Old Church Safe/Strongbox 19th Centrury

[edwells59]

Hello Lock experts. My problem - I have recently purchased an old Methodist Chapel built in 1896. There are various conditions associated with the graveyard part of the purchase. We now need to pot drains in and examining the monuments the last burial was 1974 which looks like only 50% of the consecrated ground is inhabited. So to the point - Burial records for the Church do not exist with either the local archivist or the Methodist's themselves. I am told by the Methodists that the records were usually kept locally in a safe/strong box. And we have found one - but it has no key. It weighs more than a man can lift so no point in trying to get it to a locksmith and I am avoiding cutting my way in because if the noise inside are the burial records then I don't want to damage them. So the challenge is to get it apart without heat. The safe/strong box lays on its back and the door opens upwards. It clearly wont have been opened since 1974 when the church was last used and the damp has done it no good at all. I have sprayed easing oil around the hinges, door aperture and inside the lock mechanism. So who out there knows anything at all about Church Safes from the 19th Century? A couple of attachments may help identify what we are dealing with... Maybe