Getting somewhere...

Thanks to Percy for his help - he found a web site that seems to offer some clues as to what SCWID is. The Manchester History Mysteries Site at http://www.historymysteries.net/ says that it was some sort of secret society during the industrial revolution and the strange machine was called the 'flaxobulator' - I wonder what it did, sounds like something to do with weaving maybe?

More exciting, the site owner says that he or she has another map piece - so it would be great to contact him or her - but the details are password-protected and there's some sort of puzzle to find the password.

Can anyone help?

Another piece of map - but where now?

Well I finally got the time to go for a walk and get the code name – easy when you know where to look ;o)

I think we’re really getting somewhere now – I went back to Mr Fortescue with the code name and he handed a package over straight away. And, guess what – it contained another piece of the map!

That’s three pieces of the map we’ve got now. I wonder what we should do now? Any ideas?

Another piece of the puzzle

Here's the other map piece I found - looks like we need another four to be able to find where the strange 'machine' is. I wonder what it is and what it does?

Any thoughts anyone?

Recap

I've just had the few most hectic weeks starting Uni that I haven't really been able to spend as much time as I'd have liked on this mystery. But after a weekend back home I'm all re-enthused!

So where are we? I found a map piece and letter from one of my ancestors that mentioned a strange machine and an old secret society and also gave a clue to finding a second map piece, which was with some pages from an old diary and a strange set of instructions.

From the diary, it seems that the machine was dangerous in some way and has been hidden somewhere - I have to find all of the pieces of the map to find out where. There is a third piece of the map with a lawyer, but I need to give him a code word before he will hand it over - I think this is where the instructions come in. They look like a kind of treasure hunt through the MMU website. I'm sure I can crack this soon...

I've done some digging

Wow! This is really exciting exciting - I did some investigation based on the diary pages and there's still a firm of solicitors in my home town called Fortescue & Fortescue - seems that it's still run by the descendents of the Fortescue in the diary. Spooky.

But this is the exciting bit - when I spoke to them they still had documents in the name of an Oliver Captor! Apparently this package has been in the firm for years and no one knows what it is but are under strict instructions only to give it to someone who can tell them a specific code word.

The man I spoke to did let slip that the code word is a building name - any ideas?

Viola

I got it!

This is so exciting! I finally managed to crack the code in the letter and find the name of the play I needed - well done all of you who have got this far:o)

I went to the library in my Gran's house and, after much searching - and much dust - found a complete set of Shakespeare's plays, and there was the one I needed (I'm not going to tell you what it is in case anyone still wants to work it out for themselves).

I took down this old book that looked like it hadn't been opened for years - which it probably hadn't - and inside all middles of the pages had been removed to make a kind of box. It's amazing - you'd never find it if you didn't know where to look.

Inside the box there was another piece of the map - hurrah - what looks like some pages torn out of an old diary, and a typewritten set of instructions. I've made some copies of the map piece and left them at various MMU libraries if anyone wants to pick one up? Here's a photo of the diary pages and the instructions - hope someone can make more of them than me?





Viola