Britain's Paranormal Forests E-Book

Peter A. McCue

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 328

Beschreibung

Peter A. McCue examines intriguing reports of people experiencing uncanny events in Britain's woods and forests, from mysterious lights and strange animal encounters to ghostly experiences. Much of the reported witness testimony was obtained first-hand by McCue or other researchers. While he draws sceptical conclusions about some of the alleged incidents, he takes others seriously and considers possible explanations. Fully illustrated and written in McCue's inimitable style, Britain's Paranormal Forests will make you think again about your next walk in the woods.

Leseprobe

BRITAIN’S PARANORMAL FORESTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DR PETER A. McCUE is a retired clinical psychologist who lives in Scotland. His interest in anomalous phenomena goes back decades, and he has personally investigated many cases, as well as writing numerous articles on paranormal and UFO matters, and being interviewed for radio, internet and television. Britain’s Paranormal Forests is the much-anticipated follow-up to Paranormal Encounters on Britain’s Roads: Phantom Figures, UFOs and Missing Time (The History Press, 2018).

BRITAIN’S PARANORMAL FORESTS

ENCOUNTERS IN THE WOODS

PETER A. MCCUE

First published 2019

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Peter McCue, 2019

The right of Peter McCue to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9349 4

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Dr Rob Gandy

Preface

1 Introduction

2 Bad Vibes in a Kentish Wood

3 The Gorebridge Lights

4 Strange Sightings in Cornwall

5 The ‘Fife Incident’

6 Cannock Chase – An Anomaly Hot Spot?

7 Encounter in Dechmont Wood

8 Rendlesham Forest

9 Briefer Reports

10 Reflections and Speculations

Notes

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to thank Rob Gandy for kindly writing the Foreword to this book, as well as for other assistance. I’m very grateful to my friend David T. Muir for his help with proofreading. I’m also appreciative of the people who’ve given me accounts of their strange experiences. My thanks go to Justin Williams for providing information and source material for Chapter 2, and to the British Geological Survey for information relevant to Chapter 3. I’m grateful to the Rev. Johanna Clare and W. John Hoyland for the photographs included in Chapter 4; and I’d like to thank Barbara Fennell for providing material for that chapter. Regarding Chapter 7, I’m grateful to Ron Halliday, for showing me the site of Robert Taylor’s strange encounter near Livingston, Scotland, and to Nigel Watson, for sending me an article that he’d written on the case. I’d like to thank Steve Wills, for information that he sent me pertaining to a case mentioned in Chapter 9. Finally, I should like to thank an informant, who has requested anonymity, for information included in Chapter 2.

FOREWORD

‘If you go down in the woods today, You’re sure of a big surprise …’ according to the song by Henry Hall & His Orchestra back in 1932. And as you will read in this book, many people have had very big surprises when they have been in Britain’s woods, and they were not as pleasant as coming across a group of teddy bears having a picnic. No, some were puzzling, some were scary, and some were downright nasty.

Woods and forests represent around 13 per cent of the total land area in the UK, with the greatest concentrations in Wales and Scotland. They have always been places of mystery, sanctuary and enchantment, and are both enticing and unsettling at the same time. Woods and forests form the backdrop for many of the fairy stories that we are told as children, and are the explicit locations of adventurers such as Robin Hood. So it is arguable that we are primed from an early age to be alert to things that might only be seen out of the corner of one eye, when we travel their leafy or pine-scattered paths. But it is at night that woods and forests become particularly forbidding, with absolute darkness and silence punctuated by the cries of foxes, the screeches of owls and the muffled sounds of things unseen moving close by. Any inexplicable lights will demand our attention.

In his previous book Paranormal Encounters on Britain’s Roads, Peter McCue examined a wide range of weird phenomena and experiences, and allocated them according to their type, rather than their location. But in this book he focuses on one particular type of location – woodland – and examines a number of ‘classic’ cases, and others that might be less well known. These feature stories about strange lights and sounds, UFOs, ghosts and black magic. They also encompass diverse creatures such as Alien Big Cats, Werewolves, Bigfoot and Owlman!

