http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/staffordshire/3703191.stm
The BBC
Tuesday, 11 May, 2004, 09:50 GMT 10:50 UK
New puzzle for war code breakers
Experts from Bletchley Park are trying to crack a 250-year-old code
rumoured to point the way to the Holy Grail.
Specialists from the Buckinghamshire code-breaking centre hope to decipher
words etched on a garden ornament at Shugborough in Staffordshire.
The Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of the stately home displays an
inscription that has never been solved.
Second World War veterans using the celebrated Enigma machine are joining
Bletchley's current team of experts.
'Unusual challenge'
The code breakers are at Shugborough, the ancestral home of the Earls of
Lichfield, on Tuesday.
Christine Large, Bletchley Park's director, said: "This is such an unusual
challenge that my colleagues and collaborators, who include veteran code
breakers and modern day decoding experts from Bletchley Park's 'offspring'
GCHQ, cannot resist."
Shugborough's general manager, Richard Kemp, said: "The Anson family, who
built the estate, commissioned the monument but it had unproven connections
with the Knights Templars.
"The inscription is rumoured to indicate the location of the Holy Grail,
which must rank as one of the world's great mysteries."
It is estimated that work carried out at The National Codes Centre at
Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes helped to shorten the Second World War by
two years.
The site is now a popular tourist attraction.
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R. A. Hettinga