And More Ghost Stories…….

photo: (c)M. D. Hooper

    The “Henacre Road Haunting” very briefly got into the Press in 1990 [1 & 2].  Apparently,Kim Jye and her children had moved into the 1960s first floor flat in Henacre Road, Bristol, sometime in 1988/1989 –the local council would not specify the exact date.  By August,1990, a priest had been called in.

    Kim Jye had reported seeing the ghost of a man wearing dark trousers, white shirt and “with an old-style bobbed haircut” on at least four occasions.  But the 21 year-old was not the only witness.  Christopher, 3 years-old, had a rather bad time of things in his bedroom.  According to his mother: ”My little boy would not sleep in this particular bedroom for at least seven months –he said a man was coming to get me.”

    The newspaper account didn’t make it quite clear whether young Christopher was stating that he’d merely seen the ghostly figure and felt it was ‘after him’ or his mother.

    Whatever, Father Michael O’Regan, of Our Lady of the Rosary, was called in and he performed a blessing ceremony.  By July, however, the events at the flat had driven Kim Jye and her three children to take refuge at her mother’s home, the first blessing having failed.  Father O’Regan contacted Bristol City Council who took the alleged haunting seriously.  Mike Griffiths, a council spokesman, told a reporter:-

                 “We are taking it seriously.  We are taking it as a legitimate

                 problem,taking it on face value,bearing in mind we have a

                 letter from a man whose moral credence must be impeccable.”

    Presumably the Jyes were moved.  The council would not discuss the matter as it concerned a tenant and they could give no information.  So far I’ve not managed to track down Kim Jye and there appears to have been no further disturbances at the flat –that I’ve been told of.

    The Parkside Hotel stands next door to the ITV West TVstudios, Brislington,

Bristol.  In the 1970s I had visited the hotel on a number of social occasions, as I had been in the local newspapers regarding other investigations at the time I was recognized by one staff member who furtively asked me: ”Are you on an investigation here?”  When I pointed out I was attending a function the person in question clammed up and left.  I later learned he was an assistant manager.

    The twenty-two room hotel itself dates back to 1760 and was at one time a convent for the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. In 1997 a Dutch TV crew stayed in the hotel to see whether they could film anything.  As far as I can find out they never did.

    But what was being seen at the hotel?  According to Chris Romer of the Cheltenham Student Parapsychological Society Research Group [CSPSRG], who had been one of the investigators to look into the goings on in 1996, quite a lot was happening. 

    There had been reports of a ghostly nun walking across the restaurant by several witnesses.  Of course, the nun ties in with the old convent which, interestingly enough, some of the witnesses had not known about.

    Then there was the bar –and any number of jokes you can make out of ghosts seen in bars.  Sounds had been heard and what was called a “poltergeist” had moved glasses in the bar.  However, as noted in the chapter on the Ghost of All Saints Church, this was not what you could categorize as a poltergeist but rather a haunting in which objects were moved.

    According to Manager Rob Green, when I talked to him in 1997; ”quite a few people who work at night have seen some odd things.”  Mr.Green suggested I contact the CSPSRG as they were preparing a report.   It was now Chris Romer who told me of events at the hotel while his team was investigating.

    A camera was set up in one particular room with a bad reputation, apparently visitors had not stayed long.  A male and female investigator were left to keep the room under observation and the camera had, I was told,picked up a vertical bar of red light that appeared above the bed.  There was embarrassment over the next part of the report; apparently the two observers felt “odd” and the next thing they were engaged in frantic sexual activity!  More the embarrassing because, apparently, neither was “very keen” on the other.

    There were also other manifestations and a report/case file did exist.  However,by 1998,Mr.Romer still had not been able to find out who had this document [3-5]. 

    In 2005 there was a report of another ghost sighting at the hotel by a staff member –this filtering through to me from a newspaper reporter.  The hotel has kept its mystery tenants it seems.

But there are other little known ghosts in Bristol and some harken back to the siege of Bristol during the English Civil War.