Many authors focus on one location or one phenomenon, but Peter takes the admirable stance that maybe all apparitions and otherworldly creatures that people experience in woods, on roads, or wherever, are part of the same phenomenon; it’s just that it can manifest in a kaleidoscope of different ways. This leads him to explore how it might be that this is the case, using examples from across the world to illustrate how varying phenomena have sometimes come together in one place.

Where Peter scores highly, in my opinion, is that he presents material from the available sources (sometimes augmented by his own field research) in an open-minded and conversational way. His evaluations reflect his clinical background, and that he is a cautious believer in the reality of the phenomena. As a good fortean, he is convinced that strange things happen, but he is by no means certain how and why they occur. Inevitably there are inconsistencies between some of the testimonies, and therefore Peter sets things out for you as the reader so that you can consider the quality and consistency of events, and evaluate potential causes and explanations yourself. Naturally, he adds his own comments about their veracity, and proffers potential explanations, sometimes with a touch of his wry humour. He also provides good notes and a bibliography so that you, as the reader, can follow up on any of the cases with ease. His thorough approach contrasts with that of some others who write about such experiences as though they are simply telling (their preferred version of) a story, with no validation of the evidence and no mention of the fact that there might be several, conflicting sources; the reader is expected to believe what is written because it is there in black and white in front of their eyes.

Of course, variations in witnesses’ accounts do not necessarily mean that they were mistaken or are lying. Sceptics will always use this to dismiss unusual or paranormal experiences. But if you go to a criminal court, you will see that witnesses to a given incident will invariably provide differing and often conflicting testimonies whilst on oath. Such variation is not used to say that the incident did not take place; it is seen as part of the fact that witnesses can see and interpret things differently, for whatever reason.

As Charles Fort realised, science often dismisses phenomena that do not fit with the existing scientific paradigm. This does not mean that the phenomena are not real; it might just be that science has not yet caught up with the phenomena. And as science advances, then such phenomena may well become accepted, as was the case with meteors and the giant squid. But if the details of such phenomena are rejected out of hand and not recorded, then how is science to analyse relevant data?

So do Bigfoot and his fellow incredible creatures actually exist? Peter refers to the possibilities of some of them being associated with UFOs or being of an ‘inter-dimensional’ origin. But I would like to think that it’s simply a case of the final words of The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, which state: ‘Beneath the trees where nobody sees, they’ll hide …’

Rob Gandy

Dr Rob Gandy is a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moore’s University, and a regular contributor to the magazine Fortean Times.

PREFACE

This book examines reports of people having strange experiences in woodland areas of Great Britain. The focus on woodland is very personal: I’ve always felt that there’s something romantic and enchanting about woods and forests, particularly broadleaf woodland. Sadly, with population growth and ‘development’, Britain has lost much of its natural woodland over the years, and threats continue. So far as paranormal and UFO events are concerned, I have no grounds for claiming that woods and forests attract a disproportionate amount of such activity, although it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if that turned out to be the case. However, there certainly are numerous reports on record of people having anomalous experiences in our woods and forests, and many instances are discussed below.

I regard myself as a cautious believer in the reality of paranormal phenomena, but I don’t hold fast to any particular theory. In other words, I’m convinced that strange things happen, but I’m by no means certain how and why they occur.

I’ve referenced sources within the main text or in the endnotes for each chapter. In citing books in the endnotes, I’ve given just the main title and omitted the year of publication and details of the publisher. But this information is provided in the Bibliography. By the time this book is published, some of the cited internet items may no longer be accessible via the addresses given. But by using a search engine such as Google it may be possible to find them elsewhere on the internet.

Except where indicated, I’ve used real names in referring to witnesses with whom I’ve had personal contact. With regard to the names cited by other authors, the situation isn’t so clear, since (regrettably, in my view) writers don’t always say when they’re using pseudonyms. But where I’m aware that pseudonyms have been used, I’ve indicated that. I haven’t changed any place names, and hopefully that’s also the case with the places mentioned by the authors I cite.

