A TEAM of ex-coppers who set up an adventure mystery game in the city in March say the last six months have been “very busy and a massive learning curve”.

The four retired detectives are behind the popular Escape Rooms in Fisherton Street, Salisbury, and have had more than 300 bookings since opening.

Based on video games, escape rooms started opening in Europe and Asia a decade ago and are now taking off in the UK.

The Salisbury business is believed to be the only one designed by real detectives and involves unravelling clues and puzzles about a missing Magna Carta.

Matthew Johnson, who was Detective Inspector at Salisbury CID until last summer, said: “Actually having to make money to keep the business running rather than having a monthly paycheck has been quite a change.

“After a busy start, then a relatively quiet couple of months, we are now very busy.

“We started completely blind, not knowing about anything, but it just so happened we built something people really liked.

“The reviews we have had on TripAdvisor have been amazing, so we are very pleased with what we have achieved so far. The next chapter is to change the rooms to a new scenario, which we are planning to do at the end of September.”

The new theme is likely to be based around a murder at a museum with medieval, Egyptian and Second World War-themed rooms.

Matthew said: “A lot of people have said they will come back once we change the theme because it’s not really something you can do twice – that’s really what prompted us to change it.

“The common age of customers has probably been between 25 and 40 but we have had an upsurge of grandparents bringing their grandchildren over the holidays.

“One of the things people like is that we are ex policemen and that we haven’t got to act.”

Matthew was with Darhyl Davies, Gordon Howsego and Pete Waugh in Hungary when they first experienced the escape rooms concept and decided to go into business together once they retired from Wiltshire Police.

* The Beaumont family from America, pictured above, said: "We travelled from America, toured England, and then went on a 14 day European cruise with sights and experiences that were marvelous - and all we keep talking about as a family .... The Salisbury Escape Room.

"We would not have missed this wonderful half day of fun for anything. History, puzzle solving, adventure, fun, laughs and best of all, we did something together as a family where everyone was part of it from ages 2 to 82."