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VS#235 Bushey Multi-cache

This cache has been archived.

Smokeypugs: We aren’t likely to get to fix this so archiving. If anyone wants to replace it send a request via the VS site.

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Hidden : 2/10/2015
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Village signs is a series of caches based on the ornate signs that depict the heritage, history and culture of the villages that put them up (normally on the village green!).

The first written record of Bushey is an account in the Domesday Book, which describes a small agricultural village named 'Bissei' (which later became ‘Biss(h)e’ and then ‘Bisheye’ during the 12th century). However, chance archaeological findings of Stone Age tools provide evidence that the area was inhabited as far back as the Palaeolithic period. The town also has links to the Roman occupation of Britain, with the main road running through it being Roman; sites of possible Roman villas being unearthed in the area; and a Roman tessellated pavement was discovered near Chiltern Avenue.


The 19th and 20th centuries marked the time of most change in Bushey, especially between 1860–1960 CE. The population rose 28-fold within 200 years, from 856in 1801, to just under 24,000 today. This expansion was due to many reasons, one of the main ones being due to the boom in industry caused by the railway in the early 20th century. A result of this was that many new jobs were created in and around Watford, and in the early 1920s, Bushey's first council houses were built. More housing was later built for the service families working in defence organisations in Stanmore and Northwood. The expansion eventually died down, due to much of the land in and around Bushey being protected under the Metropolitan Green Belt after the Second World War.


This same Metropolitan Green Belt legislation was also partly responsible for the abandonment of the pre-war Edgware to Bushey Heath extension as part of the Northern Heights programme of the Northern line underground railway. The Metropolitan Green Belt put great restrictions on new development, and the plan was to use the new railway to stimulate new housing around the new route; without the new housing the route was deemed no longer viable. However, as work was advanced at the onset of war the depot was completed for use as bomber manufacture, and following the Second World War and Metropolitan Green Belt coming into force it was converted into the Aldenham bus depot (of Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday fame), which it remained until 1985, when it became derelict. 


The sign depicts a Stag resting under an Oak tree. Unfortunately after extensive research we couldn't find out the reason for this. We theorise that it maybe a reference to the Hertfordshire Stag. The Oak tree may also be a reference to the Green Belt that the sprawl of London has swallowed. Guess we may never know.


On to the cache:

At the published coordinates you can see the Village Sign, however there is another sign here that's about a not so nice subject (sorry). To find the cache you must convert the letters on the sign into numbers. You do this in the following way:


If you take each letter and convert it into numbers as they appear in the alphabet ie A=1 and B=2 etc. then when you get a letter that has double digit (J for example =10) then drop the first digit (so J=0). So for example the first word equals 457. Make sense?


You now have some numbers but you won't need all of them . There are 11 words on the sign, letter them A-K (so the first word is A). Then each letter within that word is numbered 1-8 (so first word would be A numbered 1-3). Are you still with us?


Now the final location! Convert these letters and numbers for the final location:


North A2B2° K4G2.I5C1G2

West K1G1B4° C1C1.B5H1I1


Here's a checker just to make sure!

You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

If anybody would like to expand this series please do. I would just ask that you let Smokeypugs know first so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Oruvaq ynzc cbfg 1. Gel abg gb qebc vg!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)