In quoting people, I’ve occasionally edited the material very slightly for presentational purposes, but I haven’t changed the substantive content. In Chapter 6, I’ve cited a book by Lee Brickley, which was published with some slight errors in its main title: UFOS Werewolves & The Pig-Man. In referencing the book, I’ve corrected the errors, rendering the title as UFOs, Werewolves & the Pig-Man. Similarly, in referencing Volume 2 of Malcolm Robinson’s UFO Case Files of Scotland, I’ve edited the subtitle, to remove an error, and to make it stylistically consistent with the subtitle of the first volume.

The majority of the photographs appearing in this book were taken by me. In the two instances where that wasn’t the case, I’ve included the name of the photographer (W.J. Hoyland) in the captions.

At points, I mention distances between places. These should be understood as straight line (‘as the crow flies’) distances, not road-travel distances.

Being somewhat old-fashioned, I generally think in terms of Imperial measures (e.g. miles, feet and inches) rather than their metric equivalents. Accordingly, I’ve used these traditional measures. But where I’ve cited authors who’ve used the metric system, I’ve largely given the measures in the form that they’ve reported them. However, in respect of hills, I’ve given heights in both metres and feet.

Regarding the index, I haven’t included the names of all the witnesses mentioned throughout the book, since some of the cases are little known and, in many instances, the people referred to may have been given pseudonyms.

1

INTRODUCTION

With only 13 per cent of tree cover, the UK is one of the least wooded parts of Europe. Northern Ireland rates particularly low on tree cover, and the Republic of Ireland is also relatively devoid of woodland.1 However, in looking at reports of paranormal activity associated with woodland, I’ll focus on mainland Britain rather than on the British Isles as a whole.

Of course, our woodland cover was much more extensive in past centuries. Population growth and industrialisation have taken a heavy toll. Sadly, we have very little ancient woodland left. Our largest forests are now of the planted, coniferous type, and they tend to be a rather sterile environment for wildlife.

There’s constant pressure on our woodland, and the countryside more generally, from ‘development’ projects of one sort or another. The developers and their political backers claim that a balance needs to be struck between conservation and the demand for houses, roads, railway lines and so on. Unfortunately, though, it always seems to be the natural environment that loses out. For example, we never seem to hear of developed land being returned to Mother Nature!

This book consists of three main parts: a series of detailed case studies (Chapters 2–8), a penultimate chapter that looks, more briefly, at a wide range of reports from around Britain, and then a concluding chapter, which – among other things – cites cases of interest from overseas.

A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY

THE EXPRESSION ‘UFO’

Many of the cases mentioned in this book involved strange lights or UFOs. ‘UFO’ stands for unidentified flying object and is widely applied to all sorts of unknown or anomalous aerial phenomena, ranging from sightings of structured craft to small balls of light.2 In theory, it’s possible to distinguish between anomalous aerial lights and aerial objects that seem to be structured craft. The latter might be more correctly described as UFOs than the former. However, even lights without an identifiable structure sometimes act as if they were under intelligent control. Furthermore, if a witness is unable to discern any structure within, or behind, aerial lights, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is none. Therefore, I shan’t try to draw a hard and fast distinction between ‘lights’ and ‘UFOs’.

A problem with the term ‘UFO’ is that it’s not always clear whether objects as such are responsible for the sightings. Indeed, many UFO experiences may be hallucinatory experiences, albeit of a paranormal nature – see below. Another problem is that some people automatically equate UFOs with alien spaceships, although that’s just one of many possible interpretations. Objects on the ground that could be construed as landed aerial craft of unidentified origin are also referred to as UFOs. It’s also worth noting that UFOs are sometimes seen to enter, or emerge from, the sea or other bodies of water, and that mysterious underwater objects have reportedly been detected by equipment.

I’ll refer to the study of UFOs as ufology, and to people who pursue this interest as ufologists, irrespective of how they interpret the reported phenomena. On investigation, many UFOs lose their unidentified status. For example, mysterious lights in the sky might turn out to be space debris burning up on re-entry to the atmosphere, or balloons, bright planets, Chinese lanterns, or other natural or man-made objects.

