Raspberry Walkies 1 Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is in a small copse just of the pathway
This loop takes you around Sandhurst MemorialPark The distance from the car park to the cache and back, is just under a mile and a half. Please note that although the terrain is fairly flat (and can be a little muddy in places), the route goes over a bridge, Suitable for small children & dogs not buggies in winter. This is an open access recreational site covering approximately 28 hectares. It has been developed as a public recreation ground and includes: sports pitches adventure play area tennis courts multi-user sports pitch that can be used by schools and groups for basketball, roller hockey, skating etc. cricket club café that is available for hire in the evenings. The Park also contains areas of nature conservation interest with a balancing pond providing ideal habitats for wildlife, watefowl and other aquatic flora and fauna. The eastern boudary has as small piece of ancient woodland which was probably once part of the Great Forest of Windsor. The Park is owned by Sandhurst Town Council. Suggested parking at Sandhurst Memorial Park car park N 51° 20.681 W 000° 47.536. or at the Shepherds meadow 51°20.343 W 000° 47.009T If you want a longer walk The River Blackwater is the centre piece of the whole Valley it rises in Rowhill Nature Reserve, Aldershot and after 20 miles joins with the River Whitewater near Eversley. Over the last 200 years it has suffered form neglect and encroaching urbanisation. However in recent years much has been done to improve water quality and restore the riparian environment and habitats along the river. The river Blackwater is now once again and rightly the centre piece of the Valley, the thread that links all the Valley and its facilities. Wildlife is returning, including the Otter which has been absent for over 40 years, fishing stocks are improving and the construction of the long distance riverside path has opened up much of the riverbank to enable everyone to enjoy its waterside landscape. People have been present in the Valley since prehistory and it is likely that the Valley at this time would have formed a swampy wetland between the higher dry heathlands. Evidence of early human occupation has been found in the form of two Neolithic arrowheads discovered at Tongham and a Bronze Age cemetery at Yateley. There are two Iron Age hill forts in the Valley which are prominent features of the heathlands. The two sites, confusingly both known as Caesar’s Camp, can be found on Aldershot Common and at Nine Mile Ride Bracknell. Recent excavations at Tongham revealed Iron Age farmsteads in the Valley floor. The landscape may have changed little from this period for another 2,000 years. Daniel Defoe wrote in 1724: ”Much of it is sandy desert where winds raise the sands…The ground is otherwise so poor and barren, that the product of it feeds no creatures but some very poor sheep, and but few of these, nor are there any villages worth remembering and but few houses or people for many miles far & wide. This desert lies extended so much that some say there is not less than a hundred thousand acres or this barren land… reaching out every way in the three counties of Surrey, Hampshire & Berkshire.” Tithe maps Tithe maps show that the landscape at the early part of this century was one of small meadows and pastures separated by hedges, with much of the ground near the river marked as "liable to flooding". Many field names indicate the wet nature of the valley floor, names include: The Moor Five Acre Moor Rushy Plot Great Moor Heathy Moor Peat Moor A number of small copses did occur in the Valley but bigger expanses of woodlands were largely restricted to the higher and drier ground away from the river Present day The landscape has undergone drastic changes in the past century. This is due in part to the geology of the area, as gravel is found virtually along the entire length of the river. Another factor has been the rapid urban expansion, which has reduced the open nature of the Valley to a narrow strip of land adjacent to the river. This is especially so in the southern part of the Valley. Due to the Valley floor being subject to regular flooding the immediate area escaped the pressure of development, but instead became a natural communication channel with power lines, gas pipelines, railways and roads all present. After the Second World War the demand for development of both roads and houses, and the associated requirement for building materials, meant that many fields in the Valley have been extracted for gravel and sand. This has produced a varied range of ages of water bodies in the Valley. Since the 1950s gravel extraction has been constantly taking place in the Valley floor and many of the lakes found today are a result of this activity. Operators moved on as pits become worked out and the flooded workings resulted in ever increasing areas of open water. Most of these have been restored since the 1960s
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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