Presents

The Butcher of Basingwerk

– a Poirot Puzzle

2.0 mile 2-3 hrs

Parts of the trail involves an uneven path and a few steps which may be navigable by buggy but not wheelchair. The answers to some clues are found within the castle ruins which contains steep steps.

Body found on Altar of Basingwerk Abbey!

Over the period of three centuries, many murders were committed in and around the grounds of Basingwerk Abbey. Only recently, a spate of murders has occurred once more on this site. DCI Lauren Order strongly suspects that these crimes are copycat murders of old. The latest brutally butchered victim, Earl E. Demize was found lying on the altar of the abbey and the bloody ax found in the Lower Cotton Mill of Greenfield Valley. DCI Order’s sidekick, PC M. Neesia has managed to lose vital evidence. Can you help her to solve the puzzle? She needs the name, age and hometown of the murderer. She also needs to know from which year this murder has been copied from the past. And, bizarrely, there is evidence that the murderer is accompanied by a rather unusual pet!

Directions

No map is required. Simply follow the clues around the Heritage Park and Abbey from start to finish at the Greenfield Valley carpark on the A548 Bagillt Road, Holywell, Flintshire. There are several carparks around Greenfield Valley. Please ensure that your start following the clues from the carpark situated on the A548. The Abbey is open between 10am and 4pm and the answers to two clues are to be found within the grounds! Please time your visit accordingly! All the answers to each clue will give you an INCORRECT piece of information! Simply cross it from the Answer sheet. In a process of elimination, you will be left with the correct answers!

REMEMBER! Take care of yourself and your party! You are responsible for your own safety. Please exercise caution when crossing roads. Please respect historic monuments, private homes, and individual’s privacy when ‘trailing’. RECYCLE your trail when you have finished with it and take all litter home or dispose of it responsibly! THE SMALL PRINT! Treasure Trails are intended for single use only, are subject to copyright and may not be photocopied, reproduced, or distributed. All rights reserved. Every effort has been made to ensure that this Treasure Trail is accurate at the time of printing. We cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen changes that interfere with the easy solving of clues. Customers must accept full liability and are solely responsible for the safety of themselves and their party on the Treasure Trail. We cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage to property, or accident or injury to life or limb incurred whilst on this Trail. THE TRAIL IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. Any links to real names, alive or dead, are purely coincidental and there should be no implications/allegations of involvement in any criminal behaviour. ©TreasureTrailsoftheUnexpected 2019 Leaving the car park, walk up the path that leads into the wooded park. You will see a large carved totem pole on the right-hand side of the path.

Clue 1

There are many animals carved over the entire surface of the pole. One of them will be included on the list of animals on the answer sheet. You can now cross this off the list and eliminate it from your enquiries!

Follow the path around to the right. Shortly before you reach the Visitor Centre, you will see a large mural on your left of the North Wales Pilgrims’ Way.

Clue 2

Study the mural and you will be able to eliminate one more animal from the list and you can also eliminate the first hometown from the list! (Hint: look for a wooden signpost in the mural!)

The Abbey is free to visit. Enter the grounds through the gate. With a stone wall to your right, walk on the grass until you find an information board entitled: High Culture, Low Morality!

Clue 3

There are three dates on the board. Add together the twelve individual digits from each of the dates. The answer will give you the first age that you can eliminate from the Answer Sheet!

You now need to walk an entire circuit of the Abbey walls. I suggest you do this in an anti-clockwise direction!

Clue 4

You need to carefully count the number of COMPLETE WINDOWS that can be found within all the walls of the Abbey. Only count windows that have all four sides still visible of the stone framework. DO NOT count doorways! This number will allow you to eliminate one more age from the list! (Hint: this number should match the number of windowpanes in the two windows on the gable end of the Spring Garden School – clue no. 6)

Leave the Abbey grounds now. Should you wish to visit the museums and attractions nearby, you must purchase entrance tickets at the Visitor Centre. This is not necessary to complete the trail. On the right, you will see Basingwerk House where the Café in the Abbey is situated.

Clue 5 (a) & (b)

Read the information board at the front of the house! (a) The house was built in which year? You can now eliminate the first year from the Answer Sheet! (b) A tree was planted in the garden but was cut down after how many years? This number equals an age on the list which can now be eliminated from your enquiries!

Leaving the grounds of the house, walk towards the red bricked buildings of Spring Garden School. Look for an old, white Boundary Post next to the school walls.

Clue 6

There is a number written on the post. Use this to eliminate one more date from the list!

With the school building on your left, walk to the corner of the building and take a few steps around the next corner. Clue 7

Look for a large bronze sculpture depicting scenes from nature. You can now eliminate one more, strange pet from the list of animals.

