My Journal colleagues and I escaped by the skin of our teeth last week, after being shackled and locked in The Brig of a galleon ship in Salisbury Docks.

Fear not, though the peril felt real at times, we were in fact in the city’s newest escape rooms at The Cross Keys shopping centre.

A team-building exercise took us to the The Brig and Pieces of Eight, located in the 14th Century, Grade II listed building (formally the Cross Keys Café), the character of which creates a perfect marauders’ setting. Built around its original timbers, with low ceilings and creaking floors, the venue is convincingly fitted out as a dimly lit tavern and pirate ship. Piping out creepy sound effects and even an authentic musty aroma.

Live Escape Salisbury is run by husband and wife team Charlie and Claire Pitcher, who set up their first escape game Spectre five years ago on Castle Street and are now in the process of creating a third room - on a retro board game theme - upstairs at the Cross Keys venue, which also plays host to paranormal investigations.

Dressed as pirate and serving wench, our hosts welcomed us off the cold street into the Plume of Feathers tavern, which is licensed, meaning we were able to have a drink and a chat with them before starting our game. The two games on offer can be played versus or together. To make it more fun we split into two groups to play The Brig versus Pieces of Eight. In a race against time, three of us sat at the captain’s table in the Plume of Feathers attempting to solve our way through a trio of pirate chests to uncover loot, while the other three were imprisoned and tasked with finding keys to unchain themselves and then solve the puzzles scattered throughout their gaol to escape.

If trying to escape your shackles and uncover the loot wasn’t perilous enough, we had the ongoing threat of the wrath of the executioner, who enters the room periodically to check the prisoners and the ship crew are behaving themselves. As soon as he entered the room we had to stop what we were doing and pretend we weren’t trying to rob the loot and unshackle our chains for fear of immediate punishment.

This role playing added another layer of entertainment to our game, making it more convincing than most other escape rooms I have visited as well as bringing even more amusement to a fun, team-building evening.

Live Escape Rooms is not only a great choice for a work's do, but is ideal for a birthday or family party too. Gift vouchers are available - the perfect Christmas gift. Visit  https://live-escape.co.uk