Malling Muckers Offham Meander #2 Traditional Geocache
Malling Muckers Offham Meander #2
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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A series of caches which make for a nice easy walk of about two miles around the pretty, Kentish village of Offham. Suitable for children and dogs.
This series of caches consists of mainly micro caches (35MM film canisters) and one small Cache which is large enough to contain small objects and trackables
The village of Offham is famous for its quintain on the green and for its locally quarried ragstone; in fact wherever you look this famous Kentish stone is in evidence.
The name is made up from ‘Offa’ which was the name of a Saxon landowner and ‘Ham’ which means is a village or homestead. It dates right back to 823AD when Aethelwulf was king of Kent and this would have been an ancient Anglo Saxon settlement.
The village is not far from the A20, is only about a Mile from West Malling and it sits at the foot of the North Downs with many splendid views.
The church:
The parish church, which can be found about 500 yards down Church Road, was founded by a Saxon lord of the manor who built it as a private chapel circa 832AD. That was replaced by stone building after the Norman Conquest and all that remains of this building is the lower stage of the tower. St Michael’s has seen many changes since then
The quintain
There’s a wooden post on the green, six foot high and has a freely revolving arm on the top. One end of the arm is flat and from the other hangs a heavy object. In the age of chivalry the horseman rode full tilt at the quintain with his lance extended and the object was to strike the flat end (or eye) and gallop on before the heavy arm swung round, hit the competitor on the head and knocked him to the ground.
It was very popular in England and on the continent during the 7th century. Tilting the ring, as it was called was a tournament sport. And that’s where the expression “full tilt” came from.
The sport of tilting the ring was revived some years ago as part of the May Day celebrations in Offham when villagers dressed as Saracens and Knights and caused much merriment in Offham. There are photographs in the local pub describing one of these memorable days.
The manor
The original manor house called Offham Manor, Pepingstraw and Snodbeane have long since gone but the old names linger on. Jack Straw was born at Pepinstraw and Sir Richard Culpeper’s granddaughter Jane was born at Offham Manor, and they were well known.
Sir Richard Culpeper, of this well known Kentish family name, and his wife had three daughters who inherited the great manor and estate.
One of the daughters, Joyce married Edward Lord Howard and heir daughter Jane Howard became the fifth wife of Henry VIII. Jack Straw who was born at Pepingstraw was a 17th century rebel who joined Watt Tyler in what became known as the Peasant’s Revolt.
They gathered a great army of 10,000 and marched on London in a bid to end the ubiquitous poll tax. Yes, Howard and Straw – political names today – but no connection. It seems strange that they should have been born in such a quiet village.
This easy walk will take you along some of the many public footpaths around the village, taking in some lovely views of the surrounding countryside.
We hope you enjoy your adventure.
Malling Muckers
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gur pebff zrzore bs guvf 'xvffvat' tngr sbezf n yrqtr urer