    Having been born and raised in the St Werburgh’s area of the city, I and other kids liked visiting the old bomb sites in the early 1960s and especially the “haunted houses”.  We also trekked regularly to Eastville Park and Stapleton Woods.  Prior to his attack on Prince Rupert in the Civil War, Cromwell had mustered his New Model Army in the area of the woods.  I had heard, as a youngster of a ghost in the woods but as none of the gang had ever seen it who cared?

    A Roundhead figure was once seen quite regularly;he would approach people as if to say something –but then walk right through them.  Had the Roundhead seen the modern day walkers –and if he had,did they suddenly vanish in front of him?  I can find no record of the figure being seen after the 1980s, quite odd.

    My grand dad, Bill,being “Hanham born ‘n’ bred”, told me that a serving girl whose name had been Sally, lived on a farm in the area and during the Civil War refused to tell the Roundheads where Royalists were hiding.  In an attempt to escape, Sally got to the roof –it’s uncertain whether she jumped or was thrown or was simply killed there.  Her ghost has always been seen on the roof though I have failed to discover which farm –if it still exists.

    

    Another spectre no longer seen, I believe since the 1970s, is “The Starving Monk”.  At a time when saying Mass was illegal,priests often visited stately homes and were  hidden in “priest hid holes” if the authorities turned up.  The ghost in question was said to haunt Oldbury Court and originated from a time when there was a stately home in the area. 

    The monk was said to have been hidden,forgotten and to have starved to death –a not very likely tale.  But for a long time the monk was seen but modern changes may not condusive to ghostly wanderings?

    Another ghost I’ve heard very little of in recent years was that of Jenkins Protheroe, aka: ”The Evil Dwarf Highwayman”!  Protheroe would beg for money but if he didn’t get as much as he had expected he had a novel method of getting more –he held up the person in question and robbed them.  However, you can only get away with this behaviour for a certain amount of time.  Protheroe was captured and tried for his crimes.  In 1783, at the top of Pembroke Road, Clifton, Protheroe was hung and haunted the area –but no longer? 

    I’m still trying to find out whether a German Luftwaffe aircraft did crash at the old Whitchurch Airport during World War Two.  The area, now Hengrove Park, has been undergoing a great deal of development in recent years and I’ve heard of no sightings of a German pilot said to haunt the site. 

    Interestingly enough,the mid-1990s saw a rash of ghost reports.  At Mulberry headquarters, Kilver Court, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, “something” was up-setting the security guards.  Everyone was keeping tight-lipped but one security guard reported that when he switched off all the lights they were suddenly turned on

   again –  this happening several times and “strange things” happened but that was all we learned of the affair [6 & 7].

    In 1995, another couple fled their council home due to a ghost.  Michaela Barber and her partner, Shane, lived in a house in Leg Of Mutton Road, Wells, Somerset.  Things would often vanish from where they had been placed and were not seen again.  On one occasion, having left the house, the couple looked back and saw a curtain very clearly lifted.  No one living was in the house.

    One morning, at 8.00 a.m., the couple fled their home and swore never to return.  Apparently, Michaela had found her five-months-old baby under his high-sided cot.  A toy tv suddenly turned itself on.  Again, tenant confidentiality meant the council would not tell us where the couple were eventually moved to [8& 9].

    But we note, again, this movement of objects –and  that includes the baby.

    The Royal Clarence Hotel, Bridgwater, Somerset, was in the news, albeit a small column [10], in 1982.  Why so little space was given to the incident in question seems odd because the ghost spoke to a member of staff.

    A woman in white had been seen many times over the years,several times outside a blocked off door which used to lead to the minstrel’s gallery.  Mrs Rita Walsh had worked in the hotel kitchens since around 1977/1978 but had seen nothing odd.  In December of 1982 this changed.

    Mrs Walsh was working alone when she saw the infamous woman in white move toward her.  Mrs Walsh told a reporter:

    

                  “When the woman approached,I tried to scream for the

                  night-porter,but I just couldn’t get a word out.

