Ferra's Things Multi-Cache

An offset multicache consisting of a pleasant walk around the sleepy seaside village of Ferring.

Note: Parking can usually be found easily in the roads near to the given coordinates. This cache hunt takes the form of a number of clues clustered about three locations and is partially on roads but ends on footpaths that can become a bit muddy in winter.

The route is set up as a circular walk of about 2 miles and should take around an hour to complete. If you are feeling lazy you could cheat and use the car for the first bit, but this would leave you with a rather dull walk back from the cache site.

I have attempted to provide you with some local history (as I know it), but if you are only interested in finding the cache then look for the Bold Text text!

The Village

The village of Ferring is built along the eastern bank of a small river called the Rife. Most of the modern village consists of houses built since the 1950s , although our little treasue hunt will concentrate on the older (and therfore more interesting) local land marks.

The name Ferring is Saxon in origin and means "The settlement of the people of the leader Ferra" (hence the name of the cache).

Ferra's people lived here at least from the dark ages onwards (about 450 AD) and originally buried their dead on Highdown Hill to the North in pagan ceremonies. The first record of a Christian church here is in 765 AD when land was granted " for the building of a monastery at Ferryng" and it is around here that our quest starts:

1. In The Village

   N 50° 48.886' W 000° 26.892'

   About 50 m SE of the start position you will find a boat (a little out of place). How many letters in the boat's name? This is A

2. A short way South from the boat (past the library and war memorial down Ferring Street) you will find "Smuggler's Cottage". For once this house is not named out of romanticism but has real links to 18th and 19th century smuggling in the area. Both here and one of our next destinations are known to have been used to store goods (tea & spirits) smuggled ashore up the banks of the River Rife.
   What is the house number of Smugglers Cottage? This is H
3. Nearby you will find the entrance to the local Cricket pitch. The park is known as Little Twitten which is a Sussex dialect word for a path between two hedges or walls.

   In the park on the western edge is a place where Win Pearce is resting a while, what is the last digit of her year of birth? This is J.

4. West of the park, you will find Ferring Church. The main body of current church is Norman in construction, althought the knave is late Saxon. The church was probably built on the ruins of the much earlier Saxon church on the site.

   Toward the North Western side of the church yard, you will find the final resting place of Edwin Henty (one of the major landowning families in Ferring). This Edwin was born on 15th February, but in which year? The last digit of that year is C. (prygvp pebff)

5. Near the North Eastern corner of the church you will find Anne Henty. What is the first digit of the July date in 1875? This is F.
6. Go out through the lytch gate and turn left. The last house on the right has a plaque on the wall, giving its year of construction. What is the second digit? This is G.

   From the church it is a short walk South down Feringham Lane, to 'South Ferring', passing on the way "Home Farm House" and "Home Farm Cottages",the centre of the old Ferring farming community.

7. In South Ferring

   N 50° 48.426' W 000° 27.072'

   Proceed South then West past the small parade of shops in South Ferring to our next location. At this point you will find an establishment that was also used to store smuggled goods in bygone times (although at that time the building was still being used as a barn).

   On the sign outside of the establishment is the year it opened. The second digit is B.
   [you may need a 'Hand' with this one]

8. On The beach

   N 50° 48.177' W 000° 27.016'

   Now continue South along the quiet roads of South Ferring to the beach

   From this point looking West South West it is possible during a very low (spring) tide to make out the dark shape of a set of stones protruding from the sea about 1/4 of a mile off shore. Known locally as "Black Rock", folklore has it that these boulders are the remains of the old village of Kingston that was lost to the sea in the Great Storm of November 27th 1703 (who says extreme weather is a recent thing :-)).

   Although historians disagree, suggesting that these rocks are nothing to do with the lost village, I still prefer this slightly romantic take on the view.
   It is said that in stormy weather you can still hear the bell of the long ago inundated Kingston Chapel tolling mornfully ....

   Whose 'Walk' is this?
   The number of letters in the first word on the sign minus one is D.

9. A short way to the west of your current location you will find some beach huts.
   Add up the number of letters in the 24th beach hut westward's name and take away 3. This is E.
10. At the western end of the beach huts you will find a place to take a well deserved break (and maybe get a cup of tea or an ice cream depending on the weather) while you program the final coordinates of the cache site.

    Outside of this establishment looking out to sea, you should notice that Poppy and S.B. loved this place. The middle two digits of the year it was placed add up to K.

The cache

By now you should have numbers for all of the letters A,B,C,D,E,F,G, H, J and K. Fit them into the following grid to give the coordinates of the cache.

Now for a final stroll to the cache site. Near to the cache location in 1983 a hoard of bronze age (1000 BC) axe heads were discovered during an archeolgical dig, so it seems that this location has been used for hiding Treasue for at least 3000 years!
You are looking for a deep square tupperware type box.
Happy Hunting ...

Back to the Car

From the cache you should be able to continue North for a while before turning East and making a nice circular route back to your car at (or near) the initial coordinates.

Hope you enjoyed this cache.

NOTE: This could be quite a fun night time cache as Ferring has practically no street lights and can get very dark on cloudy nights ...