Back in Time.....

Mr Shiltonpig runs out of steam

 10th July 2010

So apart from the world cup...we have been up to a couple of other non geocaching things as well. Now I know this blog is for geocaching adventures but hey what the heck we shall tell you a tale from the deepest darkest corners of Nottinghamshire. Once a year for th last 50 or so years the village of Rempstone hosts its annual Steam and Country Fair. As Josh loves tractors and diggers we thought it would be a great place to take him. What we didin't expect was another type of geek there instead. Many of you are aware of the geeks bible

The Original Tractor Boy

 which includes geocachers of course. We have a bad reputation...especially to any of you who heard Chris Moyles make fun of us the other morning. So it always gives me great pleasure to meet different types of geeks. Now one section of the fair took us to the engines section where several people in their caravans and tents were closer guarding late 19th and late 20th century mowers and water pumps. Made us chuckle.....finally somebody more worthy of a geeky title. What is more worrying is that Josh is starting to have these tendencies at such an early age....just look at him in th photo to the right and you can see how much he enjoys being behind the

Lewis Hamilton wannabe

 wheel of a tractor! The show also had bagpipes...now I am not entirely sure what the Scottish connection is between Rempstone and Scotland is, but it was a worthy addition to a country fair. Other strange items to be seen were in the tent entitled "Models Tent", instead there were loads and loads of model circuses, which were great to look at. What was weird however were all the adverts advertising several model circus shows across the East Midlands area. Starting to wonder if the cut-throat world of model circuses might next be the focus of a Hollywood film...Tom Cruise would be the actor I would recommend for the part.

Who is afraid of who?

 So much to see and do in the several hours we were there (and good value for £6 per person...free parking...and you know how much Mr Shiltonpig hates having to pay for ridiculous parking)...The reptile tent didn't just include reptiles, massive massive spiders meant that Mr Shiltonpig was hiding behind the tent. Josh loved them...and got stuck in poking at the snakes and lizards. Fortunately none of them were Josh eating so we had to take him home with us (A note to social services- we do love our son...honest!) There was also a tent with you could enter a beehive in...but we spotted a hole in the tent so decided not to enter it. Did you know that

A needle in a haystack

there is a society in the East Midlands for looking after bees? With so much to offer it seemed rude not to take up the offer of a Mr Whippy in the nearby van...I think its fair to say that we have single handedly kept the ice cream business in business this summer. Josh alone accounting for 98.5% of all UK sales. After looking at some kites, Shire Horses, chilli plant stand and many more amusing and unusual stalls it was time to go home. So while we may not be the geekiest family out there....we fitted right in with this crowd!! See you next year Rempstone....see you next year...

A sad story....

"My Bunny"

Monday May 3rd 2010

Now you may be thinking that how can this be a sad story when the 1st photo in this blog is Mrs Shiltonpig pointing to a road sign of a village called Bunny. But seriously how can any self respecting person live in a place called Bunny? It just deserves to be made fun of...especially as it is a very pretty village....just imagine what goes on here at Easter? Anyway we were on our way back from Nottingham chasing a new icon for our geocaching page (sad I know, but I bet were not the only ones out there that do it) and heading to the village of Rempstone.

Big black evil cloud

We were going for our 1st virtual caches, this is one where there is no cache to find, but an interesting site instead and you have to answer a question to prove that you were there. We parked the car and the rain gods were out in force...and if you don't believe us, we took a photo the most evil black cloud anyone has ever seen on the face of the planet. We walked through a field, that looked like no one had walked through for like 250 years...as we carried on for about 0.27 miles (don't you just love GPSr's) we turned the corner and in the middle of a field (and an overgrown field it was too) there were 20 headstones lying abandoned in a field.

Graves abandoned in a field

The story goes that the original village Rempstone was actually based at this location. It was quite a place in its day...it had a moated manor house, and of course St Peters church where 950 people had been buried in the last 200 years of its existence. One of the graves was from a prominent reverend who dies at age 82 in 1748. Shortly after this time, we are unclear about what happened, but the original church was used for pieces in the new church built in 1773. The moated manor house is now gone and lies underneath a fishing pond of all places. The poor old reverend has had his grave opened, and I'm sure if you really wanted to you,

Poor old Reverend

you could look inside. It just seems sad that this is a country where we are proud of our history, and yet for some reason this small village has been left behind and all these people, aren't even on a proper burial site anymore. If you haven't been to this cache yet, you should make a trip and see for yourself what we mean. Of course we would have liked to have stayed a bit longer but that massive cloud we mentioned earlier, had us reaching for cover and we hid while it rained the big fat blobby kind of rain. Josh decided he wanted to play with the camera and so Mr Shiltonpig took a photo of him, to try and teach him....

"Osh"

This was the result...and all he could say was "Osh" and he likes to call himself. Makes you think that our town or village might not be here in 250 years and some person might come across our gravestone and wonder what life was like. A deep thought to leave you with while you eat your chinese takeway or whatever it is you are eating right now....cache of the day for us!