Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Loads of fun this week leddies ed jittlemen, Mr Fautley has exhibited brilliance in the deviousness of this weeks geographic and historical hunt and has again wheeled out some of the favorite weapons in the puzzle writer's arsenal, ie information overload (aka chaff, some sources claim that there are more than 1350 known hill forts in England and Wales, scrolling through and checking them all will take you a lot of time, so a faster method is required), switching meters to feet (to make it harder to find with a modern map) and that old favorite, juxtaposing several items of information which appear very similar at first glance ( more than one baronet was born c1906 in the area under scrutiny and there seem to be more than one medieval cottage in the vicinity, with names that sound like scorers), next week, he will say that the letters you have to gather, are an enigma code encryption of one of the answers. As near as I can figure it, the most likely answers seem to me to be :

Q1. Canada

Q2.  A La Ronde

The initial clues place us at a hill fort called Hembury castle, in the county of Devon. Ordnance survey claim that this is around 269 metres or 883 feet in height. The hill fort was believed to have had a causeway at one time but there is not much left of it now. Travelling four miles northeast from there brings us to the outskirts of a village called Dunkeswell, where Wolford chapel lies. This seems  to be a nineteenth century listed building which was given to the prime minister of Quebec c1966 by one Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth, so the deeds to the chapel appear to be held by the Canadian government (don't think Quebec is a country so not sure why it had a prime minister).

Three miles (looks more like two and a half on one of my maps and four on the other, so three is in the right ballpark) south east of Wolford chapel takes us to the village of Broadhembury, where a hymn writer called Augustus Montague Toplady (who allegedly wrote the hymn 'Rock of Ages') ministered to the faithful (c1768). Nine miles south east of Broadhembury, brings us to Blackbury camp (does sound like a holiday spot for soft fruit, sometimes called Blackbury castle) which may indeed an iron age hill fort be.

The puzzle now becomes a little tricky, there are two (could be more) houses in the west north west-ish directions, which baronets born in 1906 are associated with, these are Killerton (Richard Acland born c 1906) and Creedy park (Sir John Ferguson Davies also born c1906). The Eastender Himself favours Richard Acland and Killerton as the baronet and location respectively, as taking the first letter of John, does not provide a character that could be used in a word for a number. After driving the twenty two road miles to Killerton (it's not twenty two miles ATCF from Blackbury camp) you are close to Marker's (a scorer's) cottage, which according to the blurb in some of the references has an unusual painted decorative screen, depicting saint Andrew (watch out that you don't pick Shute Barton as the scorer's cottage (football reference as in shoots at the goal and scores) as this gives the wrong location and letters (has a St Michaels church very close by).



Clue 1. H(e)mbury Castle
Clue 2. Wol(f)ord Chapel
Clue 3. Ca(n)ada
Clue 4. Br(o)adhembury
Clue 5. Augus(t)us Montague Toplady
Clue 6. Blackb(u)ry Camp (or castle)
Clue 7. Killert(o)n
Clue 8. (R)ichard Acland
Clue 9. Mark(e)r's cottage
Clue 10. St A(n)dr(e)w

This gives us the letters:

E, F, N, O, T, U, O, R, E, N, E

Which the numbers one and fourteen can be constructed from. Adding one to fourteen gives fifteen and adding one to that gives sixteen. Ten miles south (little bit south east ish) of Marker's cottage, lies a house called A la Ronde, which has sixteen sides, it also reputed to have a room encrusted with shells........