The Sanctuary Cipher

Alex Helsby was lucky. He had retired from work in the North West of England in his mid fifties when the electronic security company that he had owned with his two brothers was purchased by a national company.

Now living comfortably it was his intention to concentrate on his favourite pass times, archaeology and history.

After working on archaeological sites all over the UK he decided to try nearer home.

He was aware that the fields around his local church were the venue and battlefield of the second English Civil War of 1648.

When he realised that the battlefields were owned and farmed by one of his fellow churchgoers, he asked and was given permission to use his metal detector on the land.

Alex had some early success until he had to relocate to another nearby field when a severe storm had brought down many trees and rendered the field unsafe and unworkable.

The move to the second field proved to be staggeringly successful even under the threat of interference from a third party with criminal intentions.

Alex made significant finds of articles which related to the English civil war.

But a find of more significance was a very old church safe which when eventually removed from the field was found to contain a plethora of awe inspiring gold and silver church relics, a quantity of documents, and a mysterious cryptic message.

Once Alex had cracked the cryptic message known as the sanctuary cipher, he along with his wife revealed a secret tunnel beneath their local church.

With permission from the rector the couple conducted a dangerous clandestine operation to reveal what had been hidden.

Their efforts revealed long lost priceless literary works and an insight into the formation of the early freemasons.