Treasure Hunt Day for all the Family

Well its nearly here, after months of planning and collaborating and getting to know more people our Day for All The Family is tomorrow!

Take a look at the leaflet on this link http://www.treasuretrails.co.uk/herefordshire/20-August-2010.html

And listen to the radio on Friday morning BBC Hereford and Worcester - Tony Fisher's programme. Apparently, our pre-recorded and subsequently edited piece will go out between 9.00am and 10.00am. Caroline Forster from the Change4Life team and I met Julie, the researcher on a windy day earlier in the week (Monday) and told her all about our hopes for the day and why we were doing it.

We've got some great prizes - working on a first, second and third out of the hat process we have a family ticket for the Mappa Mundi exhibition in the cathedral together with 4 books from the Usborne "Make it" series. We have a cash prize equivalent to the number of treasure hunt booklets we sell tomorrow and we have 3 free Trails to give away. There will be goodie bags for all the kids that complete the Treasure Hunts and lots of balloons around too.

So, come and find us on the Cathedral Close between 10.00am and 2.00pm tomorrow - do either our easy, medium or hard Trail and the draw will take place at 3.45pm. The easy Trail is suitable for the smaller children who have to find the Normans. The medium and hard Trails are suitable for 7 years and upwards. The medium one is a murder mystery which takes around 1 and a bit hours and is centred around the city and the hard one takes about 2 hours and is a spy Trail which goes all the way out to Bartonsham Dairy and back along the river.

Hopefully those new to our Trails will get a taste for them and try one of the others in our catalogue of nearly 30!

Kidderminster Shuttle

A lovely published article by Cadisha Brown has resulted in quite a few sales - thank you Kidderminster Shuttle!

She wrote on Thursday 29th July :> Follow the clues to find smugglers’ treasure

MURDER mystery, treasure hunt and spy trails can be explored in Wyre Forest to help beat summertime boredom.

Youngsters and their families looking for some outdoor fun can search for treasure on a two-hour treasure hunt trail in Stourport.

Their quest will be to search for gold and silver bullion that was stolen by smugglers from a royal barge heading down the canal to the River Severn in the 18th century.

They will be given a map with clues around the town leading to the treasure’s location.

In Kidderminster, wannabe detectives can try to solve the clues in a murder mystery trail.

The case involves a series of unsolved murders committed in the town, which have been reopened.

It starts and finishes in Weavers Wharf and those taking part have to help solve the clues and work out who did the murders and what weapon was used.

Meanwhile, the Bewdley spy trail starts in Gardeners Meadow car park, where youngsters have to help “agent Jane Pond” follow clues and find the deactivation code for a device planted by “Dr Horribly Bad”.

He plans to flood Worcestershire and has planted the device somewhere in the town.

The trails have been organised by Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire. It was started by David and Amanda Ingham with the aim of getting local people and visitors to see and learn more about the area.

David said: “We all know that British summertime weather can be a bit unpredictable but walking, exploring and solving clues is just as much fun in the sunshine as in the rain.

“Treasure trails are a great activity for the whole family to complete together as children, parents and grandparents can all get involved in finding and solving our exciting, innovative and fun mysteries.”

Further information about the trails can be obtained by logging on to the website at www.treasuretrails.co.uk

So much News

There is so much happening at the moment and so much news I don't know where to start.....


Stourport Web want to include our info
Ledbury Books and Maps now stock Treasure Trails
Inspire Hereford are going to do a Treasure Trail for their summer social
We've renewed our membership of Visit Hereford
Bromyard Info want to take our news
Redditch Advertiser have taken our Swashbuckling summer holidays ideas news
Treasure Hunts for all the family is coming along nicely
Poston Mill press release needs to be followed up
Swashbuckling Summer Holiday Ideas has gone out to 7 local papers
Dunfield House has been tested and is ready for marketing

and all these things need me to write up news items for the Treasure Trails website! Sometime soon :-)

Press Releases - Swashbuckling summer holiday ideas

Well, I've sent out the following press release to 7 newspapers in the Worcestershire area - wonder if any of them will print :)