HALLUCINATIONS

Hallucinations are believed-in perceptual experiences occurring in the absence of an objectively real stimulus. For example, if I see a black dog that’s not physically present and which can’t be detected with recording equipment, my experience might be described as hallucinatory. A distinction can be made between true hallucinations and pseudo-hallucinations. A true hallucination is when the witness believes that his or her false perception is objectively real. But if the percipient knows that what’s being experienced is subjective, it can be described as a pseudo-hallucination. Imagine, for instance, that you’re under the influence of LSD and that you notice that the cushions on your sofa are ‘breathing’. If you realise that your experience is subjective – that the cushions aren’t really breathing – your experience could be classed as a pseudo-hallucination.

Witnesses to paranormal events might take offence if it’s suggested that their experiences were hallucinatory. They might infer that their mental stability is being questioned and that the paranormal nature of their experiences is being denied. However, it may be that some experiences are both hallucinatory and paranormal. For example, if witnesses recurrently see an apparition in a haunted house over a long period of time, this would suggest that something paranormal is going on, irrespective of whether the appearances are hallucinatory.

A popular assumption is that if two or more people simultaneously experience the same thing (seeing a ghost, for instance), that proves that it isn’t hallucinatory. However, if we accept that paranormal experiences occur, there could well be collective hallucinations of a paranormal nature. In practice, though, it’s often hard to know whether anomalous experiences are hallucinatory or have an objective basis.

Haunt phenomena often leave no physical trace, which could mean that they’re hallucinatory. Take, for example, a case that was drawn to my attention in 1999. It involved industrial premises in the east of Scotland. One of my informants was Isobel (pseudonym), who’d worked there as a cleaner. At one point, she and a fellow worker heard something being dragged across the floor of an office above them. But when she went upstairs and looked into the room, she saw nothing out of place.3 In a similar vein, the late Andrew MacKenzie reported a London-based case in which a witness, in her bedroom, heard noises downstairs, including bangs and crashes. When she went downstairs in the morning, she was surprised to find nothing out of place. But whether or not the sounds were hallucinatory, there also appeared to be some physical effects (unless we’re to assume that they, too, were hallucinatory). For example, the aforementioned witness entered a room to find that a box containing some beads had disappeared. She left the room but found the box back in position when she returned five minutes later. And her father witnessed an incident in which five bedroom doors banged shut, one after another.4

THE ‘ALIEN ABDUCTION’ PHENOMENON

Because it’s a subject that crops up in some of the following chapters, I’ll say a few introductory words about the ‘alien abduction’ phenomenon.

After UFO sightings, particularly ‘close encounters’, witnesses are sometimes unable to account for passages of time. They might be haunted by vague feelings, flashbacks and partial recollections; and they might discover marks, scars or apparent ‘implants’ that they hadn’t previously noticed. Over time, or with the aid of the controversial technique of hypnotic regression, they might recall abduction scenarios involving otherworldly entities. Accounts often feature medical examinations and reproductive procedures, and it’s been suggested that non-humans are systematically creating human-alien hybrids and using female abductees as incubators, perhaps as part of a programme aimed at taking over our planet.5 At any rate, irrespective of whether the reported abductions are physically real or are paranormal, trickster-imposed experiences with a hallucinatory element, they’re usually distressing for the people involved. For many victims, the experiences are recurrent. Different generations within a family might be targeted. Thus, a woman with a history of distressing abduction experiences might be dismayed to learn that her daughter is going through a similar ordeal.

A GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Some of the cases discussed in this book are from the West Midlands region of England. However, the term ‘West Midlands’ is ambiguous, because it’s also applies to a metropolitan county and city region within the broader West Midlands region.

KEEPING SAFE IN THE WOODS

Britain’s woods and forests are comparatively small. For visitors, this obviously reduces the likelihood of getting lost in them, although it’s always worth having a decent map and taking a compass. However, it may be virtually impossible to follow a straight compass line through densely spaced trees in commercial woodland. And with fresh planting and the bulldozing of new tracks, maps of artificially forested areas can soon become out of date.