                  “The ghost told me I should not be frightened as she

                  would not hurt me.  She was so friendly that I was

                  able to ask her why she wasn’t resting,and she said

                  she just couldn’t,then she disappeared.”

    Just what do we make of this?  A ghost actually speaking to the living without a so-called “medium”. 

    There are, of course, types of this phenomena according to researchers.

    The most common form of ghost appears to be what might be called a “Crisis Apparition”.  This is usually a “vision” or disembodied voice of someone under great stress –at the point of death, for example.  This vision/voice is seen or heard by someone close the person in crisis.  As we know nothing really about the process of dying it is possible –possible—that there may be some kind of telepathic link between the dying and loved ones.  In many cases, no doubt, these may be self-induced visions of a dying loved one by a person.

    The “Collective Apparition” where more than one person sees a ghost.  This can be at a séance or some other locale.

    The “Haunting Ghost”  is where a ghost walks about, plays or looks out of a window, is seen seated or going through some other mundane task.  Here you could class the Parkside Hotel nun or even the Royal Clarence Hotel woman in white.  Some parapsychologists feel a “psychic record” of a person may be “imprinted upon a place of tragic death, a beloved garden spot or room.

    Then we have the “Presence” where “something” is most definitely felt but nothing seen or heard.  These reports may indicate some form of electro magnetic or other phenomena creating a localised effect felt by person present –such as in the “Luminous Chamber” case.

    There are also the “One-Offs” –ghosts seen at a location with no spectral history known to the witness,investigators or others in the area.

    “Poltergeists” [angry/noisy spirits] have been recorded since at least the 12^th century.  Unexplained bangs, crashes, foul smells, sudden cold spells in a house or place, inexplicable voices, objects appearing and disappearing and even levitation of of victims are “symptoms”.   Here we can place the Lamb Inn, ”Coonian ghost”, the      Parkside Hotel and the Leg Of Mutton Road events.   Parapsychologists use the phrase Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis [RSPK].   ‘Demons’, ’Satan’ and even elementals have been blamed in these cases –but then so have adolescent girls/boys who are seen as the “focus” in these cases.

    In the Leg Of Mutton Road affair there was no adolescent, only a baby.  We are not aware of an adolescent in the All Saints Church case either.

 

    But that leaves us with the woman in white at the Royal Clarence.  Here ‘she’ knew Mrs.Watts could see her and was alarmed but placated the witness by telling her no harm would befall her!  When asked why ‘she’ was not resting, the ghost responded to the question.

    How –how—can a dead person’s ghost walk around knowing his/herself to be deceased and start up a brief conversation?  The Royal Clarence case isn’t the first of this type of “conversation” either.  It infers, rather strongly, that there is life after death and in some cases, well, hundreds of cases, something has prevented the dearly deceased from “passing on” –“finding eternal rest”.

    This I simply find impossible to accept for so many reasons.  Billions of people have lived and died on this planet and “Heaven” must be suffering some severe over-crowding!  One disaster after another adding thousands upon thousands more to the ‘population’ –and what of dead animals?  Of the highly intelligent dolphins?  Is it just humans who go into an “after life”?

    Scientifically, I cannot accept that.  So what is going on?  The truth is that I will keep on investigating and, one day, hopefully I can have a ‘conversation’ with something like the woman in white!

References.

[1]      “Family Flee Home In Haunting Fear”,Roger Burton,Bristol Evening Post,

           11^th August,1990:p.5

[2]       Henacre Road File          

[3]       “TV Probe Into Haunted Hotel”,Bristol Evening Post,15^th April,1997:p.12

[4]        Personal conversations with Chris Romer and Rob green [1997 & 1998]

[5]        Parkside Hotel File

[6]        Wells Journal [date not given]

[7]         Annals no.26 ,October-December,1995:p.15

[8]         Central Somerset Gazette 6^th July,1995

[9]         Ibid 7:p.14      

[10]       “Hotel’s Ghost Speaks”,Bristol Evening Post,31^st December,1982

Note: a number of the incidents mentioned in this chapter are currently under re-investigation in the hope of gaining as much information as possible.  They are, still, little known events.                                                                                                                     

From Some Things Strange & Sinister (minus photos)     

de occultis non judicat ecclesia.