Are you looking for a new way to keep the children entertained this summer? And on a budget? Herefordshire based Treasure Trails has the perfect solution. They have created nearly 30 treasure hunt adventures in local towns and villages which will give you a fun and exciting day out, without the theme park price tag.
As every parent knows, finding six weeks of activities to keep everybody in the family entertained can be a challenge and getting them to do something in the outdoors that is healthy and educational at the same time sounds too good to be true! For just £5 a Treasure Trail will engage the whole family in solving an intriguing mystery and will show you a multitude of fascinating, historical and unusual things about your town that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
The Trails are completed in your own time and are Treasure Hunt, Murder Mystery and Spy Mission themed walks. An easy to follow route will take you to the most beautiful and interesting places in that area and answers to the clues are located on existing monuments and buildings. Gary Lineker is just one of the growing host of fans, having had lots of fun with his then fiancée Danielle on a Treasure Trail around Armagh last year.
Dawn Thomas and her family recently completed a Treasure Trail and said ‘What a great idea! We saw so much more of the city than if we had just wandered around aimlessly. It was a great (and cheap!) way to get the family to visit somewhere new and have fun whilst learning a bit of history. Thanks, I’ll be buying more for our holiday in August.’
David and Amanda Ingham started Treasure Trails Herefordshire & Worcestershire in 2008 with the aim of getting local people and visitors to see and learn more about the area. David said ‘We all know that British summertime weather can be a bit unpredictable but walking, exploring and solving clues is just as much fun in the sunshine as in the rain! Treasure Trails are a great activity for the whole family to complete together as children, parents and grandparents can all get involved in finding and solving our exciting, innovative and fun mysteries.’
So if you are stuck for something to do this summer, whether at home or on holiday, for just £5 for your group a Treasure Trail will help the whole family explore and learn on an exciting adventure.
Go to www.treasuretrails.co.uk to find out more and to download a free activity sheet for your children.

Its gone to :
Worcester News
Kidderminster Shuttle
Bromsgrove Advertiser
Stourport Town website
Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser
Malvern Gazette
Redditch Advertiser

TREASURE TRAILS SET TO ENJOY SOME MUSIC

Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire will be in Droitwich Spa High Street from 10 to 5 on Saturday, 10th July enjoying the programme of music and selling Trails! The live music ranges from a folk /country trio called Bric a Brac, through a classical violinist, Shulah Oliver, Matt Sinton a singer, Catch 23 a covers band and JT an acoustic covers singer. It finishes at 4.00 with Stomping on Spiders - so there is something for everyone!

We just hope they don't all drown out our sales patter!

Anyway, the Droitwich Spa Treasure Trail is a wonderful way to see the town in all its Music Festival glory and we are looking forward to introducing more people to Treasure Trails through the Festival.

The Sunday Times

This is what the Sunday Times said this week as part of their 50 best summer days out article

20. Treasure trails, Norfolk
The brief is this: a flask of extremely powerful sleeping gas has been unearthed during construction work in Bircham. Unless the deactivation code is found, the toxin will be released, plunging the whole of Norfolk into a deep sleep. (Will anyone notice?) Your mission is to use your bike to find the clues and save the county. It’s terrific fun, and just one of hundreds of similarly offbeat adventures — on foot, by bike, in the car and even by boat — offered around the country by Treasure Trails (01872 263692, treasuretrails.co.uk). You pick your county, pick an adventure, pay a fiver and download the mission brief. Then, when you’ve completed the trail, you email the code word back to the company for the chance of winning up to a grand.

New Trails

We've now written two new Trails which we are really pleased with. One is a 3 mile walking or cycling Trail which runs along the river at Symonds Yat. The Facts: In around AD 900 the Viking Army of Eric, The Blood Axe, landed near Chepstow, crossed the Forest of Dean and set up base at Symonds Yat. The Fiction? An ancient map was discovered recently which may shed light on where Viking treasure is buried. Can you solve the clues to find the location of the Viking booty?

The Trail did really well at the Three Counties Show at the weekend and we sold lots of booklets. Wonder how many sales we missed out on by not writing it earlier!

On the other hand, we also launched a new Trail called Old Hereford at the show and we sold NONE of them.... and I thought Old Hereford would be a catchy name which would attract people to it! It is however, a lovely Trail through the old bits of Hereford and the back story is that many years ago, when rumours abounded that the Vikings were coming, the Herefordian monks collected up their most precious manuscripts and chalices and hid them in a place that has never been identified. Can you be the ones to unearth it?

Both Trails are in the Treasure Map format and to celebrate their launch, we will send one of each through email to the first 3 people to contact us by email to amanda@treasuretrails.co.uk and then await your feedback to see which one you like best.... bearing in mind that David wrote one of them and Amanda wrote the other and regular readers of this blog will know how competitive we are!