It’s sensible to take plenty of fluid and sufficient warm clothing on excursions into the wild. In the event of an accident, it’s helpful to have a first-aid kit, a torch and a fully charged mobile phone. Before venturing into a relatively remote area, particularly in winter, it’s advisable to inform a friend or relative of one’s intended route and expected time of return.

On the whole, the animals inhabiting Britain’s woods and forests pose few threats to human visitors. However, driving at speed through wooded areas puts motorists at risk of colliding with animals crossing roads, particularly deer. In Hampshire’s New Forest, motorists might also encounter ponies on the minor roads. If woods or forests are approached via pastures containing cattle, walkers should be careful not to alarm them. For example, it’s wise to avoid walking between cows and their calves.

Three types of snake are native to Britain. The smooth snake, which is non-venomous, is confined to heathland in the far south of England. The grass snake, which can be found in England and Wales, is fond of wetland habitats, but it can also be found in dry grasslands and in gardens, especially if there’s a pond nearby. Like the smooth snake, it’s non-venomous. The adder is more widely distributed throughout Britain. Although venomous, it’s by nature a shy creature and is much more inclined to avoid humans than bite them, unless it’s picked up or trodden on. Like all snakes, adders are deaf, but sensitive to vibrations. Their bites are rarely fatal, but it’s worth seeking medical advice if one is bitten.

Wild boar were once a native woodland species in Britain, but were hunted to extinction in the Middle Ages. In the 1980s, boar farming became prevalent, and it’s believed that many boar escaped, or were illegally released into the wild. There are now established breeding populations in places such as the Weald (an area between the North and South Downs in south-east England) and the Forest of Dean. Given that wild boar are mainly nocturnal, the chances of walkers encountering them are slim. They’re of a shy disposition and will usually flee if they detect people. But like many other animals, they may become aggressive if they feel under threat. That’s especially so, of course, in respect of females with their young. It’s recommended that dogs be kept on a lead in woods inhabited by wild boar. If a walker encounters one, it’s advisable for him or her to retreat slowly in the opposite direction.

Ticks are small, blood-sucking, spider-like insects. They prey mainly on animals such as deer and sheep, but they aren’t averse to targeting humans. I can speak personally on this, because there’ve been times when I’ve found ticks on my body after hillwalking trips or woodland excursions. On one occasion, I found a live tick on me five days after a hillwalking trip – they seem resistant to baths and showers, and they can be very hard to spot! They’re a health risk, because some of them carry pathogens, such as Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, which cause Lyme disease.6 Untreated, this is a serious condition. For example, it can result in inflammatory arthritis, problems affecting the nervous system and heart problems. It’s better to wear long trousers rather than shorts in tick-infested country. Light clothing is better than dark clothing, because it’s then easier to spot ticks and flick them off before they’ve managed to attach themselves to one’s skin. If possible, avoid brushing past bracken or long grass, since ticks might be lurking there.

Dog owners in the UK should be aware of a potentially fatal canine disease that has befallen dogs exercised in the New Forest and other areas. There’s some mystery concerning this illness, which seems to be ‘Alabama rot’ (also known as ‘idiopathic cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy’) or something very similar.7

If you’re used to walking though Britain’s woodland, you may have come across litter, such as empty beer cans and bottles, and evidence of fires, indicating that irresponsible people have used the woods (most likely at night) for ‘partying’. If you’re planning a night-time woodland walk, it might be wise to avoid spots where such people congregate. My guess is that this sort of activity is much more likely to occur close to population centres than in more remote areas.

So far as brushes with the paranormal are concerned, I doubt whether walking through our woods and forests poses much physical risk. In Chapter 8, for instance, I’ve cited several witnesses who’ve reported unusual experiences in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. So far as I know, none of them experienced any significant deleterious after-effects. However, I’d like to sound a note of caution about close-encounter UFO experiences. Judging from the literature on the subject, getting close to UFOs (whatever their nature) can have harmful and disturbing effects. Therefore, my advice to anyone seeing, for example, a landed UFO in a forest clearing would be to observe it from a distance or to leave the scene altogether.

