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.