The Whomping Willow Traditional Geocache
Herr Wire: It is on National Trust land.
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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The Whomping Willow Easily accessible from several parking areas nearby.
The Whomping Willow isn't a willow. Its an ancient beech tree in Frithsden Beeches which has starred in several films and TV programmes. The tree is most famous for being the 'Whomping Willow' in the Harry Potter films. During 2004 a film crew spent 2 weeks at the site. It has also appeared in 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and an episode of Jonathan Creek. There was another film crew there a few weeks ago (March 2012). This particular tree has evolved due to pollarding, a form of woodland management where the branches were regularly cut from the trees to use as firewood. Branches would be cut from the trunk to around a metre or so off the ground and this would then allow new branches to grow unchecked by browsing animals such as deer, before the process was repeated. It is thought this tree could be up to 800 years old. The beech trees have not been pollarded for more than 100 years but are now managed purely for conservation and safety. The tree itself is visited a lot and climbed on so the cache is hidden very close by. Pay attention to the National Trust signs, you only have to look around to see the shed branches of these very old trees. Edit Oct 2020. Since the tree fell, the area has become very overgrown. The cache is still findable but a lot harder to identify now. I visited it today and it has been moved from my original position. I will go up there soon and find a better place to put it and update the co-ords. It is there... look hard... good luck! Update 3/Jan/2022 - I have moved the cache to near another three nice examples of pollarded beeches. It is now about 50m north east of the original location. The old tree has rotted down fast and is overgrown with brambles although the trunk is still visible. It looks like the National Trust have cleared the area near the new location. Take care under these trees. There are warnings that they could shed branches at any time. Unfortunately the trees at the new location are no-where near as large or impressive as the old one. I have taken the old logs away to dry them out.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n jryy ebggrq snyyra gerr nobhg ba gur abegu fvqr bs gur pyrnevat.