Turn around and, keeping the school building on your right, return to the boundary post and turn right. Continue along a green fenced path and then past a children’s playground on your right. You will walk past some buildings. Look out for a wooden lady and a green signpost! Go through a large gateway, turn left and follow signs for the mills. This will take you up a hill and around a bend in the road.

Clue 8

On the right-hand side, by some railings, you will see an information board for Abbey Wire Mill. Over the years, wire, copper and brass rods have been made here and was most recently used to manufacture soap. The first batch of soap was sent to which city? You can eliminate this from your list!

Return to the tarmac road and walk past 12 stone bollards on the right-hand side and up the hill. Look out for steps leading from the road, down to the right. Go down the steps, cross a wooden bridge, past a pond and follow a gravel path that leads around the stone buildings on your left and some old machinery. DO NOT go through a black gate but turn left. Keeping the stone building on your left-hand side, walk to the end of the building and turn left again. You should now find yourself on the other side of the mill pond!

Clue 9

There are three large pieces of machinery. One of them has the name of a town engraved on it. This matches one of the hometowns on your list that can now be eliminated from your enquiries! Walk up steps to cross the mill race and turn right to re-join the road. A little while further on, you will see another information board on your right-hand side.

Clue 10

The Lower Cotton Mill only took ten weeks to build during the summer of which year? You can now eliminate this date from your enquiries!

With a low wall on your right, walk past two large planters on your left and look for a narrow path that leads up a grassy slope and towards a jetty that juts out into The Flour Mill Pool.

Clue 11

Beside the wooden name post on the side of the jetty, you will find some white graffiti lettering. Can you work out which name you can read? This will allow you to eliminate your first suspect’s name from the list!

Return to the main path and walk with the Flour Mill Pool on your right. Bear right where the path forks and continue beside the pool. Then take the left-hand fork that goes up a hill. Walk for a few hundred yards until you join a wider road that is, in fact the old Holywell Railway Line! Continue walking in the same direction past a several paths that lead off both sides of the road. Continue walking until you reach a high, stone wall on your left-hand side.

Clue 12

Look for four metal access covers situated in the tarmac of the road surface. You will now be able to eliminate one more name from the list of suspects!

Continue walking uphill along the road until you go beneath a bridge. DO NOT walk up the zig-zag path with white railings! Instead, turn right and almost double back on yourself to go up a steep path until your reach a set of steps with a red handrail.

Clue 13

Climb the steps to reach the store front of Tesco. You are now in Holywell! Did I mention that you should have counted the number of steps that you just walked up? Oops! Sorry! This number corresponds to one of the ages that you can now cross off the list! (Hint: Count one step, every time you make a step upwards!)

Walk across the storefront of Tesco. If you need some provisions or a quick pit stop, then take the chance while you can! Beyond the entrance near the far corner of Tesco, you will see some white, striped lines painted on the car park.

Clue 14

Nearby is a square metal access cover on the tarmac of the car park. Look carefully at all the words written on it and work out which name you can now cross off the list of suspects!

Make your way out of Tesco car park by walking up a short flight of steps that will lead you out on to a pavement. Should you wish to take some time out to visit Holywell town centre, then cross the road but remember to return to this spot when you are ready to re-start the treasure trail! Turn to your right and walk slightly downhill until you reach an information board on you right hand side about Well Street.

Clue 15

Someone was hung, drawn and quartered in 1679 in which city? You can now eliminate this hometown from your list!

Continue down the hill until you come to a road junction. Across the road is a road traffic sign.

Clue 16

Which town is situated 29 miles from this spot? You will now be able to eliminate one more hometown from the list!

Turn right into Well Street and look for another information board nearby.

Clue 17 This gives information about the history of Holywell town. It will also allow you to eliminate the final hometown from the list, thus now enabling you to correctly identify the hometown of the murderer!

The road forks in two. Take the left-hand road and walk down Well Hill. At the corner is another information board. Look for a metal drain cover situated in the grass near a tree.

Clue 18

Looking closely at the wording on the drain cover and you should be able to eliminate one more name from the list of suspects!

Continue walking down the hill and around the bend in the road.

Clue 19 Look for St Winefride’s House on your right! A Latin inscription on the house shows a date in Roman numerals and, below this, is a number also written in Roman numerals. This equals one of the ages on the list that you can eliminate!

Clue 20

Next door, is St Winefride’s Guest House. Look at the sign hanging outside! What animal can you see? You have now eliminated the final animal from the list and should now know the nature of the suspect’s strange pet!

Clue 21

Look for St Winefride’s New Hall on the left-hand side of the road. Read the inscribed stone plinth on the building. Using a group of initials, you will now be able to eliminate one more suspect’s name from the list!

