Nettlebed today is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills about 4.5 miles (7 km) north west of Henley-on-Thames, but the area has been inhabited since Palaeolithic times. At one time was an important staging point where the main London to Oxford road intersected The Ridgeway. The origin of the name Nettlebed is unknown, although one theory is that Roman soldiers in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD rubbed nettles on their limbs to keep warm on marches! (something for cold cachers to try?)
This Village Sign is unusual in that it is a mosaic built into the end of the bus shelter, rather than the more usual sign-on-a-post.
The cache itself has of necessity been placed a short walk away, due to proximity issues. You could drive there, but there is no adequate parking and the locals resent people parking on their verges - so please don't!.
Below the Village Sign is a dedication plaque. The cache is at
N51° 3A.BCD W0° 5E.FGH where:
A is the first and last numbers of the year added together
B is the first number on the fourth line
C is the number of letters in the month
D is the number of letters in the centre word on the third line
E is the month displayed as a number
F is the number of words on the first line multiplied by the number of lines in larger letters
G is the number of times E is used in the top two lines
H is the number of words on the top two lines of the plaque
If anybody would like to expand the Village Sign Series, please do. I would ask that you request a number for your cache first at www.villagesignseries.co.uk so we can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.