    And for those who don’t understand Latin, the title is from a pronouncement stating “The Church has not decided about ghosts and the ghostly”.  After all this time you would think they might have.  Surely, it is fundamental to Christian belief?

    Not being a clergyman I’ll remain puzzled.

    I am one of those sad, depressing people who believe you are born, live and then die.  Finito.  Otherwise, why have none of  those who might want to, in fact who promised to, made a re-appearance after death?  People like Charles Fort [founder, against his wishes, of Forteanism], Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harold T. Wilkins, Arthur Constance or my late colleague Franklyn A. Davin-Wilson who sat down weeks before his untimely death and said to me: ”Terry, after I’m dead, don’t s*** your pants if I pop up in front of you!”

    Every New Years Day at Midnight I toast Franklyn but nothing and if some obstinate old sod was going to return from the dead it would be him!

    The history of the Church is full of accounts of ghosts of all types and there are numerous cases of  poltergeists (one of the most famous British cases, the Lamb Inn will be detailed in a later chapter).  Whereas the Church in general with all its theologians have taken centuries but left it up to individuals to make their minds up,the Catholic Church is another matter.

    Though with all the Press and Media sensationalism over recent years the Catholic Church tends to be less public it takes a fair stance.  As one of the more conservative religions, there is nothing in its teachings or practices that says ghosts can or cannot exist.  In fact,by the very records of Catholicism it seems clear there is every reason to suppose that ghosts do exist.  There is nothing stating that followers of the faith cannot or must not encounter or report ghosts.

    I often feel quite disgusted when I see a priest of any religion on TV,Radio or in printed interviews declaring that “there are no such things as ghosts”.  That is tantamount to stating that there is no belief in Heaven or Hell in their religion…or God.  In which case, there is the admission that the Church has been ripping off its members for centuries. 

    Regarding Ghosts, Poltergeists and the Catholic Church, I would highly recommend Shane Leslie’s Ghost Book [1] –if you can find a copy.  It is really fascinating reading.

    My personal experience on so called “ghostly matters” are not very spectacular.  Back in 1966/1967,I was living in Dalborn,Germany.  One overcast,slightly drizzly but very oppressive thundery day,along with two of my cousins,I headed for a stream that had become flooded –we had much fun crossing the stream using the trunk of an old tree placed there by someone months before.  We watched as soldiers in trucks drove by and waved but the horrible,smokey brown low cloud made little difference –we were having fun! 

    Not far from the stream, in easy view, was an upward sloping path near to a reputedly haunted mill [though we never knew that at the time].  The entire length of the path was covered in an arch of tree branches with the far end allowing in light.  At one point, all three of us turned to look up this path. At the very end of  the path stood a tall, misty grey figure devoid [seemingly] of any facial or clothing features.  The figure moved forward.

    Three kids ran like Hell!

    Of course, in the prevailing weather conditions it is possible any normal person might have seemed grey and featureless.  That would explain it away to my satisfaction.  But why did all three of us turn at the same time and run without speaking to each other?

    In England, in my grandparents St Werburgh’s home, we had a typical terraced house situation for the mid-1960s.  The old tin bath has on a hook outside the back door for bath nights and the toilet was outside the house.  The row of houses looked out onto Mina Road Park and there was a stream, an off-shoot of the River Frome which ran under houses.  On more than one occasion, while seated in “the throne room” I heard voices quite distinctly, though what exactly was being said I couldn’t tell you.  I was not the only person to hear these voices –my mother dreaded having to use the outside toilet but just said, in a thick German accent “it’s spooky”.

    In a small back bedroom over-looking the garden, privy and park,there was definitely something “odd”.  The room had been given over to my mother and father on returning from Germany.  Within the week my mother would not even venture into the room alone and rooms were swapped around.  It is odd but, thinking about it years later, I recall my grand mother never ventured into the room by herself either and never used it for a bedroom.  Two later lodgers did complain about “something wrong” with the room.

