Twelve people gathered at Redbeck for the 2015 Wakefield MAG Treasure Hunt on Sunday 27th September, and following fried breakfast products, quickly joined into 3 teams of 4 participants each.
Lorna issued us all with our instructions / clues, took our starting mileage, and we set off at staggered intervals, through quite thick fog in places, on our great intrepid adventure !!!
The route took us on a right from Redbeck, then a left at the 'Y' junction, followed by a right turn into West Lane and our first question: What is the name of the pub on the left? ... It was the White Horse.
We then headed onto the A638, a left at a roundabout then a right onto Hessle Lane and nearly 5 miles of lovely winding narrow country road before coming to our second question: On the public footpath sign on the right, what is the distance to Went Lane? ... It was ½ mile.
We then headed through Ackworth, negotiated multiple junctions for another 5 miles before hitting the A639 Main road and question number 3, which was: what is the full name of the hotel? ... It was Wentbridge House.
We then headed through Thorpe Audlin, negotiated a few more junctions and roundabouts, before hitting Skelbrook and question 4: Opposite route number 24, the house name is Sweet ? .... and the answer was Meadows (Sweet Meadows).
Onwards to the A638, through the village of Hooton Pagnell and onto Clayton (with an EXTREME CARE warning - Narrow Down Hill). We then took a right into Shortwood Lane, a T junction and the site of question 5: How many miles to Grimethorpe? ... It was two.
Lots of lefts, rights and straight ons later, and we arrived at the site of question 6: At route number 42, Ten .. what .. Lane? ... The answer was Lands (Ten Lands Lane).
A few lefts later we were on Navvy Lane, and a few junctions after that, we arrived at our penultimate question point - Q7. What is the telephone no. for Walton driving range? ... The answer was 01924 253155.
A right, a couple of mini roundabouts, left after a viaduct and into the Nature Park car park, for our final question: Q8. What colour marking has the Trans Pennine Trail? ... It was Blue.
A series of left turns then returned us to the A638 Doncaster Road, and back to Redbeck Cafe.
The first team back had actually done the most mileage .... by quite a margin. The route was supposed to be 40.8 miles, but El Presidente Steve et al had covered 55 miles, following an unscheduled venture onto the A1 near Thorpe Audlin (that funnily enough, no one else managed to do). The second team of Sharon, Terry, Chas and Alex came in some time after, followed shortly after that by the third team of Dave, John et al. The second and third teams had both covered 40'ish miles. Lorna set to working out the winners, made all the more difficult as everyone had got all the answers right .... but, despite the higher mileage, the time to complete just pipped it for the first team back, who were rewarded by a box of Celebrations chocolates.
A huge thanks to Lorna Jaques and family for organising the 2015 Treasure Hunt, it had taken us all through some lovely countryside, along some cracking roads, picturesque villages and to top it all, a lovely dry day (once the early morning fog had lifted that is !!!).
Finally, a huge thanks to the twelve participants who took part in the 2015 Wakefield MAG Treasure Hunt.