are cut off short, leaving only about a quarter of an inch of bristle projecting at each end. With these the birds are fed, and are greedily eaten. In passing down the gullet, however, a violent irritation is set up, and the pheasant is finally choked.'
See here for an equally fascinating free e-book - the 1890 The Confessions of a Poacher edited by the same John Watson. Another (2006) book The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jeffries, is considered a classic and 'one of the treasures of sporting literature'.
See here for the story of John Guy, the first Londoner to be hanged for poaching in 1725. See here for a short video on poaching pheasants with catapults and here for Tales of a London Poacher.
Pheasant farming is a common and sometimes intensive. Birds are supplied both to hunting preserves/estates and restaurants, with smaller numbers being available through butchers & supermarkets for home cooks.
As with most other game, shot carcasses were often hung (for up to 7 days) to improve the meat by slight decomposition,. Modern cookery generally uses moist roasting and farm-raised, freshly-killed female birds. Game has been making a comeback in popular cooking and more pheasants than ever are sold in supermarkets - the major reason being a shift on health and environmental grounds from consumption of red meat to white meat.