    And so,the two boys were moved into the room.  I was an insomniac even at that young age and on many occasions felt an unknown presence –I did have a waking dream once when I saw the silhouette of a bent over witch complete with pointed hat and threw a shoe at “her”. 

    On another occasion we were all downstairs and heard very loud banging from upstairs and in the room in question.  My parents and grandparents rushed up to find my older brother quite incoherent on the floor  stating something had thrown him against the wall.  I was ushered downstairs so I could not hear what else was said.  That ended our time in that room.

    Only years later, after we had moved out was I told that the little dark room had always had an odd atmosphere.  My mother seemed quite at ease with telling me these things though never in front of my older brother. 

    Apart from mysterious deposits on cars parked at Greenway Boys School [see Introduction], my time in Southmead was quiet.  Nothing odd.

   

    Around 1975, we were temporarily living in a caravan park on the outskirts of Ramsgate, Kent, not 2 kilometres from the sea.  Here things became interesting again.  My father got a temporary job at the Hovertel, then not too far from the Ramsgate Hoverport.  Employed there as a bouncer was a man I’ll call “Ted”.  Ted was around 1.9m [6’ 6”] tall, had a thick, bushy moustache and a very notable broken nose.  I wasn’t surprised to learn that this brick-wall of a man had been a paratrooper [possibly a mercenary at one point] and later a policeman.  Not the type of man you wanted to annoy.

    

    While we were all seated around the bar area one evening, Ted was eating his dish of snails in garlic butter when the manager noted that some crates needed bringing up from the cellars below.  Ted coughed and replied “You know what you can do!”  I pointed out that a big strong lad like him shouldn’t worry about lifting a few boxes and he came back with “I have no concerns about boxes –it’s what’s down there!”

    We were told how the cellars were linked to old smugglers caves, not unusual around the English coast.  Apparently, the reason Ted and the manager were the only permanent employees (which I always thought was odd) was that the cellars were said to be haunted.  Both men had been in the cellars one night when the temperature dropped suddenly and both men shivered violently.  Nothing unusual in that they thought but then the electric lights started dimming.  Ted was not in the least bit concerned – until both heard deep breathing and voices from out of thin air.  Records were broken getting up the steps.

    I asked if I could go down the cellars myself but Ted took my arm and whispered in a very deliberate manner: ”You do not want to go down there alone!”.  My father laughed it off (but not to Ted’s face) and lasted a week as a cellarman but would not go back there after something happened in the cellars he would not discus

    All a bit of an anti-climax for me.  Then, one night, during full Moon when the whole area where we were staying was as visible as in daylight, I saw a shadow and looked upward to see a huge bird gliding silently above me at about 6 metres –and it was a big bird.  Today, considering other “big bird” sightings in the UK at the time, I feel sure this must have been a European Eagle Owl (now breeding in the UK), but at the time it made me jump!

    When we returned to Bristol we moved into a house in the Knowle area.  Things did tend to go missing but later turned up exactly where you’d looked.

    Occasionally, things “fell” from the wall unit.  I say “fell” though I saw an ornament slide three inches off the shelf before falling straight to the floor.  As there were quite a few of us, I slept on a sofa downstairs watching what TV there was until close down, insomnia still being a problem.  I was lying back looking at the open window when I quite distinctly saw a dark figure move from one doorway, leading upstairs toward the kitchen.  “I didn’t even see you come in” I said,  thinking it was a family member.  But the figure had vanished.

    My mother’s attitude was  that there might be a ghost in the house but, as she pointed out, dead people can’t hurt you.

    The funniest incident happened one Christmas.  The living room was decorated out and I had just watched a TV programme about ghosts and the devil with a sister and my younger brother.  “Yeah, right.” I said loudly, ”if there’s a devil let him pop one of the red balloons!”  A red balloon then popped!  I just wished the scene had been preserved by video camera.