2

BAD VIBES IN A KENTISH WOOD

In the spring of 1969, a couple called Antony and Doreen Verney bought a property in Kent called Dargle Cottage. It’s located about a mile and a half from the village of Biddenden and is approximately 10 miles west-south-west of Ashford. Most of the sources mentioned below state, incorrectly, that the cottage is south-east of Biddenden. In fact, it’s more or less due south of it. The local authority is Ashford Borough Council.

The cottage is in a clearing within Sandpit Wood, which is part of a larger expanse of woodland. For fourteen years, the Verneys used it as a weekend retreat and holiday home. They retired in the summer of 1983. They temporarily rented their central London flat to a friend whose marriage had broken up, and they planned to make the cottage their main home. But in the autumn of 1983, their peace was reportedly disturbed by noises and vibrations; and strange lights lit up some nearby woods. They sought help from officialdom (the police, the local council, etc.), but allegedly received little or no assistance. Things escalated to a point where they decided to sell up. By the time they finally left, in May 1984, they were both suffering from significant health problems.

Sandpit Wood, seen from Gribble Bridge Lane.

The couple died within months of each other, in 1996. I had no contact with them. In compiling this account, I’ve drawn on sources that differ from one another in minor respects. If what’s described below is a close approximation to what really happened, the case is certainly a disturbing one. However, there are questions about the reliability of the testimony of the principal informant, Antony Verney.

MAIN SOURCES

PHILLIP CHAMBERLAIN

Phillip Chamberlain has worked as a freelance journalist. He currently heads the School of Film and Journalism at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It appears that he took up the Verneys’ case in or around February 1992. At the time, he held office in the students’ union of the University of Sussex and was still an undergraduate. A short account by him of the Verneys’ experiences is available on the internet.1 I emailed him in August 2018, enquiring whether he managed to get sight of any documents providing independent confirmation of what Mr Verney had reported, and I invited any additional comments. However, I received no reply.

‘DR ARMEN VICTORIAN’

An excerpt from a book titled Mind Controllers is available on the internet from a man who was born as Habib Azadehdel in the former Soviet republic of Armenia.2 He’s perhaps better known as Henry Azadehdel, but he’s used various aliases and has led a rather colourful life.3 It seems that he gained the confidence of Mr Verney using the name ‘Dr Armen Victorian’, which he also uses in his book. Victorian’s treatment of the case has a strong conspiracy-theory flavour but is quite detailed.

JUSTIN WILLIAMS

An account headed ‘Nightmare at Dream Cottage’ can be found in a 2011 book that’s a compilation of stories.4 Some of them originally appeared as a series of feature articles, referred to as Kent’s ‘X Files’, in the Kent Messenger newspaper. Journalist Justin Williams was then working for the Kent Messenger and was involved in the articles. He and a colleague spent several months investigating Mr Verney’s claims, both before and after publication of the feature about Dargle Cottage (which is referred to, pseudonymously, as ‘Ivy Cottage’ in the book). The account in the book presents Verney’s story in neutral terms (i.e. it doesn’t offer an opinion on whether his claims are historically true).

In 2018, I exchanged some email correspondence with Mr Williams, who kindly supplied me with copies of numerous documents bearing on the case. The quotations from Williams given below are from emails he sent me.

ANTONY VERNEY

Antony Verney is, of course, a central figure in this case. He’s the named author of a twenty-eight-page booklet with the ironic title The Happy Retirement. Its subtitle reads: How an old couples [sic] idyllic retirement cottage turned into a torture chamber, and who might have been responsible. The title page gives a price of £1.20, but I don’t know whether the booklet was ever formally published. It refers mainly to Verney and his wife in the third person. ‘Verney’s booklet’, as I’ll call it, is more detailed than either Victorian’s book excerpt or Chamberlain’s article, and its portrayal of what happened is different in some minor respects. On pp. 6–13, it reproduces an extensive log of events, recorded by Verney between late December 1983 and the second half of May 1984, when he and his wife finally left Dargle Cottage.

