Event Morning
It’s the last Sunday of the month, and hence time for the traditional South Derbyshire group meeting in Swadlincote. I’d booked the day for going out caching, and, of course, the clocks just changed, so there’d be plenty of daylight. My plan was to drive by as many of South Derbyshire’s Churches as I could manage, hunting the church micros, obviously. But to begin with, I went to the pub for breakfast. This is the way……
I took loads of photos, so here are a few of them. I was obviously grabbing a few other caches while I was in the zone too, but mainly it was about the church micros. You can see a wide variation in styles on a general “church in a village” theme. Different architectural styles, different stone, and so on.
As this was a day of drive-bys on my own, and because I can’t get to display caches on the car’s sat nav screen, it became a bit painful. Maybe that problem will be addressed in the next few weeks, when the new motor arrives. It claims to have google services embedded. We will see what that actually means when I get it. For now, in the current car, I just kept driving past things.
Setting Off
The first couple of finds were still in Swad. Well, one in Swad and one in Church Gresley. I walked from the Sunday event over to CM9414, as it was 200m from where I was parked. It was cloudy first thing and a bit windy too, so I kind of wished I’d put a coat on. But I hadn’t, so I just walked quickly and got on with it. That became a theme for the day. I was hopping in and out of the car all day. It wasn’t ever really warm, but then it wasn’t cold either.
CM13347 was a few minutes away in the car. It was an easy cache up a path round the back of the church.
From here I headed west and grabbed a puzzle over at Mount Pleasant, and then failed to get the CM in Linton (nowhere to park).
Next up was CM5278 in Rosliston. I’m not sure why I’d not done this one in the past. I’ve been through the village loads of times. Anyway, another easy find.
Where’s the Sea?
So why the subheading? Well, Coton in the Elms holds the distinction of being the furthest place from the sea in the whole of the UK. Only 70 miles from the sea, but you can’t get further away than that without going to France or further. The actual location furthest from the sea is a mile away at Church Flatts Farm. After all that excitement, I was calmed down by finding CM5192, even though someone parked right in front of it just as I arrived.
And from there I ventured down to Netherseal, having first stopped to get the solution for a “Victoria’s Postbox” and discovering the actual cache was miles away. I was accosted by two locals in Netherseal, who jokingly thought I was nicking the roadsign that hosted the cache. They snuck up on me from behind – I didn’t hear them coming.
And then a slight failure. I drove over to Chilcote, which is technically in Leicestershire. There’s a second CM for Netherseal in a field up there, but frankly I didn’t like the parking, so I didn’t stop.
Leicestershire, Probably
CM14680 in Acresford was easier to find than the church it’s associated with. It’s up a residential street, and I couldn’t see a church at all. It is, in fact, a mid-terrace house that’s used as a Methodist Church. It doesn’t look even remotely churchy from the outside, to be honest. There’s a couple of nice houses up the street though. Anyway, it’s in Leicestershire.
Moving on up, Overseal is back in South Derbyshire (just). It’s two CMs ( CM14786 and CM9933 ) were easy to find. Sadly, two others in the village went as DNFs. Well, one DNF, and one CBA (Can’t be arsed bothered). The CBA was called Pipe Dream, and involved searching a massive wall built of clusters of terracotta pipes, searching for one that might have a bottle in it. Errm, nah! Maybe another day.
CM15264 in Woodville was a pain in the boottocks to park at. Thankfully, when I did eventually find a space I was quite close. I’d driven right past it and had to do a U-turn round a roundabout and come back.
Nice Countryside
Next up was the hamlet of Bretby. This place has some quite negative connotations for me personally. Just outside the hamlet is a crematorium that serves the area. I have personally attended memorial ceremonies here (that I remember) for three of my four grandparents (possibly all four), two aunts, one uncle and my mum. So the name is tinged with sadness for me. For the first time ever though, I drove past the crematorium and into the tiny hamlet itself. The church there was (for me) probably the prettiest of the day, and that cheered me up a bit (CM10848, by the way).
I was getting to the point where I needed to turn my bike around by this time, and I was saved a trip behind the bushes when I drove right up to a big garden centre. That’ll do then. I’ll pop in there. I’m sure they won’t notice if I don’t actually buy any plants.
They didn’t notice.
So off next to Newton Solney. That takes the prize for prettiest village. In fact, it has literally taken a prize for “Best Kept Village” on about 5 occasions. I can see why. CM10849 took me a while to find, but the spot was beautiful. There was a set of Adventure Labs here too, so an added bonus.
Old Skool
No, literally…. Next up was Repton, the home of the 16th century Repton School. It had a rather striking church (CM6427) and a whole set of Adventure Labs. It also has a distinct lack of places to park a car like mine. But eventually I got far enough round to get the labs done.
Willington was home to a couple more. They were a bit stark compared to some of the others. CM9827 in my mind looks better from far away than from close up. CM15272 is a good cache but (again, in my mind) not a very pretty church. To me it looks like a cross between a rural village hall and a campsite shower block. I guess God doesn’t mind too much though.
Next up was a drive along the Trent valley, taking in the small (or very small) villages of Twyford (CM15274) and Barrow upon Trent (CM3924). Both were cute churches and easy finds.
Nuffski! I better go home!
Continuing my way along the Trent Valley, I overshot again and had to turn around to come back for CM5025 at Swarkestone.
From here I drew my breath in and thought skinny thoughts as I picked my way over Swarkestone Bridge towards Stanton by Bridge. CM5042 was a nice easy find, despite having a quick chat with a local (and his dog) and explaining why I was there.
So one more for the road then. I was heading back in the right direction by this time, but I couldn’t really drive through Ticknall without attempting CM13561. I parked in the public car park next to the Village Hall (no cache). It was by this stage rather windy, and leaning towards being cold. To be honest I was glad I was about to stop.
I have, of course, been here before (see Treacle Mines).
The Reckoning
At the end of the day, I’d made 38 finds in total. Of those, 19 were Church Micros. 14 were lab stages and the other 5 were random others, including a bonus 2.5/5 Challenge in Willington. I was kind of happy with that. Driving around always makes for slow going, as you have to keep finding places to put the car and then walk back to the cache in question.
