Peak Forest Canal; Pipe down Cap'n Clarke ! Traditional Cache
Peak Forest Canal; Pipe down Cap'n Clarke !
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Size: 
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Easily accessible cache by the towpath of the Peak Forest Canal
I thought it was about time I launched a few caches of my own, and as caches on the Peak Forest Canal are somewhat sporadic, my first few will hopefully fill some of the gaps.
The canal was authorised by a 1794 Act of Parliament to run from Dukinfield near Ashton-under-Lyne to Chapel Milton, a few miles east of Bugsworth. The Upper Level from Marple to Bugsworth was completed in 1796; the Lower Level from Dukinfield to Marple Aqueduct by 1800. The aqueduct and Marple’s 16 locks took another five years, so linking the two levels.
Captain Clarke’s Bridge has always been a favourite of mine, a classic turnover bridge affectionately named after Hyde John Clarke, a naval commander in the Napoleonic wars; strictly it was called Woodend Bridge. His father George Hyde Clarke was the incumbent at Hyde Hall at the time the canal was being built, the Hall standing to the west of the canal between Bridges 6 and 7. To keep the hoi-polloi off the estate, the canal towpath had to switch from the west bank to the east bank between these two bridges, hence the consecutive turnover bridges.
Pop your head into the small very derelict ‘garden’ immediately beyond the north-west corner of the bridge. Formerly a war memorial garden adjacent to the St George’s Sunday School Rowing Club, the original WW1 cenotaph has long gone, but two tablets that survived vandalism have been set into the ground
The first tablet is inscribed: "This land was given by Mr and Mrs N. Warburton as a memorial to their son Harry Hurst Warburton, killed in Italy February 23rd. 1946, Whilst on active Service with H.M. Forces."
The second (and clearly originally placed alongside the stone for those lost in the Great War) reads "Also to those who fell in the Second World War 1939-1945. Flight Sergeant R.H. Nash, Flying Officer F. Plant, Trooper H.H. Warburton.”
The cache is hidden within 50 yards of Captain Clarke’s bridge.
FTF honours to m_dm
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur ovg bs gur gvgyr gung, guhf sne, cebonoyl znxrf yvggyr frafr. Urnq urvtug.
Treasures
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