Before the last war chalk grassland
occupied nearly half of the South Downs. That figure is now about
4% being mainly restricted to some of the steeper slopes that
cannot be ploughed.
If you owned a downland farm in the
19th century, a well managed flock of sheep and a hard working
shepherd were essential, so much so that your shepherd was the most
important worker on your farm. In order to get any kind of
production from these thin and often impoverished soils, fertiliser
in the form of farmyard manure had to be applied. However, the
physical problems and cost of hauling vast quantities of manure
from the farmyard to the distant fields were too great. To overcome
these problems, farmers employed animals to do the work for them -
sheep. The era of 'The Golden Hoof' had arrived.
Chalk turf is not natural to the
South Downs; it is the result of this sheep grazing. As a result of
this there can be up to 40 different species of plant in a single
square metre! Some of these such as horseshoe vetch provide
essential food for some of our rarer animal species such as the
Adonis Blue butterfly. In short there is a prodigious symbiosis
between sheep rearing and our beloved south downs.
Every year in mid-September a Sheep
Fair is held in the village of Findon. This has been the case since
believe it or not, 1261. The sheep fair proper was started
somewhere around 1785. A lamb sale was held on 12th July followed
by the fair proper in September. The sheep fair no longer continues
in the old fashion when sheep were herded from all the neighbouring
settlements, but the fair continues to this day. The current guise
has its onus more on entertainment and education. For more detailed
information please see the “Findon Sheep Fair”
website or the wonderful Valerie Martin website “This is
Findon”
So in celebration of this I have set
up a series of caches around the village. The caches are all named
after essential items of a shepherds gear. There are 24 in total. I
have also made a bonus. The caches are in no particular order and
are scattered all around the village. The bonus co-ordinates are in
one of them! The choice is yours as to how you approach this
series. You could do all of the caches and then go for the bonus.
Or for those who like to go out with other cachers,
perhaps you could split up to see who finds the bonus first, and
maybe come back for the others later.
This is not meant to test your
caching skills in any way whatsoever. It is meant as a bit of fun,
and a nice walk around a lovely village. There are plenty of
parking places and you can pretty much start where you fancy. As
you can imagine there are going to be a lot of muggles around. The
people of Findon are very friendly, but please respect their
village and their privacy. Stealth and discretion is the key.
Because all of the caches are intended as quick grabs to make
things really simple, all of the caches are not micros, but the
0.6L Tupperware variety. Isn’t that thoughtful of me?!
There is room for travel bugs and small swapsies. It would be nice
if you could include in your log how many caches it took you to
find the bonus co-ordinates.
PLEASE don’t compromise the
caches’ whereabouts and hide it as you found it.
PLEASE don’t give the whereabouts of the bonus co-ordinates
away.
Now to tell the truth in all the
excitement, I’ve forgotten myself which cache I hid the bonus
details in. The question is do you feel lucky? Do you punk? Go
ahead, MAKE MY DAY!