ALBERT BUDDEN

UFO researcher Albert Budden has written three books that examine links between anomalous experiences and exposure to magnetic and electric fields. One of them, Psychic Close Encounters, contains a short section on the Dargle Cottage case.5 It seems that Budden communicated with Antony Verney. I was in touch with Budden some years ago, but I don’t have his current contact details, and I’ve therefore been unable to ask him about his research into the case. However, his account of it adds little or nothing to what can be found in the aforementioned sources.

ANONYMOUS SOURCE

A person who wishes to remain anonymous has also given me some information pertaining to this case.

THE VERNEYS – BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I’ve gleaned the following information from various sources, some of which spell Mr Verney’s first name, incorrectly, as ‘Anthony’ rather than as ‘Antony’. He was born, as Harold Hill, on 27 December 1917, in Fulham, London. He was an actor as a teenager and young adult, and then a screenwriter, on and off, from his twenties. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force, in the signals section of Fighter Command. His television scripts included contributions to classic series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and No Hiding Place, and he wrote the screenplay for the movie You Lucky People. His play Trouble in the House starred his wife and was staged at London’s Cambridge Theatre. For some time, he served as a director of H.A. Percheron Ltd, which was established in 1898 by his wife’s father, Henri. The business imported upmarket furnishing fabrics and wallpaper from France and, later, Italy. Leading interior designers were the principal client base. The company was eventually bought by one of its suppliers, Rubelli Ltd.

Antony Verney was a founder member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. For many years, he’d been an inspector for The Good Food Guide. According to his booklet, he also did work for the Consumers’ Association with The Good Hotel Guide and was looking forward to expanding his interests in that field in his retirement, as well as returning to writing and forming a new company, to market his work. He died in London in September 1996, aged 78.

Doreen Julia Verney (née Percheron) was born on 12 April 1918 in Islington, London. She was the elder daughter of Henri Percheron and Jane Percheron (née Meale) and was an actress. During the Second World War, she served in the Entertainments National Service Association, which entertained members of the armed forces. She was also a director of H.A. Percheron. She died in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, in February 1996, aged 77.

The couple had a daughter, Eugenie. During the period that’s the main focus of this chapter (September 1983–May 1984), she was working as a journalist and living in Derbyshire.

ALLEGED EVENTS AT THE COTTAGE

The following summary is a distillation based on the multiple sources I’ve mentioned. I’ve given particular weight to the Verney booklet, since it’s quite detailed. I’m not aware of any documentation that provides independent corroboration of what Verney reported. That doesn’t, of course, mean that no such evidence exists. For ease of expression, I’ll be sparing in the use of ‘distancing terminology’ (‘alleged’, ‘reported’, etc.). I haven’t attempted to mention every single incident or development, because that would probably make for tedious reading, given that the reported disturbances occurred very frequently and had a fairly consistent character.

SEPTEMBER 1983

Verney’s booklet refers to a timber yard where doors and fencing were manufactured. It operated from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and until 1 p.m. on Saturdays. (I presume that it was closed on Sundays.) The booklet describes it as being about three-quarters of a mile away from the cottage, to the north-west. However, I think it’s referring to a site, still operational, that’s about a third of a mile from the cottage, and almost due west of it. In early September 1983, there was a marked increase in noise from the site. At some point, Mr Verney spoke to the works manager, who showed concern. But when Verney spoke to the managing director, he was told that they were making no more noise than previously.

OCTOBER 1983

A visitor to Dargle Cottage noticed a strange humming noise coming up from the ground in the garden at the back of the building on 1 October. He took his dog for a walk in the woods, but it seemed ill at ease, and the woods seemed strangely silent, as if the wildlife had gone away. The birds didn’t return to nest the following spring.