    Without doubt the only place I have felt really frightened in was a house my youngest sister and her partner had moved to in Bath.  The top floor belonged to someone else but the lower two floors was theirs –the bathroom on the lowest level.  The place was spacious and I was really impressed. It was a lovely Summer day and anything odd was far from my mind.

    At one point I had to answer the “call of nature” and took the steps down to the lower area.  A few feet from the bathroom I said “come on give me a clue –I’m lost!,” I had the strongest feeling that someone was behind me –my sister or her partner.  I turned when there was no reply.  No one was there.  I continued, calling myself a few unprintable names for talking to myself. 

    However, without warning, and despite every attempt I made to fight it, I had the overwhelming feeling that I was not alone and my heart started pounding.  Anyone who has ever played “tag” in the dark or blind-folded will know the sensation that someone is close to you.  This was over-powering!

    I stood for several seconds, taking deep breaths and trying to slow my heart beat, at which I succeeded.  I even moved my hand around to see if I could feel a “cold spot” but nothing.  So, I decided that my need for the toilet facilities was far more important.  However, as I got to the bathroom  door I was overcome by an almost unbearable feeling of fear –so intense, in fact, that I started retreating upstairs before deciding I was being an idiot.

    Again, I moved down the stairs and felt a “presence”.  Again I retreated upstairs. 

    I said nothing and on my next visit decided that I was not going to be put off from going downstairs by irrational fear.  The same sense of fear was there but in  the length of corridor between the bathroom and the back garden door the sensation was stronger.  I stood for a few minutes before slowly returning upstairs.

    The only intimation I had that something might be odd was when my sister decided to visit the bathroom and her partner said out loud: ”Oh, she’s going to be brave and go down there alone!”   I let that go.  On the next visit we walked down the stairs to get to the back garden and my sister rushed past the bathroom saying that she was sure it was haunted.  After making a joke I asked why?

    It seems that an old woman who lived in the house before had drowned herself in the bath.  When I asked at what point she had been told of the death and when she had first felt the sensation the answer was a quick “months after we moved in and

a long time after sensing it”.

    I did check and, yes,an old woman had drowned in the house and the house had not been easy for people to live in –people had moved in and out.  Whatever the sensation was though, it was not proof of ghosts just a very interesting experience.

    What I do know is that both my mother and I got “butterflies” in the stomach whenever we drove over a certain point in a road we frequently used.  It was only when I jokingly said “hang on to your stomaches” one day that I discovered she also got the sensation.  A friend in the local water board checked for me and learnt that there was an old underground stream at the point in question.

    Suicides and breakdowns often increase prior to thunder storms due to changes in the electromagnetic field.  As a child in Germany, and later on in life, everyone knew that if I uncharacteristically fell asleep during the day a storm was on its way.  It was infallible.  As I’ve gotten older I tend not to fall to sleep but get plenty of warning of even unforcasted storms.

    Even the objects moving might have a natural explanation and there were underground streams in the old St Werburgh’s house.  So,like the Church,I’m still not decided…but I’d dearly love to see a genuine ghost!

[1]      Leslie,Shane,Shane Leslie’s Ghost Book,Hollis & Carter,London,1955

taken from Some Things Strange & Sinister

Terry Hooper [A very brief] Biography

Born in Bristol,England,6^th June,1957,Terry became interested in nature and wildlife.  While attending Greenway Boys School,the interest in science and mysteries of nature increased resulting into several local investigations of natural phenomena.  At the same time,having accidentally picked up a copy of Brinsley le poer Trench [later Lord Clancarty] “The Flying Saucer Story”,Terry began studying UFO reports and local sightings.

Between 1974-to date,Terry has acted as a wildlife consultant to UK police forces on exotic animals living in the UK,being a noted naturalist.  Also in 1974,Terry set up the Bristol UFO Investigation Team [BUFOIT],joined the British UFO Research Association [BUFORA],covering much of the West of England as an investigator and Regional Investigations Co-ordinator. 

