Treasure Hunt

Alan Braithwaite at Lavenham The weather forecast, for once, was correct. Sunday 6th April dawned grey and overcast and by the time we reached Lavenham it was actually snowing. Luckily we already had the roof on so we did not have much delay in leaving home. Mind you when we arrived in Lavenham we discovered that some brave souls had driven from Norfolk without a hood!

Mogs in the snow We had all (thirty seven of us in seventeen Morgans) gathered outside the Guildhall Lavenham to take part in the annual treasure hunt. This much sought after trophy had been won by the Daunts for two years running and we were all keen to show ourselves to be better competitors and snatch the title from their skilled hands. First, of course, we had to battle the elements and the devious minds of Alan and Pat Braithwaite who were running the hunt this year and incidentally who had provided coffee and biscuits for us on arrival.

folkmoggers looking for clues in the snow The clues were set all over the town and we had what would, in better weather, have been a pleasant walk around a lovely town. As it was the walk was pretty good and the search for answers showed off this lovely place very well. If you have not been there and didn’t make it to the treasure hunt I can thoroughly recommend going to Lavenham. It is a super town full of old timber framed buildings. The Guildhall, outside of which we were parked, contained many answers to clues and is now a museum. Unfortunately we had left it rather late going into the museum and did not give ourselves nearly enough time to look around this marvellous building. We had to leave the Guildhall at a quarter to one so that we could walk down the hill to the Swan hotel where we were to partake of lunch.

folkmogger drinking coffee One of the nice things about a Folkmog treasure hunt is that everyone is competitive without being friendly. So no answers were given away but nor were they hidden from each other. This meant that if a group of Folkmoggers were looking in a place for an answer the first person to spot it would tell everyone else there. This made it feel like a competition between us and the Braithwaites. A competition which I felt they won despite our best efforts.

The Swan is a lovely hotel but a bit of a maze inside so we took sometime, ok it was not much more than ten minutes but it seemed longer, to find the bar, to get a drink, Alan Braithwaite, to hand in our treasure hunt answers and the room where we were to dine. However, once all this had been achieved by all those present we sat down to a splendid three course meal. After this Alan announced the answers to the hunt and the top four places.

So in fourth place were Roger and Chrissie Tatton, Third were Maurice and Eileen Cook and in second place were complete newcomers to folkmog (I hope this encourages them to come again) Graeme & Liz Riley. In first place, well out in front were the Young family. Well done to all.

Treasure Hunt Trophy The trophies were presented and then, as usual, general conversation took place as we slowly, these things cannot go quickly after all, made our way back to our cars. Of course once back at the car park more conversation took place before we could eventually take or leave.

Our snowy windscreen The journey home was interesting and snow gradually began to build up on our windscreen where the wipers did not reach. We made it home in one piece though and reflected on yet another really good Folkmog outing.