Go Orienteering
CompassSport Cup Final
CompassSport Cup Final
Sun 12th Nov 2023
Coleford
SWOA
Major
Location
| Venue: | New Beechenhurst |
|---|---|
| Nearest town: | Coleford |
| Event centre: | Forestry England Beechenhurst |
| Postcode: | GL16 7EG |
| Grid reference: | SO613118 |
| Parking information: | There is a permanently-signed tarmaced access drive up to Forestry England’s New Beechenhurst / Beechenhurst Lodge site, off the B4226, Speech House Road, Coleford, 500m east of the crossroads junction with B4234 New Road. The nearest post code is GL16 7EG for the area round Beechenhurst, including the Café but it covers a very large area, so the What3Words ref: ///debating.polar.iterative is more precise. Map coordinates for the entrance are SO613118. www.forestryengland.uk/beechenhurst has full details of the site and its amenities. With some 200 people more than first expected entered, Forestry England (FE) are now extremely exercised about parking capacity. To address their concerns please can everyone do as much car-sharing as humanly possible, including meeting locally near Beechenhurst, to go there with only one full car. We have secured a large car park at Dean Forest Railway’s Norchard Station, south of Parkend and north of Lydney on the B4234. 5.8 miles south of Beechenhurst: it is an 11 minute drive to/from Beechenhurst. What3Words for this car park is ///roosts.pulps.leaned. What we now need is for all cars to attend Norchard and not Beechenhurst, unless the car is already full with at least 4 people. At Norchard, we will be filling some cars with the occupants of others and then sending them up to Beechenhurst to park. If your car I bringing a club tent or banner, etc., it makes sense to be a Beechenhurst car - please discuss with the marshals. Cars at Norchard are free but Beechenhurst costs £7, so some £1 or £2 coins to pay your share of the cost to the driver would be considerate. Orienteering vehicles which are not full will be turned back to attend Norchard. We are marshalling all parking, empowered by FE to park the general public, as well as orienteers! |
| Dog rules: | The prevalence of deer, boar, sheep and horses means that dogs are not permitted on the courses. Dogs are permitted in the Event Arena and the rest of the Beechenhurst Lodge site (and out in the Forest once the event is over, if you wish and there is still light). |
Details
| Description: | Contour features The most obvious remains of the coal pits are the vast spoil tips that dot the landscape. Now forested, these have steep, slippery slopes deeply incised with gullies and tracks. The old railway lines, now mostly cycle tracks, provide level routes through the forest but their embankments and cuttings can be challenging to cross. Hidden in the forest but revealed by the Lidar plot, are old tramways that linked the mines to the railways and nowadays provide useful terraces along hillsides. Most of the mine shafts are capped and the remainder fenced but avoid entering any steep-sided pit unless you can clearly see its bottom. Shoes with good grips are essential on all technical courses. Water features 400 feet below ground is a massive network of old mine workings and much of the surface water drains down into these, meaning that the streams in the area are smaller than you might expect and there is no significant river. The forest, however, contains many incised watercourses ranging in depth from several metres to a few centimetres. Water features are mapped either if they are more than 1m deep or they have running water in them. There are numerous conduits beneath the tracks and if the drain blocks small deep ponds may form. Take care crossing trackside ditches in wet weather. Vegetation Much of the area is delightfully runnable but there are areas of brambles (marked as undergrowth) and regions of ‘windblow’ (fallen trees, marked as fight). The bracken is dying back but there are still areas that may slow progress. Recent forestry works on the north-western spoil tip have resulted in very deep and muddy vehicle tracks. Ongoing felling at an open area in the centre of the map has produced long timber stacks (marked by the green hedge symbol) together with piles of brashings and tree roots that are hard to cross. As they are impermanent, these piles have not been mapped but courses avoid them. Other physical hazards Some areas of the forest have dense brashings and trailing brambles. Most cyclists travel slowly on the trails but be aware that they may overtake silently from behind. Old rail fastenings poke through the surface on a few tracks, while retaining rods have been driven into some spoil heaps and their tops may protrude. Old retaining walls remain and are mostly too high to cross. |
|---|---|
| Type: | Long |
| Physical difficulty of terrain: | Medium |
| Entry times: | 10:00-13:00. Courses close 15:00. |
| Punch type: | SI |
| Hire fee: | £2.00 |
| Competitions: | CompassSport Cup |
| Event number: | 77326 |
| Event website: | Click here |
| Final details web page: | Click here |
Courses
| Course description: | The map is a new plot based upon recent lidar data: 1:10000 scale, 5m contours, A3 size for the longest courses and A4 for others. The map has been fully re-surveyed by Chris Johnson but the work of previous mappers, particularly Dave Peel and Dudley Budden, is gratefully acknowledged. Competition maps will be printed by BML on waterproof paper and loose control descriptions will be available in the start lanes. |
|---|---|
| Colour coded courses: | String, Orange, Light Green, Short Green, Green, Blue, Brown |
XS 0-2.5km | S 2.6-5.0km | M 5.1-7.5km | L 7.6-10km | XL 10.1km + | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very Easy |  | | | | |
| Easy | | | | | |
| Medium | |  | | | |
| Hard | | | | | |
| Very Hard | | | | | |
| Course Technical Difficulty and Length (Km) are a guide to the standard of the courses offered. | |||||
Entry
Contact us
| Club: | BOK |
|---|---|
| Association: | SWOA |
| Contact: | Richard Rossington |
Scholes Mill, Old Coach Road, Tansley, Matlock, DE4 5FY
Tel: 01629 583037, Email: info@britishorienteering.org.uk
Registered in England & Wales No:1606472