(Original headline: Landowner blocks hunt for 'Templar treasures')
A wealthy landowner has blocked a move by the Knights Templars to search for 700-year-old treasure they believe is buried on a farm near Hertford.
In a letter passed to the Mercury, the East Herts landowner denies the mysterious secret society permission "to undertake any excavation or investigation of any sort".
He tells the sect that there is "no justification" to dig for any "items" that may lie beneath the farmland.
The Templars, originally an order of warrior monks, are believed to have owned valuable artefacts which mysteriously disappeared in the 1300s. Some even claim the Templars had the Holy Grail in their possession.
The disappearance of the artefacts sparked a hunt by King Edward II for 'the lost treasure of the Templars'. In 1309, he imprisoned four of the knights in Hertford Castle but there is no record of what subsequently happened to them.
Parts of the Castle grounds were dug up by Edward's team of treasure hunters and they searched the surrounding area, but the hoard was never found.
The interest in searching for Templar-owned artefacts was reignited by Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code.
The Mercury has exclusively reported evidence of a maze of tunnels under Hertford used by the Templars and broke the story of the Templars' demand for a papal apology for their persecution by the Vatican, which began on Black Friday, October 13, 1307. The stories made international headlines.
The letter passed to the Mercury was addressed to the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon, at a PO box in Hertford. Its author, who does not wish to be named, owns land that belonged to the Templars in 1253.
The landowner's letter states that the items claimed to be "secreted beneath the surrounding fields, outbuildings, moat and house have been there for 700 years".
It goes on: "During all this time, these items have been lying dormant and safe within this area and, in my view, there can be no justification to make a hasty reaction to the recent article in the local press.
"Therefore, neither yourselves nor any other group or individual have any permission from me to enter upon this land to undertake any excavation or investigation of any sort. The only access that is permitted is on statutory footpaths."
Modern-day Templar Tim Acheson, who wants the secret society to be more open, is sure "the 'items' in question trace back to the Templars of medieval Hertford".
He said: "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."
Dr Christopher Tyerman, a Templar expert at Oxford University's Hertford College, commented: "If there are archaeological finds on land in Hertfordshire, then they should be dug up and looked at."
But we may never know if there is a hidden cache. Hertfordshire County Council's archaeology department and English Heritage have no powers to excavate the land.
