Exeter Trail Mail

Welcome to your next Trail Mail challenge! We're taking a spooky trip to Exeter for Halloween, with three sneaky clues to solve before you're bewitched.

This is the third instalment of the 2023 Trail Mail Challenge. For information on the prizes, the leaderboard and past puzzles, visit the main page here.

There are three clues set on the following image - one easy peasy, one mind twister and one brain buster. How many can you solve?

Top tip: Open the image in a new tab or save it to your device so you can zoom in.

Add together all the letters in the names of the first three women and remove that total from the year they died. What does that equal?

Only one of these four-letter words can’t be seen on the plaque: ITCH, CUTE, RAFT, LICE, LAND, BEEN, TREE, WARD, CELL. Which is it?

Line 1 = 2

Line 2 = 3

Line 3 = 7

Line 4 = ?

The closing date for Exeter Trail Mail entries was Friday 5th January 2024.

You can find the answers for the Exeter Trail Mail challenge by clicking the button below.

Exeter, a cathedral city and county town of Devon, completely mixes the past and present with every step. There's the impressive medieval cathedral and Roman wall, plus stunning Tudor buildings that sit right next to modern new builds.

The lively high street is packed full of shops, cafes, restaurants and event spaces, as well as museums, galleries and attractions. Plus with a scenic riverside running through the city, and Dartmoor and the seaside just a short drive away, there really is something for everyone in this super city.

On the Exeter detective mystery Trail, you'll patrol from the quay and riverside up to the city centre, passing the cathedral and pretty gardens as you try to reveal whodunnit.

The city has a chilling past. Exeter was the host of the Devon Assizes, a periodical court (originally biannually, later quarterly) used for trying the county's criminals for centuries up until 1971. One of its sinister tasks was convicting people of witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries. The city was officially the last place to execute a witch in England and may have even been the first, too, when Maud Park and Alice Mead were found guilty of witchcraft in 1566. But this is disputed, as Agnes Waterhouse in Chelmsford was condemned in the same year.

More than 20 local men and women were accused of witchcraft between 1558 and 1660. The plaque in today's puzzle honours the last four 'witches' executed in Exeter - Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards and Mary Trembles, who were hanged at the nearby Heavitree Gallows in 1682, and Alice Molland, who was sentenced to death at the Exeter Assizes in 1685. You can see this plaque in the ruins of the Rougemont Castle gatehouse, just a few steps off the main high street.