Treasure hunters baffled by mysterious message in a bottle that washed up on river – can you figure it out?

TREASURE hunters are baffled by a mysterious message in a bottle that washed up on the beach.

The cryptic poem was discovered inside a clear jar by the River Thames and had been laminated by its creator.

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People from the mudlarker community, people who search riverbeds for historical artefacts, have no clue what the riddle means.

It read: “Wide and Heavy, Filling out the town, Norther of Freehold, I can be found.”

Some people thought the bizarre four line poem was a map leading to hidden treasure in Freehold, Lancashire.

While others thought it could have travelled all the way from New Jersey, in the United States.

Posting on the mudlarker’s community forum, Chris Green wrote: “Hi all, I have a bit of a puzzle for you today.

“I was on the Thames last weeks and found this message in a bottle.

“It looks like some kind of cryptic clue, but it’s too tricky for me, so I need to call on the collective brain to try and solve this one.

“I could be wrong but does this have a hint of the US about it?

“Maybe our friends across the pond can help.”

Chris’ post sparked intrigue and divided the opinion of many fellow treasure hunters.

One commented: “”Wide’ and ‘Heavy’ are both capitalised so those might be names of something too rather than a description.”

Someone else penned: “I wish I had scrolled past this!

“Now I need to know who wrote this, why they wrote it, what it means and what we’re looking for.”

Meanwhile another curious user wondered if the poem referred to the online game World of Worldcraft.

“Apparently Freehold is a dungeon in the ‘World of Warcraft’ online-role playing game,” she said.

Others felt the bottle was too staged to have randomly washed up on the shore.

“It seems to have been purposely set among the stones”, wrote one.

“I doubt it would look so pristine had it travelled across the Atlantic to find its way onto the Thames foreshore. 

“If it’s a scavenger hunt clue, I’d think it’s somewhere in London, perhaps a pub?”

Whereas, some mudlarkers were sure the whole thing was a practical joke.

“I think this is a scavenger hunt clue and now that it’s gone there will be a load of lost and confused people on the beach looking for it,” they said.

“Looks like they couldn’t answer it either, so tossed it in the river and went for a beer,” agreed a second.

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