This cache is part of a series of caches which are placed at or near village halls and community centres. For details and statistics visit the Village Hall Series website Click here
People might be surprised to see a “Village Hall” cache in Sherwood. After all, Sherwood is hardly a village, being a large residential suburb of Nottingham. But it was a tiny village once, and the Sherwood Community Centre certainly fits all the criteria otherwise.
Woodthorpe House, which is the name of the building, is the oldest building in Sherwood, as unlike most places, there is no old church here. The oldest part of the building dates back to the eighteenth century, but the main house was built in Georgian times, which explains the architecture. By the end of the nineteenth century it was nine-bedroomed mansion; it’s cellars are carved out from the Nottingham sandstone beneath it. And its grounds included much of the housing estate between here and Valley Road. It is also listed building (despite some fairly horrendous additions to the building in the late twentieth century).
Over the last three centuries it has seen a wide range of mainly wealthy occupants. In its hey day it was home to a sequence of merchants and factory owners, and later it was occupied by the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire.
As with many large houses, it was requisitioned during WW2 and had various military units based here. But in 1950 it opened as a Community Centre – in fact it is one of the largest community centres in Nottingham. It is still owned by Nottingham City Council, but it is financed and run by an independent charity – never an easy task, but even more so when they are dealing with a listed building. The Community Centre holds a host of activities from playgroup to dancing and yoga classes; it is home to several charities and self-help groups, and of course it can be booked out for private parties etc. If you visit while the centre is actually open, go inside and ask to look at the display about the history of the building – there are numerous panels explaining each phase of Woodthorpe House’s development. There's also a cafe here, which is open most days during the day.
As for the cache, this is a simple offset multicache (due to there being a Trad straight opposite the centre on the edge of Woodthorpe Park). To the right of the main doors you will see a defibrillator, which is unfortunately out-of-service at the present time. At the bottom right of the box there is a telephone number – ABCDE FGHIJK.
The cache can be found a short walk away at N52 59.(G-J)(E-B)(K) W001 08.(D-H)(C+I)(F)