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Parking in Poling is a problem, if you are alone or your passengers
on the nearside are two dimensional, you can park alongside the flint wall
adjacent to the footpath leading to the Church, the coordinates are
N50 49.958 W000 30.980. If you did manage to squeeze in you are actually parked on the line of a suspected Roman road that passed through Poling - Look out for chariots!
The cache is located at N 50 49.851 W000 30.366. The walk is a short one of around a mile in total. In wet weather the journey there from the church onwards may well be a muddy one. If there are any livestock in the fields leading up to the cache it will be best to have your dog on a lead. Spouses, Partners and children however can be left unrestrained. If you are not interested in the history of this haunting village or desperate for a FTF, ( Gold, Silver & Bronze certificates enclosed ) then note the coordinates and dash for the cache along its footpaths. If however you like to take in this green and pleasant land, the heady atmosphere and sense of place that has formed over the many centuries, then dwell a while longer and hopefully the notes below will help evoke that mood.
Note that the cache can also be reached from Angmering and is a quick and easy sequel to the Angmering Amble multicache. However, if you walk down from Angmering you will miss out on the multitude of goodies Poling has to offer.
Recorded as 'Paling(e)' in 1199, and 'Polynge' in a document of the early 14thC, Poling is a secret place today. Surrounded by bustling and expanding towns it nestles in an oasis of calm just south of the busy A27. The Village is small with no real centre, the numerous points of interest are spread along its meandering lanes and the ancient web of footpaths into which they fade. Its history and connections with the past have been reclaimed by its soil and leave few obvious traces in the present.
The church of St Nicholas is tucked away at the most southerly point of the village. Despite its apparently Anglo-Saxon origins, the church is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. Today it hides a number of secrets. As you enter the churchyard through the wooden gate there is a memorial stone to the late Colin Cowdrey of cricketing fame. The inscription gives deference in a few well chosen words and reads …
Colin
The Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge
CBE
1932-2000
Some journey
Some life
Some cover drive
Some friend
Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, died on December 4, 2000, aged 67, after suffering a stroke . Sir Colin and finally Lord Cowdrey was knighted in 1992 and in 1997 became a life peer. In an era of outstanding English batsmen he had a Test career spanning more than two decades, and a playing career close to half a century: Cowdrey was the first man to play 100 Tests. He captained England 27 times and scored almost 43,000 first-class runs - 7,624 of them in Tests. In the late 1970’s he married Lady Herries, a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. Its something of a googly to come across the memorial to such a venerated sporting celebrity in the humble backwater of a West Sussex village churchyard.
Visiting the interior of the church is an absolute must. As you enter, to your left is a fantastic hand-painted millennium map that details the history of Poling village and its surrounding fields. This fascinating work pulls together many more secrets of Poling than these brief notes could ever do, and is a lasting credit to the villagers and team that compiled it. To the right is a medieval iron poor box that oozes history, and beyond that an RAF memorial to the servicemen and women who operated the Radar station and technical centre that stood in the fields about half a mile to the NW of the church. At the closing and demolition of the Radar Station in the 1950’s, the Royal Air Force presented the church with an ensign which was hung in the south aisle. Despicably the ensign was stolen in April 1982 but the Royal Air Force subsequently restored the loss, and thankfully its replacement still flies proudly today. Whist in the church take a while to look at the marvellous hand-fashioned cushion-cover collection. There must be one for every occasion.
During the Battle of Britain, Poling was one of the key Radar stations on the south coast plotting the position of enemy aircraft. Its function was vital to the RAF planes defending Britain during those critical early days. About forty such installations, had been built, shrouded in mystery, around the south and east coasts of England. The enormity of the Pylons at Poling dominated the lie of the Sussex downland immediately to the rear of the Technical Site. There were three 360 ft tall steel antennas and four 240 ft wooden towers. Little wonder then that they were attacked by the Luftwaffe on several occasions. Flight Sergeant Avis Hearn won the Military Medal for her bravery and courage at the Poling radar station during the Battle of Britain. On the 18th August 1940 the Poling station was heavily attacked by Messerschmitt and Stuka dive bombers. The Technical Site was badly damaged and the station was non-operational for a week until repairs could be carried out. Some of the enemy bombs in the raid fell on the civilian population of Poling. Signs of this attack were still visible until the 1950s on the Technical Site. The Station had over a hundred staff (men and women) and nearby woods were used as living accommodation for the personnel from Poling. After hostilities had ceased, Poling was one of only a few of the stations kept operation and was not shut down until long after the war. The name and location is preserved in the name of Radar cottage sited to the West of the main lane into Poling by the present day water tower.
Following the footpath east out of the churchyard towards the cache location will eventually place you close to the site of a substantial and once-opulent Roman Villa. The Villa was occupied by an important Roman citizen or a member of the Romano-British aristocracy and built between 65AD and 75AD and in use into the 3rd century. It is situated at the conclusion of the cache around half a mile East of St Nicolas church close to the footpath leading across the fields to Angmering. As well as hunting the cache take a moment to draw in the history. The location of the Villa may have been known for hundreds of years. It was certainly known in 1819 when an excavation of the site took place. The villa was built between two tidal tributaries of the River Arun which ran up to Angmering until about the 16th century, after which they became progressively silted leaving two small streams, one of which is today called the Black Ditch and the other as a stream leading up to Decoy ponds to the NE. The Villa was therefore serviced by Roman ships entering the Arun and branching off at a main tributary near Ford. Further excavations took place in 1937 and 1945 the former with Sir Mortimer Wheeler as consultant. Ironically one of the finds in 1937 included a silver pencil holder probably lost during the 1819 excavations! Many of the contemporary Roman finds are displayed at Littlehampton Museum. The excavations, however, were never completed, a situation that still exists today. The cultivated fields just beyond the cache across which the footpath cuts, are littered with the ploughed-out sherds of terracotta tiles. The site is now scheduled as an ancient monument and is therefore protected by law.
In the 12th century the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem founded a ‘Priory’ in Poling. The remains of part of this building can be seen incorporated in Fairplace Farm, also known as St John's Priory, and located to the West of the lane as you approach the main A27 on your return trip out of the village. Folklore records the buildings to be haunted by the sounds of Gregorian chants. There was a WWII gun emplacement close to the site of the priory that was no doubt fully engaged in the protection of the Radar site.
From perhaps a previous anonymity, we hope Poling has revealed at least some of its esoteric secrets, there are no doubt many more known only to the ghosts of this historically haunting place.
Congested Bloodhounds
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gb gur Abegu Rnfg bs gur fgvyr. Vs lbh svaq guvf lbh pna gnxr n obhtu!