When I first moved to the Bromley area, many years ago, I often walked around Farnborough and High Elms. Over the years, however, I have neglected this area, until I recently found the local cache "Dark Side of The Moon", and realised that there was a nice walk here suited to a short trail of caches.
High Elms Country Park
High Elms Country Park offers 250 acres of countryside to explore combined with a 150-acre golf course, which together form the High Elms Estate, originally the country home of the Lubbock family.
The estate is 15 miles from central London, located on the ridge of the North Downs on the rim of the Thames basin. Visitors to the estate can enjoy the woodlands, nature centre, ice well, formal gardens and wildflower meadows.
High Elms is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Local Nature Reserve, enjoying the support of local environmental groups as well as the Friends of High Elms, Natural England and the Forestry Commission. There are chalk meadows and woodlands that support a variety of wildlife including species that are rare in London.
The Mansion
The High Elms Estate was purchased by the Lubbock family in 1808 as a country retreat. Future generations added both land and buildings, with the Italian style mansion built in 1842 being the centre piece. Future members of the family extended the mansion, which eventually became a 27-bed-roomed house before the First World War. The family continued to own the estate until 1938 when it was sold to Kent County Council.
King College hospital used the mansion house as a nurse's training college from 1948 to 1965. In 1965 ownership transferred to the London Borough of Bromley and the mansion was used for student accommodation. Two years later it burned to the ground on August Bank Holiday, coincidentally a holiday that had been introduced in 1871 by a member of the original family, Sir John Lubbock. All that can be seen today is the footprint of the building, which is just beyond 01 HEW. Nearby there is also an Eton Fives court, that was built around 1840, an ice well and a grotto.
The High Elms Walk (HEW) Series
The High Elms Walk takes you on a 5 mile walk around the greater High Elms Estate. Caches are not allowed in the SSSI therefore the walk mainly covers the area between High Elms car park and Farnborough. There are 20 caches in the circuit including a bonus; several different types of cache are used providing 6 possible icons during the walk. The caches have been placed to be found - the hints are generally specific. I have set the terrain at 2 for the whole walk, except for those caches which are on the flat near the car parking.
The obvious place to start the walk is from the car park at High Elms, but the walk can also be started in Farnborough Village, where there is on-road parking, starting at 14 HEW.
There is a bonus cache, which can be found between 13 HEW and 14 HEW, but will require a small diversion. The North and East coordinates of the cache will be found in several of the caches on the way round.
The Cache
1 August 2019 - the original sign used by this multicache has been removed, so a new formula has been added below using a different source of numbers.
At the corner of the car park you will see a metal barrier. On the barrier is a sign regarding security with a telephone number ABCD EFG HJKL; the cache, a hanging bison, can be found at
N51 21. A C L E0 4.F K G
The cache is beyond the given coordinates for 02 HEW Chalk and the structure to which is is attached is not in great shape - so may not be immediately recognised.
Some of the caches in the HEW series are placed on land designated as a Local Nature Reserve and this one is close to some Grade II listed structures. Where necessary caches have been placed with permission from Donna Cook, Community and Conservation Team Leader at High Elms. Please treat the area with care.
-- Walk across the footprint of the Mansion and go along the wide tree lined path --