If you're following the series, please make sure you follow the way marked path through the caravan park and the up the slight hill beyond the office buildings. Please keep dogs on a lead and young children away from the river on the first part of the path from the road. The cache is in a Bison, which is inside a small camo bag - please replace as found, making sure the cord is pushed into the hiding place so as to stop muggles spotting it!
Sandy's Sunday Stroll is a series of caches on the banks of the river Wennington between the villages of High and Low Bentham. The caches are all placed on the public rights of way which link the two villages and they pass through active farmland as well as a holiday home and caravan park, so please take care to follow the way marked path and keep dogs under control. Also, please note that whilst the route linking the caches is not in any way through difficult terrain, it is not suitable for wheelchairs or children's buggies. In wet weather some parts of the route are perhaps best described as somewhat muddy!
The cache series is named for Mad Aunt's dog Sandy, a Geohound of formidable renown (well, he is within the family). The walk between the villages is just what he looks forward to on a Sunday, hence the series name.
Parking is available in both High and Low Bentham, by the road side in High Bentham near the river bridge or there is a small public car park in Low Bentham.
Bentham is a small rural community, pleasantly cradled between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, with the Trough of Bowland on its doorstep, about 12 miles from the M6 motorway.
The earliest traces of occupation are to be found in Low Bentham. The Romans passed this way, for a section of Roman road has been discovered, as has an Anglo-Saxon cross on the site of the present church - proving the existence of a settlement in the 8th Century.
Over time it was the nearby community at High Bentham that developed to the thriving Market Town that it is today.
It is probable that the name "Bentham" is a derivation of the Anglo-Saxon words "bent" (rough grass) and "heim" (home). In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was the manor of "Benetain" and in Tudor times "Bentum". The oldest existing building is Stonegate House within Low Bentham, whose deeds are dated 1609.
There are many old photographs of Bentham taken since 1900. A selection of these have been put on plaques and placed around the town so that a comparison can be made with Bentham as it was and Bentham today. The project is called Bygone Bentham.