As you head inland from Cockwood Harbour a small creek, Cockwood Lake and Cockwood Marsh divides Southbrook from Cockwood. This area is known localy as "The Sod", To the north is an 18th century earthen causeway faced with stone which now carries the Exeter Road. The creek was reclaimed for agriculture in 1808 by installing sluices in the Sod to keep the tide out. The low-lying meadow and marshland remains a significant landscape feature which is integral to the character of the setting of the conservation area. On this area of semi-improved grassland, reed bed, scrub and tall herb vegetation you may spot birds such as reed warbler, grey heron, house martin and swallow.
The footpath across The Sod has three little bridges in close succession. To find the final location of the cache you will need to gather information from each bridge and put this into the formula below:
Bridge 1 - A =Number of full round posts
Bridge 2 - B =Number of wooden planks across bridge
Bridge 3 - CD =Number of upright posts across bridge
Cache - N50° 36.(B+C+D)(A+C)(A-D) W003° 27.(A-C)D(B+D)
The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast, Damian from Winter Foxes has created and updates a list of cachers who has found 10 or more little bridges and can be found here, if you would like to add to the series, please contact Stan here and he will give you a number for your bridge, to qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xx then name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to Damian’s list.