The fourth in a series of caches around Mathern [Merthyr Tewdrig] and hidden along Snakey Lane which borders the Wyelands Estate.
The lane can only be accessed on foot via a series of stiles from the ‘Snakey Lane’ cache. If approaching from the other direction there are no stiles but the track gets quite narrow and is not suitable for wheelchairs I’m afraid. Also watch out for fallen branches / ivy etc.
The cache location affords a view (over the wall!) of Wyelands House. Wyelands House is a Grade II listed building (Oct 2000) built of Bath stone ashlar in a compact neoclassical Regency style. It is set in a well-preserved early-19th-century landscape park with mature specimen trees. There are contemporary terraced gardens and informal woodland gardens, one of which has been ornamented with winding paths edged in rockwork.
Wyelands House is located about 1.6km North of Mathern Village. It was designed by Robert Lugar constructed finished in the early 19th Century (@1830) having been commissioned by George Buckle, a leading Chepstow shipbuilder and timber merchant who was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1819.
The property was sold first to John Russell (1788-1873), a colliery owner and magistrate, who in turn became Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1855. Following Russell's purchase of the neighboring estate of Piercefield, Wylands passed to Major General Sir Edmund Keynton Williams, whose son sold Wyelands to Rev. Robert Vaughan Hughes; he lived there with his family until his death in 1901. His son, Gerald Vaughan Hughes, who was Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1919, then occupied the house; in turn, his son, Brigadier Gerald Birdwood Vaughan-Hughes (1896-1983), became Sheriff in 1960. A covered swimming pool, to the east of the service wing, was added in 1999. The architectural historian, John Newman, describes the ensemble of the buildings as "remarkably complete and beautifully preserved”
You are looking for a small screw-top container. The details for the Mathern Bonus cache [D] are written on a separate slip alongside the logbook sheet.
Congratulations to Sniffadogz, WalkingGB and Lomakx who were FTF together.