2018 Treasure Hunt Challenge

Tell them to have a vacation in South Wales this coming weekend :stuck_out_tongue:

All the crop will have been harvested soon. LOL!

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Turton Reservoir

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Turton Water Tower

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Stockton, Warwickshire, is surrounded by quarries for the local blue lias clay, used for cement manufacture. Most of the quarries are closed now, the railway line that served them is now a nature reserve, and the spur off the Grand Union Canal is there no more - the main quarry company was Nelson and Co, which had its own fleet of narrowboats.

While there’s still a cement factory at nearby Long Itchington, around Stockton all is peaceful.

But, handily, there’s an old water tower in amongst the old workings!

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Just outside Banbury is the chocolate-box village of Wroxton, with a thatched pub, duck pond, and it’s very own Abbey, a 17th century Jacobean mansion, built on the site of a 13th century monastery. It’s lovely, and would make a great aerial photo, but it’s now the English campus of the American Fairleigh Dickinson College, so it seemed prudent to not do so.

Anyway, in the grounds are three “Treasures”. First off is my monument - a 50’ high obelisk commissioned in 1739 to commemorate the visit to Wroxton and the Banbury races by the Prince of Wales, Frederick of Hanover. Interestingly (and it’s amazing what you learn about your local area), whilst researching “monument” around Banburyshire, I discovered there’s a huge one just off Jct 11 of the M40 - Filling Station No 9 was a WW1 shell factory. It’s not just mounds in the earth, and hardly interesting, so I ignored it!

A fair bit beyond the obelisk is my No. 12 Something over 100 years old. The Drayton Arch - for a folly, it’s a fair trek beyond the abbey, but I guess those Jacobean’s liked a walk about the place. Scarily (and deliberately in shot), Banbury is rapidly encroaching - but then Banbury and especially Bicester are rapidly encroaching most of North Oxfordshire at the moment.

Now, Rich said:

so the third Treasure relating to the Abbey is this - sometimes known as Wroxton Castle. It’s actually a Dovecote, built by Sanderson Miller in 1745 - he had a bit of a thing about castle-type follies (the sham castles at Hagley Hall and Wimpole Hall are his). But, if you were a dove, wouldn’t you want to be king of this castle?

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Love the “castle”. :+1:

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Well, if the judges disagree, I’ve another idea, but it got too windy last night to do it

Nobody’s submitted a “sandcastle” yet. That was to be my emergency get-out. But then I realised it was easier to find a “fort” called a “castle” than it was the prerequisite bucket/spade/sandy beach. :stuck_out_tongue:

The Golden Hour.

When the sun is just coming up, and the empty roads up into Warwickshire are just made for a motorbike :slight_smile:

So, a good excuse to pop up to Chesterton Windmill, before the rest of the world woke up.

I’d never even heard of it, but I guess you can see it from the M40, as it’s in quite a commanding position not far from Gaydon (amazingly excellent Motor Museum if you’ve not been).

Anyway, built around 1632 by Sir Edward Peyton, the local Lord, it’s the earliest tower mill in England to retain any of its working parts. It’s quite dumpy at 36 feet high - the milling itself would have happened on the first floor, while down below, under the arches, wooden structures would have stored the grain. Uniquely, the sails rotate counter clockwise (apparently one fell off in 2006 during an open day, injuring a visitor!).

So, marks out of 10 to Warwickshire County Council:

  • 10/10 for restoring and looking after the windmill
  • 0/10 for the wretched 50mph speed limit on most of the roads to get to it

Chesterton Windmill

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@Renni-Aire - sure if you look hard enough there may be a ‘crop circle’ in all those shapes that have been damaged around the windmill! :wink:

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I did think of that (after I’d folded up the Mavic, duh) and you may be right, but I think they just looked a mess to be honest

I’ve been tempted to ask a well-connected social media type of anybody’s seen one locally, but I don’t want to encourage people to go and make them, so I’ve resisted

Leaderboard updated :+1:

@Nazzcar solidifies his current 5th place position and is now just three points behind @MementoMori for 3rd place!

@Renni-Aire advances up a notch and is now just a point or two behind @Paul_M and @milkmanchris!

Castle entry accepted :+1:

Some great photos posted there @Renni-Aire - thanks too for all the detail along with them :smiley: :clap:

Whalley Viaduct

@Nazzcar - Don’t be afraid to share some information with your entires mate - we won’t mind - honest :smiley:

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Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury. Built in the 1960s, the River Cherwell basically flows through it, so it stores some water from the river. Which is why it’s not dramatically half-empty!

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Sometimes, you just can’t believe your luck.

There I was, lunchtime, taking a short flight over Rennitown, when I spotted on the railway below something amazingly rare - two record-holding trains, running parallel to each other - the world’s fastest diesel, and the world’s fastest steam loco. Truly amazing. I was so excited I almost crashed into the runner beans.

But then, looking more closely (hey, it’s not easy on an iPhone screen in the sunshine you know), I realised all was not as it seems, these weren’t steam and diesel at all, they were electric trains - even better!

Fantasy you think? Have you seen “The Matrix”? Honestly, guv, this is what my drone saw - look:

Electric Trains.mov (5.8 MB)

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That’s a bit of an iffy picture. Looks suspiciously like model train Guv. Nudge nudge wink wink🤣

But it IS electric! … and taken with a flying drone.
The category never said anything about the gauge.
I think it’s as brilliant as my sandcastle would have been had I used it. LOL!

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