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Strange Map Feature - Is It Worth A Cache?


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Does this help? I don't think multimap does the 25000:1 maps, but on the aerial photo there seems to be a huge circle in the middle of a field, and it's almost in the right location.

 

I make the lat/long of Jim's grid reference to be N52 47.800 W2 41.516 (although the 6-digit accuracy of the grid reference means this may be too precidse).

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

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Hi Jim,

 

I'm still working on this but so far I've established that the feature is outside the boundary for RAF Shawbury and may fall within the Acton Reynald hall boundary or possibly something to do with New Ho which is a farm to the south. I may get a call back from one of the aircrew based at RAF Shawbury (operational helicopter station) if they can find someone who knows what the feature is. The feature is quite possibly a mound of some sort, obviously man-made. If I find out anything more I'll post it here.

 

No reply from the RAF yet but the nearest I've got is the name of Crow at New House Farm (shown as New Ho on the map) which is 500 metres south of the feature. I've been advised that New House Farm works the fields in the area of the feature so someone there may know the answer. Unfortunately I've been unable to dig out a phone number for either the name or the farm.

 

Rgds Paul

Edited by Pyoung1s
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Hi Jim,

 

I've not given up on this one. As usual once I get my teeth into something like this I'll not let go! I've just emailed the Shawbury website to see if someone there can throw some light on the subject.

 

Rgds Paul

Edited by Pyoung1s
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Bunging SJ534223 into the www.getamap.co.uk OS web site gives you the 1:25000 scale map. It shows on the map clearly. It's about 150 metres in diameter. Not sure if this helps though?

 

This map clearly shows the outside ring of feature as permanent rather than temporary, whilst Stu's aerial photo suggests that the surface is mostly green (grass?) rather than concrete.

 

Jim, I think you'll have to visit before you know if it's a good location for a cache - and get permission of course :rolleyes:

 

Dave Edwards

Edited by The Wombles
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that's really, really wierd, I've zoomed in on the aerial photo and there's definately something there, you can see the the way the field has been cut around it, whether its got a mound or a hedge around it is difficult to tell, but whats gets me is why the hedge seperating the two fields grows straight thru the centre of it and why its darker on one side and not the other? perhaps something is growing on only one side.

 

the plot thickens ...... :rolleyes:

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Wow I never thought this would cause such interest. The map would seem to indicate that it is a perfectly circular track of some kind with a wall running through it. The only time I have ever seen anything like this before was on a site map in saudi Arabia where the mappers reproduced the stain from a coffee cup!

Thanks a lot for the thoughts and help. I will go and look at it on the ground over the weekend.

Cheers Jim

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I asked my brother-in-law to have a quick look at the photo as he is a former photographic interpreter with the RAF. He only looked at the blown up photo, not the maps or the original. I also didn't point out the airfield close by.

 

He wasn't sure but he said he had seen similar features before that were former railway tuntable sites. However, there is nothing on the OS map that shows any evidence of a disused railway but it remains a possibility. There is a railway a short distance to the west.

 

Will anyone finally solve this mystery?

 

Is it the work of the dark side of the force?? B)B):P

 

Obi. :P

Edited by Obi Wan
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Hmmm...Looking at the zoom-in, and taking note of the way the shadows fall for the surrounding trees etc, it seems to me that the thing is not a dome at all, but rather the opposite, ie concave, a dip, and hole-in-the-ground. Working on this theory, then a crater of some sort would seem a likely possibility. Either a bomb crater, or maybe a small meteorite. The only other thing that springs to mind is some kind of bowl-shaped roman amphitheatre, which might explain the path around the top.

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He wasn't sure but he said he had seen similar features before that were former railway tuntable sites.

From the scale of the map, it looks like it is over 100 metres across. Someone is going to have to pay a visit :blink:

No access footpaths by the look of it... :rolleyes:

MarcB

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I've been wondering about the suggestions of it being a radio nav aid. The only circular type of beacon I can think of would be a VOR beacon but these look quite different and I don't think quite as wide. I wonder if this could be an earlier type of the same thing which has now been abandoned hence no access required etc. On what appears to be the circular track in the bottom left quadrant there are regular radial features crossing the track (a little like railway sleepers). Perhaps these are shadows of short arial masts?

 

Definitely a fun little puzzle to ponder on. Thanks Jim, it makes sitting out here in the North Sea in a howling gale a little more interesting :rolleyes:

 

Martin (Martin + Lynn = Mady)

 

PS: Just noticed something else. If you go to multimap

 

http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?clie...=700&height=410

 

You may notice that there appears to be the beginning of a track leading from the Shawbury airfield in the direction of the circle which stops abruptly at the edge of the field which contains the eastern half of the circle. Perhaps this was indeed the access road which, no longer necessary, has given way to the agriculture.

Edited by Mady
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Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

 

I must admit I tend to think that is is the remains of some sort of large circular Antenna Site (over 150 metre across) but the siting bothers me.

 

Who would put it there - its half way up a hill and next to a wood neither of which would make it a good transmission site, there are far better locations close by. It also still has the original fence/hedge running straight through it.

 

Jim

 

PS did not visit it at the weekend as I went up Brown Clee to get the trio of caches there - was it wet and windy.

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I would just like to say that as an ex RAF radar and navigation aids technician I worked on the navaids in and around airfields for 14 years. While many of the naviads were circular, I don't remember any of the sites they were on being circular. It's a lot easier and cheaper to build a straight fence.

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Naefearjustbeer, I know a good assassin who can resolve your problem!

Obi Wan, I recommend a bit of night caching, that'll take your mind off it!

 

Come on, there must be a cacher living nearby who can solve this one. Or have I got to call by on my next journey from Manchester to Southampton?! Any excuse to get away from the M6!

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:o I believe I know what it is just going by the aerial photograph. I think it is a Henge as in Stonehenge. Henges are circular in shape with a ditch or wall going around it. They usually have 2 entrances, which 1 of them will have a line of site with a prominent feature when the sun reaches a particular area or when a certain set of constalation stars are in line. (learnt this all from watching Time Team). They do have sometimes a path running straight through them. If you look closely at the areal picture you can make out what may be buildings, which you could find inside them and there are 2 structures to the East of it that also may be buildings or burial grounds. There are hundreds of them in the country and most of them you can only see from the sky.

 

There again I may be wrong.

 

Haggis Hunter

Edited by Haggis Hunter
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Well

 

Eventually I went to see the farmer at "new house farm" just South of the feature and talked to him. He hhad never heard of Geocaching and wondered which planet I had come from! :lol:

 

Eventually after showing him the field and the map he told me what it was and I could not believe it - none of us were even close :D .

 

He would not let me go and see the feature and you cannot see it from the road, he also would not entertain the idea of a cache anywhere on his land :lol: .

 

So let me tell you what it is -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh hang on Lyn is calling me for tea - back soon :blink:

 

Jim

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You want something exotic... Try this !

Looks a tricky spot for a cache. Do we know anyone with a two seater jet, a long length of rope and some really strong glue? :bad:

 

Very funny picture, thanks!

 

SP

 

P.S. I was going to say that feature looked like an animal exercise track, but never got around to it! dadgum, I would have been everyone's hero too. Gurrr.

Edited by Simply Paul
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