Guess the shape?

Group of 3...just 1 missing

 Sunday 29th May 2011

To be honest it could take you less than 5 minutes to do a tour of Rushton Triangular Lodge. In fact if you were running it might be possible to do it in less than 2 minutes and that would probably include running around the outside as well. But the place itself will stay with you a lot, lot longer. It is one of the most unusual places that we have encountered and is just crying out to be a part of Dan Browns next "Da Vinci Code" book. So where do we even begin? Well back we go to the 16th century, it seems the whole area was a haven for Elizabethan

Have you worked out the shape yet?

England. Thomas Tresham was a Catholic and being a Catholic in a country that had recently decided that catholicism was a bad bad thing. So what did he decide to do? Build something that would secretly be a testament to his faith. So he created the probably the worlds most triangular building. Everything and I mean everything is in 3's or in the shape of a triangle.....why a triangle you may ask? To symbolise the trinity, the father, the son and the holy ghost. What we fail to see is how dear Mr Tresham could think that the local population wouldn't guess what he was up to. In fact the whole building is connected in some way or

How about now? any clues?

another to biblical references. And if being a triangular building wasn't enough...this building has connections to the gunpowder plot. For those kind people who have read our recent blog on Lyveden House, you will know that the son of Thomas Tresham was so annoyed at the way the government treated his father and family that he conspired with Guy Fawkes and tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The atmosphere in some of the places we have been to in recent days really is great. Today this folly is in a small Northamptonshire village and is in the middle of nowhere, and strange to think such a small house

Are you sure you can't guess the shape?

had such an impact on the world we live in today. There are 3 caches in the area currently and we didn't manage to find any of them. There seems to have been a fire in the area recently which has knocked two of the caches out, the other was a premium cache and for some reason my app decided to play funnies and wouldn't show it. So sadly Shiltonpigs geocaching adventures at Rushton were rather short, so apologies to all the extreme cachers out there who were hoping for some hardcore action in this blog! So back to the folly/house then....there are 3 dates on the side, one was 1580 which is supposed to be the date of

One last clue. Mr Shilonpig is helping you out!

Treshams conversion. However there are 2 more dates 1626 and 1641....people have tried to come up with answers to these questions. But team Shiltonpig have finally been able to figure it out. Mr Tresham was a visionary and wanted to set a cache for the future, the figures can be used to work out where a geocache can be found. Of course you have to add a couple of figures but you could work it out. Problem solved Thomas Tresham was an Elizabethan Geocacher! We kid you not! So if you are a fan of triangles and geocaching, there is no better place on the planet that the village of Rushton.

Rockingham around the clock

Josh takes on the castle

Sunday 29th May 2011

This whole area has history coming out of its nose. Everywhere you look you just come across a castle here or a stately home here. Team Shiltonpig rode their cachemobile straight to Rockingham Castle, and yet again we were here on the trail of treasure of the gold variety. Legend has it that King John in the 13th century lost his crown jewels in the Wash (see our blog from last year). However 100 years ago at Rockingham Castle, one of the owners held a seance and was told the treasures were buried in the moat of the castle. Team Shiltonpig wanted a piece

Stop looking! I'm on the toilet!

 of the action. Rockingham castle has some incredible views and must be one of the few places in the country where you can see 5 counties from the top...in true team Shiltonpig style can you name the 5? Another impressive piece of information is that the great hall in the castle saw 10 kings dine there...yes you read that right 10 whole kings. In another moment of awe this weekend, we dare you to wander in that room and not feel something special, imagine all the conversations that have gone in the past. Oh to be a fly on the wall! The guides in the house seemed to have taken a page out of Lyddington English Heritage guidebook. They only

Mr Shiltonpigs current favourite photo

had to see Josh and they would panic. Be careful of this and careful of that. We think some of these places need to remember that children (and most of the adults) want to look AND touch the objects. Anyway rant over you will be pleased to know. Whats that I hear you say? you want more history...well how about this Charles Dickens was also a regular visitor to the castle and actually used the castle as part of the story in the famous Bleak House. You can see his letters in the upstairs rooms. The Castle is still a living house, the lawn outside had 2 goal posts, a reminder that a teenage boy lives here. Its hard to comprehend growing up in

Romeo, Romeo where for art thou?

a castle compared to the lives Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig grew up with. The children are very fortunate. The gardens make for a nice walk and the guided tour helped make it even more interesting. It was here that we got to hear more about the crown jewels and the treasure. I am sorry to disappoint you but 100 years ago they digged and digged and digged to try and find the treasure but alas there was none. Although the guide did say...perhaps they didn't dig deep enough. They display what they did find in the castle itself, but you will have to visit to find out for yourself. So team Shiltonpig had to make do with the only treasure we will ever find,

