Guest VentureForth Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 I know this topic has been pounded into a sheet of foil already, but I must ask my UK Friends a little more about letterboxing. I've been to websites, so don't direct me there again (unless there is a better one). This is what I have gathered about the activity: There is a park called Dartmoor where for 400 years, people have been hiding boxes with a notepad and stamp. Is it true that there are 14,000 of these buggers in the park? They are all hidden? The landscape hasn't drastically changed for ever and ever? Since there was no website to log the first 13,500 or so boxes, where do people find out where they are hidden? Any of y'all into this? ------------------ VentureForth out to the wild, wet forest... Quote Link to comment
Guest Huscarl Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 Hi, Good to see an interest in Letterboxing from so far away Letter boxing started about 150 years ago, when somebody placed a business card in a glass jar in a remote spot on Dartmoor. Over time others added their cards. It was a way of letting others know that you had managed to make it to such a remote location. This idea gradually took off and people started placing other 'letterboxes' elsewhere on the moor. Over time this evolved to the present arrangement of using rubber stamps to 1) prove to others that you found it and 2) fill up your own log book with stamps from the letterboxes. Most letterboxes are found by work of mouth, and a great deal of searching e.g. you know theres one on Fir Tor somewhere you just have to look for it. Some letterboxes also contain written clues for the location of other boxes. Also clue sheets are published by the letterbox 100 club. These are much harder to solve than geocache locations. They may give you a well known starting point with navigation information on how to find the box. Even then it's not always so easy. The hardest one I ever found was actually buried under turf in a wide open space. Try this web site if you haven't already. http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~have.feet/boxing/boxing.html Publishing clues on the internet is really frowned upon as it makes it too easy, so don't expect to see as much information as you do for geocaching. Not sure how many there are now, but it's certainly in the thousands. Quote Link to comment
Guest Huscarl Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 Hi, Good to see an interest in Letterboxing from so far away Letter boxing started about 150 years ago, when somebody placed a business card in a glass jar in a remote spot on Dartmoor. Over time others added their cards. It was a way of letting others know that you had managed to make it to such a remote location. This idea gradually took off and people started placing other 'letterboxes' elsewhere on the moor. Over time this evolved to the present arrangement of using rubber stamps to 1) prove to others that you found it and 2) fill up your own log book with stamps from the letterboxes. Most letterboxes are found by work of mouth, and a great deal of searching e.g. you know theres one on Fir Tor somewhere you just have to look for it. Some letterboxes also contain written clues for the location of other boxes. Also clue sheets are published by the letterbox 100 club. These are much harder to solve than geocache locations. They may give you a well known starting point with navigation information on how to find the box. Even then it's not always so easy. The hardest one I ever found was actually buried under turf in a wide open space. Try this web site if you haven't already. http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~have.feet/boxing/boxing.html Publishing clues on the internet is really frowned upon as it makes it too easy, so don't expect to see as much information as you do for geocaching. Not sure how many there are now, but it's certainly in the thousands. Quote Link to comment
Guest VentureForth Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 Wow. That's very interesting. Thank you for the link. I'm particularly interested in the amount of traffic these boxes see in such great numbers and such small area. That almost makes the case for wilderness caches out here. I hope to visit the motherland someday and perhaps, I will have opportunity to partake in this activity. Thank you for your response. Cheers, VF ------------------ VentureForth out to the wild, wet forest... Quote Link to comment
+Nia Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 I went to the 'New Forest' in Hampshire last weekend and introduced my brother to geocaching, unfortunetly there is only one cache in the New Forest (I have set the second) He then showed me his list of 400+ letterboxes in the New Forest that he has been doing for years. Letterboxing 400 Geocaching 1 in the New Forest. Quote Link to comment
+Slytherin Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 quote:Originally posted by VentureForth: Wow. That's very interesting. Thank you for the link. I'm particularly interested in the amount of traffic these boxes see in such great numbers and such small area. That almost makes the case for wilderness caches out here. Cheers, VF ------------------ VentureForth out to the wild, wet forest... Fortunatly there are less restricition on what we can and can't do in our National Parks. I find the attitiude of the Parks Department in the USA beyond belief. Alex. Quote Link to comment
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