The structure of this series of caches was as follows: Mondays (Shopping) and Tuesdays (Gardening) gave you the north and west co-ordinates for DIY Orange Wednesdays (Relocated). Thursdays (Hiding) and Fridays (Archaeology) gave you the north and west co-ordinates for Saturdays (Walking). DIY Orange Wednesdays (Relocated) and Saturdays (Walking) gave you the north and west co-ordinates for Sunday lunch. The series has fallen apart since Phil died, but the basic caches still exist.
For such a small place on a map, Fradley Junction had a place at the forefront of transport technology and the protection of business assets. Some 200-odd years later British Waterways has conserved and developed the area.
Fradley Junction has much to offer in the way of entertainment. There are five locks here as well as the junction, plus a famous pub, two cafés/ tearooms, three shops, toilets, a post box, a nature reserve and an information centre. Boats manoeuvre for all these services, boat crews race to baggy locks and mooring spaces, and gongoozlers add to the confusion.
N52 43.475 W00147.416 is a pay and display car park alongside the British Waterways wharf, and the pub and the other cafés have car parks for their patrons. The paths are very buggy/wheelchair friendly, but remember that it is a busy canal area, with deep water, moving boats, moving lock beams and moving vehicles, so keep an eye on the littlies.
It’s a lovely nature reserve! You are aiming for the far side of the pool. Keep to the paths until the very last minute, and be sure to stay inside the boundary fence. GPS is very iffy under the trees, and you may have to rely on the clue. The cache container is a smallish plastic tub containing the logbook and pen.
Thanks to British Waterways for allowing us to place this cache.
PS Do try the hide!
New instructions, September 2020. The coordinates take you to roughly the right area, but this has been cleared up a bit and I have had to move the cache several metres along to the right. (This is not as vague as it sounds!) But Phil used to do the GPSing, and so here is a description instead: between a black post and a CND one.