Mr Shiltonpigs attempt at art photography

geocaches....and there were a couple nearby. At one of them after we had just arrived, a pushbike pulled up and a young Polish man gets off the bike, turns out we bumped into another geocacher! And its a good job we did bump into him because it took the 3 of us to find the cache after 10 minutes, and it was him that found it! He commented that in Poland they use opencaching.com rather than geocaching.com and that the caches are easier to find! Perhaps a trip to Poland is in order!!! So all in all a great visit to a lovely castle steeped in history and some nice caches in the area! Encourage you all to visit one day!

Towns beginning with "o"

What country are we in?

Sunday 29th May 2011

972 AD. That was quite some time ago, it was before the internet and we are not sure whether sliced bread was invented. But 94 years before the Battle of Hastings, Oundle was granted a market charter, something that the local council wants to shove in your face as you drive past the town sign. Quiz question (and without looking...and we will know whether you looked as this blog is now able to track what food you had for breakfast) How many towns (not cities, so forget Oxford) can you name in the UK beginning with the letter O.

St Peter?

Once you have counted them up, you are then allowed to click on this linky poo to find out the answers. If you got more than we did then you did very well indeed....so back to caching then. Oundle for such a small town has plenty of caches. They all seem to be of the nano variety in the main area. The town is a pretty little place, although they won't thank us for saying that nearby Stamford has the edge on it. But we would happily live in an area like this. First on the list was the gates micro cache. I am sure that the few geocachers that read this blog, will know that buildings close together can play havoc with your GPS. As a result it took us a while to find 

The Cotswolds?

the cache site....of course you may be thinking if the cache name is called "the gates", surely it can't have been that hard to find some gates. You will probably be right to tell you the truth, but hey all geocachers are allowed a blonde moment now and again. Mrs Shiltonpig was smug because she found this one. Its worth noting that this town supposedly is made up from some of the brick and stone that came from the demolished castle at Fotheringhay. As to how true this is we will never know, but it is pretty nice stone to tell you the truth. The next cache took us to the Ship Inn and down a dark alley. Perhaps its because Mr Shiltonpig has spent many

Town was empty, except Beans Cafe

an afternoon down a dark alley (that story is for another time!!) that he was able to quickly spot the cache at hand. After some rather strange looks from some passers by we carried on our way up the street to a church by a courthouse. Mrs Shiltonpig was still feeling smug after finding the hardest cache of the day so far. But the smile was wiped off her face as she failed to find the easiest cache of the day so far. Nevermind Mrs Shiltonpig...you can't win them all! We started walking back to the car, and passed the Beans cafe with what can only be described as half the town filling up the place. The rest of the town is deserted apart from here.

GPS hell around here

  In doing research for this blog, I came across this article about Oundle. I love the quote "the Cotswolds without the price tag". Its a great line and very true. It was time to get some lunch, Josh was getting hungry and so it seemed appropriate to leave the town and find somewhere more green to have lunch.

Off with her head...

England at its finest

Sunday May 29th 2011

Now team Shiltonpig do not claim to be history experts, and will not be seen as experts on some episode of time team any time soon. However we would not consider ourselves to be totally ignorant of history. For example we know the Battle of Hastings took place in 1345 and that Henry 8th had 3 wives.But just 7 das ago we had never heard of the village of Fotheringhay. For example (and we challenge you to do this), go pull out your map of England and look the village up on the map. For a start it will take you a while to find it, but when you

"Pump" up the jam with DJ Josh

do, you will notice nothing special about it. Its in the middle of nowhere. And yet 7 days later we come here to find out what the atmosphere was like. One historian claims that with the exception of London, no place in Britain has been affected so much by Royalty. You see you need to step into a DeLorean and head back 500 years to find that Fotheringhay is much bigger and more important back then. For a start this small place was the birthplace of Richard 3rd and the last of the Plantagenet kings who died at Bosworth battlefiled. This clearly then was a village with a few secrets up its sleeve. As you drive to the village, its hard to picture it being anything other

Wow a Blue Plaque

 than a sleepy village. Current population is 123. But as I am about to share with you this small village changed the destiny of the entire country, we kid you not. There is really only one cache in the village...Nene Way Off with her head. It is a great cache and again emphasises the fact to us that when multi caches are done well, they are the best variety of cache. So back to the story, the year is 1587, Mary Queen of Scots has been brought here to the castle after spending time around the country imprisoned. She spent time at Tutbury Castle (see our earlier blog on that one). She would have seen the church in the village with its rather unusual spire

