This is an offset cache near the Box railway tunnel, Box,
Wiltshire. The Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, built
this tunnel between Chippenham and Bath between 1836-41. This
offset geocache will lead you intially to the Western portal of the
tunnel (just off the A4 in Box village) to find some other
information. This other information will lead you to the physical
cache.
The Great Western Railway was built from London to Bristol in
the 1700s and this meant finding a route from Chippenham to Bath
round or through the range of hills linking the Cotswolds to the
Mendips. Box tunnel was a huge Engineering feat which caused much
debate in Parliament when proposed. Two miles long, on a descending
gradient of 1 in 100, one MP warned that the slope was so great
that if the brakes failed, a train would leave the tunnel at 120
mph. At its peak the building work employed some four thousand men
and used about a ton of gunpowder a week. Unfortunately a hundred
men died during the five years it took to build. The tunnel was
opened without any ceremony on 30th June 1841.
The tunnel was built and aligned so the sun shone down it on
Issy's birthday, April 9th. Whether because of not allowing for
atmospheric refraction, or whether axial "wobble" of the Earth, the
sun actually shines down it from April 6th to the 8th and misses
his birthday.
An Ordnance Survey map for the posted coordinates is available
at
this web site.
When you reach the posted coordinates, park in the layby
opposite and beware fast moving traffic (this is the A4). Look for
the commemorative plaque, take the first date on the plaque as ABCD
and the last number on the plaque as EFG. The physical cache is
hidden at N51°25.GDA', W02°15.(A+E)(A+D)D'.
The second part has a large (free) car park (although you could
walk there from the first, we wouldn't recommend it), an excellent
childrens' playground, and a large playing field suitable for
picnics. To find the car park from the first location, drive
downhill and turn second right.
The cache is an ammo box. When you replace it then please be
careful to ensure that it is hidden from view. If you use the hint
then the difficulty reduces to one. The second part of this cache
(the physcal cache part) is suitable for a wheelchair user although
you wouldn't be able to reach the cache itself.
Please check out the Geocaching Association of Great
Britain offering support for Geocachers in GB.