Gloucestershire – Forest of Dean

Episode 1.9
24 February 1983

1 2 3

4 5

Contestants

Chris Board, geography lecturer at the London School of Economics, and John Edmunds, student

Start Position

Woorgreens Lake, near Speech House, Forest of Dean

Clue 1	Where Cromwell prevailed in 1646, north east of Symonds Yat, your clue is up in the old part, where even Roaring Meg may never have penetrated. 1
Leads to	Goodrich Castle – note in hole in wall of keep

Clue 2	Where ironminers dug until 1946, a goblin left his green glass beads in a fissure in a cavern. 2
Leads to	Clearwell Caves – necklace of green beads hidden in a crack in a rock

Clue 3	Can it have been Mr Kyrle who said of Ross, “Every Prospect pleases and only man is vile...” and left a clue behind the war memorial? 3
Leads to	Prospect Gardens, Ross-on-Wye – note in flower bed beside war memorial

Clue 4	In the garden behind my birthplace is an odd bird in a summerhouse, where an egg is your treasure. 4
Leads to	High Street, Ross-on-Wye, John Kyrle’s birthplace – egg in summerhouse entrance

Clue 5	Blaize Bailey overlooks vast loops of river. Use the motor bike to the viewpoint, then up the steps, through the trees, and behind the plan there’s the improved view. 5
Leads to	Blaize Bailey viewpoint – behind plaque describing view

Result

The contestants ran out of time on the final clue

Notes
1	Goodrich Castle was pummelled by Oliver Cromwell’s 200-pounder mortar ‘Roaring Meg’ during 1646.
2	Annie mistakenly enters Clearwell Caves (where ironminers dug until 1946) via the exit, but a member of the museum staff taps her on the shoulder and directs her to the entrance. She descends into the mine and finds a necklace of green beads in a crack in a rock (in a fissure in a cavern).
3	The helicopter flies to Ross-on-Wye and lands in a field on the edge of the town. Annie runs through the churchyard to The Prospect Gardens (‘...every prospect pleases and only man is vile...’ is a quotation by Bishop Reginald Huber), which were laid out by John Kyrle, philanthropist and ‘Man of Ross’, and finds the clue in a flower bed beside the war memorial.
4	Annie runs into the town and looks for John Kyrle’s birthplace, but is misdirected and ends up in the market. She eventually finds a commemorative plaque above a chemist’s shop. She runs through the shop to a garden and a stone summerhouse with a mosaic swan on the entrance step. The clue, an egg, is on the wall nearby.
5	Had the contestants not run out of time, Annie would have landed in a clearing near Blaize Bailey, ridden a motorbike up to the viewpoint, then climbed some steps to a plaque showing a map of the view. The treasure, a telescope, was behind the plaque (behind the plan there’s an improved view).

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