Fotheringhay Castle...no really it is

that is in the shape of an Octagon. The church still stands today. In February 1587 the word came through that Mary was to be executed for treason. One can only wonder when walking around this village what her last thoughts were. She was to be beheaded. There is strong speculation that it took more than one blow to kill her, some sources say it even took 3 blows. Surely one of the most awful (and gruesome) ways to die in this humble Shiltonpigs opinion. Just 40 years later in 1627, the castle had somehow fallen into disrepair, which considering the importance of the castle, is quite incredible when you think about it. The castle was

Off with her head...(Marys of course, who else am I talking about)

then demolished and only a mound remains today along with the most pathetic piece of wall you have ever seen in your life. The cache takes you around all the pretty places and important sites in the village. There is a river running through the village as well and an old medieval bridge is still there, possibly Mary crossed it as well. Team Shiltonpig found the whole place very atmospheric and we used the first of our favourite points to award this cache a bonus point. If you are near this area we recommend that you visit this small village and remember a different era that changed the course of history forever.

Harvestering around the fields

Wetherspoons...will you ever forgive us?

Saturday 28th May 2011

Please don't let Wetherspoons know this, but while team Shiltonpig love their breakfasts, their other food remains a question. However Harvester pubs offer team Shiltonpig the best way to pig out...don't believe us? try their combo grill and then come back and talk to us. Yes folks after a busy day caching and house hunting it was time for a well deserved rest. And being as we are talking about pubs, it best that we give you a small quiz, so small in fact that it only has one question.

Confused.com

Which member of team Shiltonpig spilt their coke on the floor? a. Mr Shiltonpig, b. Mrs Shiltonpig and c. Josh. Answer at the bottom. So anyway after a refreshing meal we started heading to the car when Mrs Shiltonpig piped up with the question...any caches nearby. Sure enough Mr Shiltonpig checked on his super duper geocaching app and sure enough there was a number of caches in the area. Now to most people the thought of going around the back of Kettering Business park may seem a little strange. But here we were spending our bank hols doing just that. To be fair the back of this business park was a large field with

Results of Joshs late night session

a large forest at the back of it. I wish Mr Shiltonpigs place of work had that behind the back of it. We attempted 4 caches here and found 3 of them. The fiendish cache that defeated us was placed next to a pile of rocks, next to a wood, and trust us when I say that there could have been a billion million places it could have been. Josh decided to poo and we all were getting tired and so that was it for the day on that one unfortunately. The series themselves were great, they were all about 0.1 miles away from each other, its a shame we ran out of time because they were all in easy reach of one another. The only problem was that the local population seemed to

Is this really the back of a business park?

have found all the cache sites as well. Reminds me of Pit Woods near Swadlincote which suffers which exactly the same problem. But it was a welcome distraction to have some caches to hunt for, they all seem to be a little harder to find around here. Caches are placed not in the most obvious location and that always provides a challenge. No matter how many caches we hunt for, when you reach the cache site all you can think about is "must find the cache!". So for all you keen readers who have been dying to know the answer to the quiz we can now reveal that it was in fact the one....the only...the clumsy Mr Shiltonpig who spilled his drink. 10 points to all who answered the question correct!

Oh my Lyveden you have no roof....

Northamptonshire Roof Appreciation Society Day Out

Saturday 28th May 2011

Please please please, team Shiltonpig are pleading, begging and asking you for your money. No don't worry you don't need to phone the police out of fear this is some geocaching fraud, team Shiltonpig believe there is a serious need here in the county of Northamptonshire! Roofs, they have no roofs! This is terrible.In fact this particular spot in Lyveden this house has never had a roof, and its been built for 406 years! So if you feel like donating to the new team Shiltonpig charity please let us know! This house really is in the middle of nowhere, you need

A House in the shape of a cross?surely not!

a sat nav and a full tank of petrol just to drive up the road to the house. It is worth noting that this house is owned by the National Trust and the woman on reception was brilliant, she clearly had seen kids before and loved Josh, even giving him his own sticker. This house has it all, a sad story, treason, religion and even a geocache nearby in which to continue our tale of caching in the Corby area. So lets take you back to the early 17th century, Thomas Tresham was a Catholic and for many many years he had been persecuted for his beliefs. Despite all this persecution he somehow managed to find the time to have a son and a wife

Pretty garden

 , but if there is one thing you can do to annoy the local protestant population is build a house which is full of expressions of your faith. For example as you might be able to tell from the photos the house is in the shape of a cross. Now Thomas sadly died in 1605 and the estate was passed to his son. However it was his son that was to go on and become more famous in English history, in fact his son and the events that he became involved in, is celebrated every year...on November 5th. Yes as the rhyme says "remember remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason, should be forgot!"

