Walk the cobbles of post-war Nottingham with Chief Inspector Adams in your pocket. Arthur Pendelton lies dead inside the Adams Lace Mill, and the evidence is scattered across the city: hidden at the scene, chalked on a churchyard wall, waiting behind a jazz club door. Find each clue, send the codeword on WhatsApp, and name the killer at the final stop.
Adams. Twenty-three forty-three. Bobbin Room, Adams Mill. Pendelton is upstairs, Detective... and he is not getting any warmer. Safe open. Ledgers gone. Finch is calling it a burglary. The foreman he sacked two days ago... he had the safe key. Never handed it back. But burglars do not lay a yard of black lace across a dead man. Nor lock the door from the INSIDE... and leave the key in it. Four people were within two hundred yards of this mill tonight. One of them is lying to me. Get to the mill door on Saint Mary's Gate. Read the chalk. Send me the word.
No app to install. Book, walk to the first location, and let Chief Inspector Adams run the case from your WhatsApp while the clues lead you across the city.
Choose a mystery and pay £12.99 per detective. One phone leads the team on WhatsApp; everyone else follows the case live on this website with your team code.
Head to the start point and message the Constabulary line. Chief Inspector Adams replies with your team code and the opening clue.
Every stop hides a clue or a QR code. Work out the codeword and send it. A wrong answer earns a hint, so nobody stays stuck for long.
The final stop asks one question: who killed Arthur Pendelton? Send the name. Read the evidence right and the case is closed.
“At 23:15 hours, night watchmen patrolling the cobblestones of St. Mary's Gate discovered the lifeless body of Council Alderman Arthur Pendelton slumped over his Victorian mahogany desk inside Adams Mill. The chamber door was locked from the interior.”
“The Alderman was found bound with a yard of hand-spun black Nottingham bobbin lace. His personal iron safe, which reportedly held municipal canal lease ledgers and contraband dye patents, stood wide open and completely ransacked.”
Inspector Julian Finch of the City Constabulary declared it a burglary gone wrong. But the anonymous telegraph sent to your office tells a far darker tale: of blackmail in the jazz clubs of Hockley, secret sandstone caves beneath the Castle, and high-society syndicates willing to kill to protect their secrets.
“Marks upon the neck indicate Nottingham bobbin lace thread. However, subtle traces of Belladonna poison were also detected in the victim's half-emptied sherry glass.”
Walk it Wed–Sat 12:00–16:00
Played on foot in Nottingham city centre. Every stop is a public place. Bring a charged phone and comfortable shoes.
Four persons of interest were spotted within 200 yards of Adams Mill before the body was found. The clues on the trail point at one of them.
Sang her last set at 22:15 and took her break at 22:30. Burnt letters in her dressing-room grate; will not say why she was on St Mary's Gate.
Fired on the Alderman's orders two days ago. Still holds skeleton keys to the freight gates and a grudge.
Signed off a burglary report within twenty minutes of the body being found. The original has since gone missing from the archive.
Married to Edmund Pendelton, the nephew the Alderman cut out of his will last month. Keeps the poison register at the General Dispensary.
£12.99 per detective, per mystery. Pick your case, choose how many are on the team, and pay by card. The lead phone gets its start instructions straight after.
A body at Adams Mill and a killer still loose in the city.
The original case. Follow Arthur Pendelton's last night from the mill on St. Mary's Gate to the jazz cellars of Hockley.
A brewer is found dead in the caves beneath the castle.
Follow Josiah Hardcastle's last night from Old Market Square up to the castle gatehouse, down Mortimer's Hole to the Trip and Brewhouse Yard, and back to the castle green to name his killer.
A rowing coach is pulled from the river at dawn.
A third trail along the Embankment and over Trent Bridge. Story in development.
Story in development. Bookings open when the trail is ready.
“WALKED THE LACE MARKET IN THE RAIN STOP FOUND THE THIRD CLUE CHALKED BEHIND THE JAZZ CLUB STOP WHOLE TEAM CHEERED ON ST MARYS GATE STOP.”
“FOUR OF US ONE PHONE STOP THE REST WATCHED THE CLUES LAND ON THE WEBSITE AND ARGUED OVER EVERY ONE STOP TWO AND A HALF HOURS FLEW BY STOP.”
“STUCK ON THE CIPHER AT THE CHURCHYARD STOP ONE WRONG GUESS AND THE INSPECTOR SENT A HINT STOP NAMED THE KILLER OUTSIDE THE COUNCIL HOUSE STOP.”
Yes. The clues are hidden at real locations in Nottingham city centre and you walk between them on foot. Every stop is a public place. Bring a charged phone and comfortable shoes.
It is £12.99 per person per mystery. One phone leads the team and does the talking on WhatsApp. Your first reply includes a team code; everyone else opens the team page on this website with that code and follows every clue and answer live.
Lace Market Noir has six stops over roughly 2.5 km and takes most teams two to three hours, including time to argue over the evidence. Each mystery lists its own stops, distance, and duration in the booking section.
Send your best guess. A wrong answer gets a hint, and each further wrong answer gets the next one, so you can never be stuck for long. Text HELP at any time for a reminder of how to play and how many hints you have used.
Yes. Your progress is saved on the Constabulary line, so you can stop for a drink and pick up later the same day. Text WHERE and the Inspector repeats your current clue.
Placeholder answer until the trail is finalised: the route is designed to be walked in daylight and every clue is outdoors or in a place open to the public, so rain only makes it more atmospheric.
The cold rain is falling on St. Mary's Gate. Book your team, pick a lead phone, and report to the first location.
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