VS#656 Berry Pomeroy Mystery Cache
The Bongtwashes: Archiving due to impending retirement.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Welcome to the Village Sign Series! 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 signs can be made of different materials from fibreglass to wood, from forged steel to stone. They can depict anything from local industry to historical events. The tradition probably stated in Norfolk or Suffolk and has now spread across most of the country.
Berry Pomeroy is a village, civil parish and former manor in the former hundred of Haytor, today within South Hams district of Devon, England.
Berry Pomeroy Castle, about one mile north-east of the village, was built as the home of the de la Pomeray family in the late 15th century. On 1 December 1547 Sir Thomas Pomeroy sold the castle, park and manor of Berry Pomeroy, with other lands, to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The Castle was abandoned by the Seymour family in the late 17th century and was later considered a 'romantic ruin' by the Victorians. It is still owned by the Duke of Somerset, but is now maintained by English Heritage. The castle has often been cited as being the most haunted castle in Britain, it is said to be haunted by several ghosts. There is a beautiful young lady, most likely a Pomeroy, who is a portent of death. Lady Margaret Pomeroy, who was imprisoned by her sister Lady Eleanor Pomeroy and starved to death in the castle dungeons now attempts to lure the living to her tower, where if they are tempted in they fall to their death. An unidentified woman in a blue hooded cape will not rest till she finds the baby she smothered to death. It is said that the baby was sired by her own father.
Berry Pomeroy church (St. Mary) is an attractive building, rebuilt in the time of Sir Richard Pomeroy (d. 1496). He is probably the occupant of the ornate tomb on the south side of the chancel. American soldiers were stationed in the village in the buildup to D-Day and were billeted in tents opposite the church, in which items of that time are on display. American veterans revisited Berry Pomeroy for the 60th anniversary of the invasion.
At Longcombe, a farmhouse, William III is said to have held a meeting of his supporters in a house now called Parliament House, before moving on to Berry Castle.
Using a favourite source of information:
Ralph de Pomeroy held in Devon a total of AB manors, and C houses in Exeter.
The Feudal barony of Berry Pomeroy comprised almost DE knight's fees in the Cartae Baronum of 1166
The Berry Pomeroy line inherited the Dukedom of Somerset, in the person of Edward Seymour, Fth Duke of Somerset.
According to the 2001 census the village had a population of GHI
The final location of the cache is at
N 50°2C.BG(I-D) W 003°3(BxE).A(H-E)F
If anybody would like to expand the Village Sign Series please do. I would just ask that you let Smokeypugs know first at www.villagesignseries.co.uk so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tebhaq yriry oruvaq vil. Evtug unaq fvqr bs tngr