Continue walking down the hill until you reach Bridgettine Convent.

Clue 22

Walk along the path to the front door and carefully study the crest above the front door! You should now be able to cross one more name off the list of suspects!

Continue walking down the hill.

Clue 23

What house number is written on the side of Rose Cottage? You can now eliminate one more age from your list!

Continue walking down the hill and look for The Talacre Arms on the other side of the road.

Clue 24

A white terrace of houses next to the Talacre Arms was built in which year? You can now eliminate one more date from the list!

Continue walking down the hill until you reach a church that is situated higher than the road behind a stone wall.

Clue 25

A red, metal sign can be seen above the wall. You should now be able to eliminate a further name from the list of possible suspects!

Walk around the bend in the road where you will be able to see St. Winifride’s Chapel and Well. There is a small charge if you wish to visit these and there are toilets and a café too! Continue walking down the hill past a bus stop on the right. Keep your eyes open for a cream coloured cottage on the other side of the road!

Clue 26

It was built in 1774! Using the name of this cottage and the name of its neighbouring house, you will be able to eliminate one more name from the list of suspects!

Clue 27

A little further down the road, you will come across a row of round, white pillars and the square pillars lining the pavement. Count how many there are altogether. The answer will equal an age on the list. Cross this off and you will be left with real age of the murderer!

Continue walking past some buildings and a high brick wall on the right-hand side.

Clue 28 Look for a large, white house on the other side of the road with a very tall eucalyptus tree in the garden. The name of this house is identical to that of one of the names on the list of suspects. Score it off the list!

Clue 29 Further down the road you will arrive at a large pub on your right. Using the letters of the name of the pub and rearrange them to find a further name of the list of suspects! Score it off!

Turn into the vehicular entrance to the pub and walk straight down the hill, beyond some large boulders until you enter a smaller car park that serves Greenfield Valley.

Clue 30 (a) & (b) (a) A black, iron gateway leads into the woodland walks within the Valley. you can eliminate another date from the list by working out the date written in Roman Numerals! (b) You can also eliminate one more name from the list of suspects by rearranging the letters of the two words written on the gateway!

Walk through the gateway and follow gravel path. Bear right when it joins a grassy path. Follow this until you reach the next set of ruined mill buildings. Just before you emerge from the trees, to your right, you will see a wooden sign attached to the fence on your right-hand side.

Clue 31 Rearrange the letters of the name of the pool to work out a further name from the list of suspects!

Feel free to explore the ruins and chimney; or read the information board in the middle of the bridge. Otherwise continue walking along the grassy, cobbled path, keeping a high, green fence on your right- hand side. Then, keeping black railings on your right, walk past a brick archway. Continue until your reach a brick clock tower on the left of the path.

Clue 32 Some white graffiti on the red bricks of the tower will give you a clue to a suspect’s name. Cross it off the list!

Continue walking through the woods. Bear right where the path forks and continue along a gravel path until you reach a car park. Walk beneath the yellow and black height restriction bar and cross to the other end of the car park. In the corner, by two signs, the woodland path continues down some steps and across a small bridge. At the end of this path are a few steps leading to a bridge that crosses another mill pond. At the end of the bridge, turn left down some steps towards the mill race where you will find some old, red, brick ruins.

Clue 33 Look for an information board on Meadow Mill. When was this mill built? This date will allow you to eliminate the final date from the list and will leave you with the correct date from which this murder was copied!

The path narrows and goes back into the woods. The mill race should now be on your left. When the path emerges on to a grassy area, you will walk past ornate, black, metal gates and continue towards a picnic table.

Clue 33 On the left, with views across the pond, is a bench in memory of which person. This name matches that of a suspect. You have now eliminated the final suspect and know the name of the murderer!

CONGRATULATION!

YOU HAVE NOW FINISHED THE TRAIL! WALK BESIDE THE POND AND REJOIN THE MAIN ROAD THAT WILL LEAD YOU BACK TO THE ABBEY AND CAR PARK!

SO.. WHO DID IT AND WHEN?

To check your answers, open the link to the solutions page : http://mhairitindall.com/solutions-the-butcher-of- basingwerk/

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UNIQUE TRAIL CODE: PP/BBA/08 Suspects Age of Suspect Alma Clifton 16 22 23 29 38 40 44 72 Alys M. D. Green Hometown Ann Wazere Chester Conway Lourdes Beryl Patoot Paris Rome Rhyl Birgitta Salvatori Charles Chopov West Bromwich Dudley Brickhouse Glen Cairn Possible Pets James Parish Dragon Frog Goat Llama Swan Jason Owens Kevin Foursian

Koala Roy Dates Maude Gilton 1708 Pam Interax 1785 Peter Savage 1787 1830

1861 1921 1925