Truly, Madly, Deeply Vale
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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Wait for a bright clear day to appreciate the splendid views on the way to and from this cache, which is down in a hidden valley with a fascinating history. The terrain is rough, muddy and steep, so trail shoes or preferably walking boots are necessary. Enjoy magnificent views of the Pennine hills and the Cheshire Plain on the way back down the road.
Park on Birtle Road near N 53º36.815’ W002º15.275’ – if you were to park further up, it might inconvenience local residents. Walk up the lane to the end, and continue straight ahead on a rough bridle path which is frequently used by horse riders, so best keep dogs on leads. You can approach from other directions but I can’t comment on other routes.
Deeply Vale is part of the Cheesden Valley, and is usually so quiet now that it’s hard to imagine it was ever otherwise. In spring you may well hear cuckoos, and at all times there is birdsong and maybe the sound of sheep and cattle. There’s also a wonderful variety of flora and the valley is listed as a site of biological importance – so tread carefully if you explore downstream of the cache location, for there are some rare bog plants!
A few miles away is Park, where John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. With the water power provided by Cheesden Brook and the lodges (reservoirs) built to provide a consistent head of water, 15 mills employing 2,000 workers were soon thriving along the length of the stream. A printworks at Deeply Vale was washed away by a storm in 1828, but was re-built, unfortunately killing the new owner, a Mr Earnshaw, who fell into the works. Later it became a paper mill. During the American Civil War in the 1860s, many large town mills were ruined because they could not get their supply of cotton, but some of the moorland mills enterprisingly turned to spinning cotton waste, and actually experienced a boom during the cotton famine. However, by the 1870s the moorland mills began to struggle to compete with the massive town mills and had all but disappeared by the turn of the century.
Less than a hundred years later, Deeply Vale echoed with sounds very different to those of the mills – Deeply Vale’s first free festival took place, put together in three weeks by a group of friends from Rochdale. From these humble beginnings, the vision grew into a massive gathering of 20,000 by 1978, when the line-up included Misty in Roots , The Ruts, The Out, Here and Now, The Fall, Nik Turner with Sphynx , and Steve Hillage. The unlikely mix of hippies, punks and new-wave actually worked, but due to various problems in 1979, the festival moved site. Have a look at www.deeplyvale.com if you want to know more about a northern festival that rivalled Glastonbury in its day.
The Deeply Vale area is quite remote, but local youths sometimes tend to gather near the mill ruins by the cache site in the evening, one suspects to consume alcohol! So it may be best to go during the day. At times when I have been there, I have had the creepy feeling I am being watched, and my dog starts to growl…maybe it’s the ghost of poor Mr Earnshaw?? Or that of a hippy coming back to a happy haunt??!
The cache is hidden just south of what is strictly Deeply Vale. It’s in a very small rectangular food storage box, and contains FTF certificate, pewter teddy picture frame, professional eraser, glass bead, kitten notepad, highlighter pen, bag clip, and log-book with pencil and sharpener. When I place my caches, I usually put in some quite nice goodies to start them off. Please note that I don't expect people to trade equally value-wise - if you find the cache, you are welcome to take whatever item takes your fancy - well, except the log book of course! - and just leave some appropriate item, so long as it's not total rubbish e.g. a bus ticket, dead leaves or broken piece of plastic!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hcfgernz fvqr bs gur oevqtr - whfg nabgure oevpx va gur jnyy?