This cache is a Letterbox Hybrid geocache. It is one of a series highlighting interesting individuals from a variety of fields who once lived behind the featured letterboxes. Many thanks to tundra70 for allowing me to contribute to this new series.
The final cache is not at the published co-ordinates but you will need to visit them to get some information that will help in taking you to the final location.
Sid Chaplin was born at Shildon, County Durham in 1916, son of a coal miner. At the age of 15, he began working in the mines whilst, at the same time continuing his education with the WEA (Workers Education Association). Between 1941 and 1953 he lived at Ferryhill and worked at the Dean & Chapter Colliery. In 1946 he won the Atlantic Award for Literature for The Leaping Lad (1946, revised 1970), his first book of short stories based on life in the County Durham mining community. The prize money enabled him to take a year off to write his first novel, My Fate Cries Out (1949), about the lives of Weardale lead miners.
From 1950 he wrote full time for the NCB (National Coal Board) and later had a column in The Guardian newspaper. In the late 1950s/early 60s he was credited with influencing the "kitchen sink" social realism of writers such as Alan Sillitoe and Stan Barstow. Chaplin's novels The Day of the Sardine (1961) and The Watchers and the Watched (1962) were based on the communities of Scotswood, Elswick and Byker and are considered as classics of "working class existentialism".
From 1957 until his death in 1986, he lived a 11 Kimberley Gardens in Sandyford, Newcastle where he wrote television scripts including some for When the Boat Comes In. In 1968, Alan Pater, with songs by Alex Glasgow, wrote the musical Close the Coalhouse Door based on stories by Sid Chaplin. In later life he returned to writing about life in the Durham coalfield with On Christmas Day in the Morning (1978) and The Bachelor Uncle (1980).
Sid Chaplin died of a heart attack at Grasmere in the Lake District during a literary weekend and was subsequently buried in Jesmond Old Cemetery, Newcastle. His family donated his papers to Newcastle University and they are now held in the Special Collections section of the Robinson Library.
To calculate the final co-ordinates:
From the posted co-ordinates, walk across the road and down to the corner where there is a street light with a vertical string of numbers and a letter ALBC. Ignore the letter and note the numbers. Walk about 8 paces in a southerly direction and there is a CATV access cover in the pavement with a string of numbers and letters ENUVWBXYZ. Again, ignore the letters but note the numbers.
Checksum for A to C plus U to Z = 26
The cache is to be found at a distance of (U+X)(C-A)(U-X) . (U-X)(C-A)(C+X) meters on a bearing of (Z-W)(C+X)(Z+W) . (Z+V)(Z-X)(A-V) degrees. It is a short walk away from the posted co-ordinates.
Please be aware that the final cache location may be overlooked by local residents so please use stealth and consideration.
The cache does contain a small stamp which isn't a trade item. Please leave in the cache.