Went Looking for Snail Tracks, Found James Bond...

Somewhere around Hereford there is supposedly a snail farm at which you can buy fresh and frozen snails for gourmet consumption. Today we went looking for the little snacks in a shell. The Internet references to Credenhill Snail Farm are plentiful but provided only a vague address (often the case with UK addresses, we find) and a phone number that goes to an answering machine. We figured Credenhill (a small village northwest of Hereford) couldn't be too big and this farm (sometimes called the National Snail Farm) should have some sort of sign, right? No such luck. We drove all over and never found the place. But I did notice some wierd signage along a fence with a large green space between it and the road. The sign said something about how this spot was included in some "Secrets and Silence Act of Cocksansuch 1932" and that any sketching, note-taking, photography, etc. was strictly prohibited and punishable by unimaginable tortures and so forth. Odd, I thought.

We gave up on the snail tracking (ha!) and went home, snailless. Later on, I did some more Internet searching for snails and found more ambiguity but also what I think is the reason for the funny signs about secrets. The British SAS, or Special Air Services, Regiment 22 is headquartered in Credenhill. This is a very substantial wing of the special forces here and is responsible for, among other things:

Medium and deep battlespace ISTAR and offensive operations, Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW), Counter-Terrorism (CT), close protection and defence diplomacy

I guess Hereford is full of surprises. But I would have rather found the snails.