A Spring meet and greet, and a welcome to Leicester
15.00 to 17.00 Saturday 11 April 2026 at The Marquis Wellington
Zephyr01, aka Lisa, is a geocacher from Texas who will be visiting Leicester for the month of April. This event is to welcome her and enable her to meet cachers from Leicester and around. It is also a straightforward meet and greet geocaching event like I've held before. Come along and meet geofriends old and new!
The Marquis Wellington is a pleasant pub on London Road eight minutes walk from Leicester Railway Station. The 15, 22, 31 and 44 buses from the city centre and the station pass by, get off at Saxby Street 100 metres away. Parking is available on side streets and at a car park 300 metres away round the corner (see the waypoint).
In the seventeenth century London Road was a 'turnpike', a toll road. The toll gates were near here, which meant queues and thirsty travellers. So in 1801 a pub was built originally called The Bishop Blaze in honour of St Blaze, a fourth century Armenian bishop. This might not seem an obvious choice, but he was the patron saint of wool-workers, of whom there were many in Leicestershire at the time. The saintly bishop was soon pushed aside in favour of a general, Arthur Wellesley - better known as the Duke of Wellington. This must have been between Arthur being made a marquis in August 1812 and his promotion to duke in May 1814. There are about fifty pubs called the Duke of Wellington, but this is one of only two still commemorating his time as a marquis - the other is in Bermondsey. The present appearance of the pub dates from 1907, when Everards, the local brewers, engaged a local plumber to design and install the beautifully decorated lead frontage.
The pub is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of 'Tanky' Smith, the Victorian detective - see the nearby mystery cache The Original Sherlock GC43VT8.
If you have not been to a geocaching event before don't worry, you will be made most welcome, and if you don't know anyone when you arrive you will before you leave. Look for a guy of a certain age with a GPSr, a log sheet, a beard and white hair, hopefully surrounded by the wide range of ages, genders and types that is the geocaching community. I will be there throughout the above time, feel free to come and go. I hope there will be some newly published caches in the vicinity. There are few available spots left nearby but I intend to archive some of my less successful ones to make room.
The pub is child-friendly. It serves food and of course drink, should you wish, but there is no obligation to buy anything. If you do wish to buy something bring a card, as they don't accept cash.
I hope to see you there.