To help with the clues you may need the aid of a leprechaun,
dwarf, or more probably a small mirror such as a tiny “vanity”
type. (you have been warned). If you do happen to know a
leprechaun, ensure that they can read backwards. A pencil and paper
would probably be useful too.
N50°54.306 W001°16.557: This is the parking location. It
is free and there is space for several cars.
Close to the parking location you will find a nice old 13th
century deconsecrated church. Inside you will find a Victorian
horse drawn Hearse, a pedal powered organ, and numerous other
quaint curios.
Then nearby you will find a duck pond whose insatiable
inhabitants always welcome a snack. (Wholemeal bread is much better
for them, but oblivious to good nutrition they are not fussy).
You will also pass by a 500 year old farm,
Link to Farm Site which is now a working farm museum
with rare and ancient breeds of animals. It is not free but well
worth a visit, if you have an hour or two to spare. You will also
pass a blacksmiths forge and a wheelwrights shop, to poke your nose
into these is free and if a blacksmith or wheelwright is in there
they enjoy a chat.
After the farm you will find a crossroads, the road that you
cross (running east to west ‘ish) runs roughly alongside the route
of a roman road that led to Clausentum (now Bitterne), in the other
direction the road went to Chichester.
There are three clues to be found, once you have found the first
one (with the aid of your leprechaun, dwarf, or mirror), it will
lead you to the next, and so on. The forth location is the
cache.
Location 1: Use Dwarf, Leprechaun or mirror. (Ybbx haqre
gur frng)
Location 2: (No hints for this one).
Location 3: (No hints for this one). Near this location
are the remains of Henry V’s Flagship, Grace Dieu. However the
remaining timbers may only be seen at very low tides.
Tide
Table Link From the pontoon looking across the river,
the timbers are slightly to your right toward the centre of the
river (The location is marked with a yellow pole).
Grace Dieu sailed on one gut wrenchingly unstable voyage from
Southampton in 1420 vaguely under the command of William Payne, and
was so scary that it was then laid up with other large royal ships.
There is no evidence she went to sea again, but nevertheless made a
considerable impression on those who saw her. She came to a rather
sad end, catching fire and burning out on the Hamble in 1439.
There are suspicions that members of the crew with a desire not
to sail again in this unnervingly unstable vessel “accidentally”
caught her alight. No one believed the size of the ship until the
wreck was surveyed in 1933.
Previous examinations had wrongly concluded it was either a
Danish galley or a mid-nineteenth century merchant ship. The
television programme Time Team did one episode about the ship,
where the archaeologists swapped their trowels for aqualungs and
spent three days poking about under the murky water. Link to
Time Team "Grace Dieu" page
Location 4: This is IT, the cache, make sure you
are on the correct (East) side of the small creek, or have a boat
with you.
When you are at the location your GPS insists is correct, you
will need to go about about 25 feet North'ish (Why I hear you ask?)
because of possible tree cover. Enjoy
Finally, why is it called “Sitting Bull”? I hear you ask. Well.
On the way round you may positively benefit from some sitting
(???), and there has already been considerable “bull” about
leprechauns, dwarves etc. Lastly, Mrs SpottySpaniel thought it was
an amusing name, and who am I to argue?
Enjoy …… SpottySpaniels.
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