Mysterious message in a bottle found in Thames has treasure hunters baffled

A man out mudlarking on the banks of the river Thames discovered a mysterious message in a bottle and is keen to find out what it could mean. If this doesn’t end up with the guy going on a swashbuckling adventure I, for one, will be very disappointed.

For those not in the know, a mudlarker is someone who searches through river mud in the hopes of finding some treasure or other item of value.

And one bloke out mudlarking on the River Thames found a jar containing a laminated note with a poem inside.

Posting on a mudlarking 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."

The message inside, which was laminated, reads: "Wide and Heavy, Filling out the town, Norther of Freehold, I can be found."

Facebook/Chris Green

As you can imagine, the intrigued note piqued the interest of other mudlarkers, who were determined to try and get to the bottom of the riddle.

One person noted: "''Wide' and 'Heavy' are both capitalised so those might be names of something too rather than a description." I like your thinking, pal.

Someone else said: "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."

Same, mate, same.

However others suggested that the bloke may have stumbled upon - and ruined - someone’s carefully planned scavenger hunt. Whoops.

Facebook/Chris Green

"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," a third person pointed out.

Another person commented: "It seems to have been purposely set among the stones. 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?"

Echoing the pub theme, someone else said: "Looks like they couldn’t answer it either, so tossed it in the river and went for a beer.” Sounds like a good idea, actually.