Hertfordshire Grail Mystery Reexamined

2004 passed with many of you not knowing the names of Tim and Ben Acheson. This is not surprising to my American audience since the story was chronicled in newspapers, magazines, and a TV special in the United Kingdom. For our UK Grail Seekers, you might recall that the Achesons made a splash in the underground steam with an announcement to a reporter from the Hertfordshire Mercury. The Acheson brothers asserted that there are tunnels under Hertford, a small town 20 miles north of London, which are still in use.

What’s so surprising about that? If I were to tell you that the tunnels were used by modern-day Templars and members of the Illuminati, what would you think? What if there was an immense treasure that might be the Holy Grail, under Hertfordshire? Those are the questions the world had to answer after Raymond Brown’s article about the Acheson brothers appeared in the 8 October 2004 issue of the Hertfordshire Mercury.

If you’re not familiar with the Achesons, I’ve listed links to all the relevant articles at the bottom of the page. I would highly recommend reading these articles.

The Acheson’s story is that they are descendants of a Templars family. While they will not confirm their role within any modern-day Templar organization, they seem to know quite a bit about the group’s goals. Tim Acheson was interviewed by the Guardian in January of 2005 and gives some hints about the importance of Hertfordshire and the Grail mystery. Tim claims that groups of Templars came to Hertfordshire after Black Friday in 1307 and made it a base of operations. He believes that the passages below ground in Hertfordshire may hold the answer to many of the questions about the Grail and the Templars.

Acheson even took a couple of reporters on tours of these underground passages. According to Acheson the whole city is honeycombed with tunnels that are used by the Templars and the Illuminati as a meeting site. Through out the articles on Acheson, he is rather hidden about what he knows, or suspects, is going on in Hertfordshire. He makes references to revelations that could be forth coming due to a new generation of Templars wanting to be more open. If one takes a closer look at the facts presented in the press; a few interesting possibilities open up.

In May of 2005, the Hertfordshire Mercury reported that a Vernon Gifkins was identified as one of the first people to enter Hitler’s bunker in May of 1945. Tim Acheson was also identified and quoted as being Gifkins' grandson. We come to find out that Gifkins was also an MI5 agent and according to Tim, “"He was a real character, hunting man-eating lions in Africa and also a lot of real James Bond work. He took some very interesting documents from the bunker." Given Hitler’s penchant for the occult, one wonders what might have been taken from that bunker.

One has to dig a little to see what the relevance of Gifkins is to the claims the Achesons have made. The article mentions that the Gifkins “live in Bayley Hall, which his family owned, and the Old Vicarage in Church Street.” If we go back to the first article about the Achesons, there is a picture of a map that shows a1898 map of Bayley Hall. The map marks a subterranean passageway on the property that would link up with the other passages the Achesons claimed to be running under Hertfordshire. One can imagine the Achesons as teenagers exploring the tunnel systems against the warnings of their grandfather.

Tim’s interest in the tunnel system and the Hertfordshire treasure might not be a passive one. In March of 2005, the Hertfordshire Templars requested to undergo excavations on an undisclosed property in the town. The property in question is said to have been a Templar holding in 1253. The landowner denied the group’s requests. Tim is quoted as saying, “If the whereabouts of these items is still known after all this time, and they are still wanted, one can only conclude that they must have some intrinsic value.” The timing of the request leads one to believe that the Templar might be looking for hard evidence to present to the world.

I tend to think that this property is on the Brickendonbury estate in the village of Brickendon, which lies a few miles south of Hertfordshire. The estate was once owned by Sir Thomas Clarke, who built the present manor house there in the 1690’s. Clarke was also responsible for building Bayley Hall. The March 2005 article mentions that “items claimed to be "secreted beneath the surrounding fields, outbuildings, moat and house have been there for 700 years.” This loosely fits with the description of Brickendonbury.

The possible Grail and Acheson connections don’t end there. Located in Brickendon is the Chapel of the Holy Cross and St Alban, which was the chapel Brickendonbury estate. On the grounds of the chapel are a number of different types of trees. One of which is reported to be part of the Glastonbury Thorn. Also, during World War II, the Brickendonbury house was used by British intelligence to train agents in industrial sabotage. Perhaps Vernon Gifkins received some training there. It would fit with what we know of Gifkins.

Of course all of this is pure conjecture on my part. In hoping to satisfy my own theories, I tried to track Tim Acheson down. Through some sleuth work and good luck I was able to do so. We traded correspondence through October and November. Tim even agreed to do the interview with me. After sending him a list of questions, poof, he was gone. I have not heard from Tim since. Also, know that I will not disclose my method of contact with Tim. So please don’t waste your time emailing me asking for the particulars.

I do hope everything is well with him. No matter what you think of the validity of Acheson’s claims, he does live in a shadowy world. Since the Grail world is filled with those who run the gambit between reality and pure fiction, the possibilities of their actions are equally as broad. I wish Tim and Ben all the luck in the world, and more over I hope they’re on to something.

The major articles that recount the story of the Achesons can be found in the following places. Note: some of the articles are reprinted in other forums, after their links have become dead at the original source. I copied the articles from their respective original sources and can vouch that I have seen no evidence of rewrites. One can never be too careful with info on the web. Any quotes that I have made in this piece can be directly attributed to the following sources.

Secret tunnels used by Knights Templar and Illuminati in Hertford
Hertford, home of the Holy Grail
Pope was investigating Knights Templar before his election
Hertford Grail trail hits Aussie headlines
Michael Jackson checks in with tribute to historic Hertford Templar
Landowner Blocks Hunt for Templar Treasure
Revealed: Hertford's man in Hitler's bunker