05/01/20 - Father Ted Cache Series and the Lamb at Iron Acton

Distance - 4 Miles
Geocaches - 20
First Geocache

The first walk of 2020 and its a Geocaching round. Every year, I set the target of 1000 finds. 2019 was a dismal failure on 810.

I'm on my way to Bristol, so a search on Geocaching Maps reveals plenty of options but as Facebook keeps playing me clips from Father Ted, it seemed apt to do a series of 18 based on the TV series.   Each cache is named after a character or place from the show, with the cache description detailing the back story.   Plenty of good memories from a classic TV show.

One of the Larger Caches

Rather than start at number 1, I choose to start at number 11 in Iron Acton.   The village has a pub, which we'll come onto later.

Iron Acton is by far the highlight of the route.   Dominated by the church, a manor house and the pub - with visits from Henry VIII and William of Orange.

Iron Acton Church and Cross

The walk is agricultural and mercifully, the mud isn't to bad.   The River Frome provides the prettiest section and signage indicates that there is a path in its honour - something to be investigated.  The route heads south to Frampton End - notable only for over the top officialdom and then east to Mayshill, where the New Inn waits for the truly thirsty.

Small Diversion along the River Frome

Someone is getting angry

I save myself for the Lamb.  I was interested in the web site which indicated that it had been in the Good Beer Guide for five consecutive years.   To be fair, it didn't say which 5 years and I had to trawl the archives back to the 2016 edition to find the last mention.

The Lamb Inn, Iron Acton

And the Sign

It was certainly doing a busy trade with the pensioners, who can always sniff a bargain.  Two roasts for the price of one was the deal but where this would leave me is anyone's guess.  A solo cacher?  I would have insisted on my money's worth, regardless of the response generated.

With no free table, the question did not need to be answered.   Instead, I agreed with the local Camra branch reasoning.   My Wickwar Falling Star was served far too cold and Untappd checkins prompted comments on the general murkiness.

Thanks to Leonards193 keeping up the maintenance of this round of caches over several years - an enjoyable walk.

Onto Bristol!