The humming persisted. On 5 October, the Verneys departed for a holiday in France, hoping that it would be gone by the time they returned. But when they got back, on 25 October, it was louder and was coming from all round the cottage. At times, in the early hours of the morning, it seemed to come from within the building, and had a throbbing and vibrating quality. The woods to the north-east would be lit up by yellow and pink lights, which appeared to be coming up from the ground. Also, the Verneys found that the drains associated with their kitchen sink had been blocked with pieces of broken asphalt. They had to be cleared by hand.

NOVEMBER 1983

By the beginning of November, the situation was worse. Although the humming had temporarily decreased, there was now a powerful throbbing noise, with a regular beat, which was accompanied by vibrations that seemed to come through the ground, affecting both the cottage and the surrounding area. The noise was apparently coming from a direction opposite to that of the timber yard (from the east, presumably), and was loudest in the early hours of the morning. During working hours, when it was less intense, sounds from the timber yard often masked it.

The noise got progressively worse during November. Deprived of sleep night after night, the couple were becoming irritable with each other, and were experiencing problems with their short-term memory. Wondering whether the problem was related to a water pump or some type of agricultural activity, the Verneys contacted local water authorities but were told that they had no facilities in the area that could be responsible.

The couple would go out at night and attempt to locate the source of the noise. But its point of origin seemed to move around. About 1 a.m. on 24 November, they encountered a police patrol. The two officers were able to hear the noise and thought it might be coming from Short’s Wood.6 (Three of the sources – Verney’s booklet, Victorian’s book excerpt and the book Unexplained Kent – give the direction as ‘north-east’. But that’s presumably wrong, since Short’s Wood is actually south-east of Dargle Cottage.) The police officers said they’d report it and would let the couple know if they managed to find the source. But when Mr Verney visited Tenterden police station on 26 November, a sergeant informed him that no report had been lodged and that it wasn’t a police matter. The officer said that it was the responsibility of the council’s environmental health department. But he added that they were ‘bloody useless’! Two days later, Verney phoned them. He explained the nature of the problem to a secretary, and left his number, but his call wasn’t returned.

DECEMBER 1983

On 1 December, the couple went away for a few days to visit their daughter in Derbyshire, principally to get some respite from what Verney’s booklet describes as the ‘electronic pollution’. When they returned, on 6 December, there were no messages on their answerphone from the environmental health department. They left further messages but still didn’t get a reply. A letter sent to the environmental health officer (EHO) also went unanswered. Mr Verney wrote to the borough treasurer’s department, asking for a reduction in rates, given the pollution. The Verneys also wrote to the council’s planning department, asking whether permission had been given for something that might have been the cause of the trouble, but the enquiry didn’t bear fruit.

To make matters worse, during the weekend of 17/18 December, the couple’s electricity supply fluctuated for no obvious reason. Mr Verney contacted the supply company. According to Verney’s booklet, around 8 a.m. on 20 December there were about eight men in the woods, working on the power lines; and two large trucks and two vans were present. (However, Chamberlain’s article refers to some six vehicles, whereas Victorian’s book excerpt mentions just ‘two vans’.) The electricity supply improved, but the lighting continued to fluctuate for some weeks. On 19 and 20 December, the supply company’s chief engineer for the area, a Mr Green, spoke of placing instruments in the cottage, to take readings. That was supposed to have happened after Christmas, but nothing more was heard from him.

Mr Verney contacted a firm of acoustic engineers in Maidstone on 20 December, and a Mr Bassett made a visit that evening. Because of bad weather, the noise was hard to hear. But Bassett reportedly obtained a very strong instrumental reading in respect of vibrations.7 He declared that the source was less than a mile from the cottage, and that he would relay his findings to the council’s EHO. (Judging from p. 6 of Verney’s booklet, it was actually a colleague of Bassett’s who spoke to the EHO. That happened on the following day, 21 December. On 29 December, Mr Verney spoke to Bassett’s colleague, who said that during his conversation with the EHO several days earlier, the latter had suggested that the Maidstone-based firm should take no further action, since he, the EHO, would do all he could to help the Verneys, given that he was empowered by the Control of Pollution Act and possessed the necessary instruments to do the job.)