Sting sung about this field

Yes folks Francis Tresham, was so narked off that his family had been persecuted so much that he joined in with Guy Fawkes and decided to blow up the houses of Parliament. You may know that they failed, but the result was father and son both died in the same year 1605. The house was just built but still no roof. If you would like to know more please click on the linky poo here. Of course skip a few hundred years later and team Shiltonpig were here on the trail of a cache...thankfully we were not being persecuted and you will be glad to know we are not involved in any plot to overthrow David, that bloke that lives at number 10. The cache is about 0.2

Tree wanted to swallow little Josh

 miles away on a path rather imaginatively titled "Lyveden Way". The cache like the house was in the middle of nowhere, but true to normal geocaching style when we arrived at the cache site, there was some walkers kicking around the picnic table. We made strange noises until we scared them to go, which left us to find the cache. There was only one obvious place, so thats why we looked everywhere but there and then returned to the obvious place, only to find the cache there. The heavens opened up for a brief moment and then by some spooky magic quickly stopped. After all this caching and roof finding there was only one thing to do...eat!

Oh my what a lovely Lyddington roof....

Mr Shiltonpigs first love

Saturday 28th May 2011

Mr and Shiltonpig are in love! (no, no not with each other...only joking Mrs Shiltonpig) Yes thats right the cherub of cupid has aimed his arrow and struck right into the heart of team Shiltonpig! Firstly Mr Shiltonpig is in love with ironstone, and the village of Lyddington has ironstone coming out of its nose and all other bodily holes! Mrs Shiltonpig however is in love with a roof. But more on that later. It was lunchtime and the family were knawing (quite literally) through the crusty sandwiches that Mr Shiltonpig had prepared earlier.

Windy? Just look at Mrs Shiltonigs hair!

But lunch is for geocaching wimps! And after a 30 second lunch break we were off again on the trail of caches and there were 2 in the direct village to knock off (not sure thats the best expression in the world to use, but lets face it, I've said it know and can't take it back because I can't find the delete key on my keyboard!). Lyddington has a lovely Bede house in it. Some religious type person owned it in the middle ages and is now a house that you could expect to see in this current TV programme. The English Heritage woman on the desk nearly had a heart attack on the spot when she saw Josh. Josh only had to look at something old and he was told

English Heritage...not for children!

off. Clearly this house should have a sign on the door saying children not welcome. Big thumbs down from team Shiltonpig on this one. So we dedicate the photo on the left to that woman. Josh found an old chest on the first floor and it was an appropriate place to play hide and seek. Now perhaps its time to get you dear readers to prepare yourselves....thats right after teasing you at the start of this blog post, its time to reveal the roof that Mrs Shiltonpig fell in love with. But perhaps before you look at the next photo, you should sit down in case you faint! We walked up another flight of stairs and there in all its glory was the roof....

The roof to end all roofs

This was a roof like no other (or so Mrs Shiltonpig will tell you). This is a roof that has original wooden medieval beams, it still has wooden pegs keeping the tiles in place, and it has some kind of medieval cement still in place...wardle? Yes folks, you could spend hours looking at the workmanship, so you could. Mrs Shiltonpig was tempted to stand here for the day, but the lure of the 2 caches in the village were enough. After further annoying the woman at the desk by asking her whether there was a toilet to change Josh. Toilets? in Lyddington? oh how common! Anyway after that interchange, it was time to look at the nearby bishops fishpond. Josh of course got sidetracked twice by the village swings. Mr Shiltonpig looked on and admired the medieval village cross that had been there for quite a while...at least since this morning anyway. Now the fishponds were about 0.2 miles away and to stop anybody getting too excited, there were no fish. In fact there were no ponds. However I am pleased to report that you can see the outline of a fishpond. Erm? forgive me for being a

Mobile coverage is great around here!

tad sarcastic...but isn't that just a field. The cache however made up for the fact there was no pond. Of course I can't tell you what the container is made of, you will just have to come and find out for yourselves. We had never discovered these caches before, and we have found 2 in a month! Back up the path and back into the centre of the village for the final cache of the series, yes you have guessed it a red telephone box. The cache was found in probably the quickest time ever, and it is worth noting the phone box is in full working order. Perhaps they still have to use these boxes as the mobile signal around here is worse than being on the planet Pluto. (Mr Shiltonpig refuses to accept that Pluto was downgraded from being a planet several years ago)