Circa 1976,Terry joined the oldest UK UFO group,the British Flying Saucer Bureau [f.1952] and became an investigator,later Head of Research & Investigation and also editor of the UFO News Bulletin. 

In 1977,as an attempt to promote more scientific approach to UFO investigation,Terry set up UFO International [see Sachs,M.,Encyclopaedia of UFOs].

Having established contact with Lord Clancarty and Air Vice Marshal Sir Victor Goddard [a former head of RAF Intelligence and outspoken UFO believer],in 1977 Terry,along with late colleague Franklyn A.Davin-Wilson,visited London for a meeting with Clancarty ,Goddard and others having submitted a document calling for a National Aerospace Commission [NaComm].  Hooper was asked to mount an unofficial investigation into all aspects of the UFO phenomenon –a limited fund for travelling and living expenses was agreed upon.

In January,1978,the Anomalous Observational Phenomena Bureau [AOP B] began its work building up a data base on every aspect of UFOs –historical cases,trace,physio and psychological,animal disturbance,EM cases and much more. 

Original members of the AOP B were:~

Graham F.N.Knewstub             [deceased]

Dave Cowdy                              [deceased]

Franklyn A.Davin-Wilson         [deceased]

Terry Hooper

Between 1978-1984 there was much unofficial assistance given to the Bureau by professional astronomers [some publicly sceptical],former members of the Armed Forces,Air Ministry,Ministry of Defence as well as serving members of the Armed Forces and Police Forces.  A network of UFO investigation & research groups was set up including GUFOI&RG [Gloucestershire],Wessex UFO I&R Group [Somerset],Wiltshire UFO I&R Team and so on.

Much of this cooperation continued well past the closing of the Bureau in 1995,though Governmental changes in policy since then have restricted any cooperation.

In 1984 a 2000 pages “British Report On Unidentified Flying Objects [UFOs]” was completed.  This was later reduced to 1500pp on editing.  Lord Clancarty,Sir Victor Goddard and others,including members of the House Of Lords UFO Study Group,stated that the Report was “…the closest thing the UK will ever have to a Project Blue Book”.

Although copies went to the Ministry of Defence and Sir Victor kindly passed copies on to former subordinates and ex-heads of RAF Intelligence,private UFO groups and Ufologists condemned the Report without even having seen the Summary offered.  The Report is currently being up-dated with more contemporary evidence being added.

Terry edited the in-house AOP Bulletin which it is hoped will re-appear in late 2006.

Apart from this work Terry has specialized,since 1974,on Close Encounters of the Third Kind/Entity cases and provided the data for BUFORA to contribute to Ted Bloecher’s HUM-CAT.  He has also written many articles on Ball Lightning,meteor-

ites,astronomy,CE-3Ks and Alien Entity cases as well as reporting on UFO incidents

[of which he has investigated approx. 2000 since 1974].

Terry re-opened the AOP Bureau on 1^st January,2006 to continue the original work,aligned to no other groups or investigators.

Current study includes cases involving non-humanoid alien-entities associated with UFOs,video footage evidence and continued study of “spooklight” phenomena.

Back in the 1970s/1980s was also a consultant for the Kentucky UFO Investigators League,a member of the Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained [SITU],of which he operated a UK branch –investigating the Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island and other incidents. 

Terry also maintained links with Bigfoot/Sasquatch researchers  such as The Bay Area Group [BAG],Bigfoot Investigation Team,Dmitri Bayanove,etc..  Terry maintains files on lake and sea creatures,ghosts and most other unexplained or explained phenomena he has looked into –these include ghosts and hauntings.

Important:Terry is not a “Ufologist”,”Cryptozoologist” or any other type of “ist” –or Fortean!

Terry has written two books encompassing UFOs,ghosts and the paranormal,strange phenomena,mystery animals as well as the lost history of gorillas imported into Europe ‘before their discovery’ - “Some Things Strange & Sinister” and “Some More Things Strange & Sinister” another book looking at mystery canids in the UK is due for release in February,2011.

Amongst technical papers he was a contributing researcher/author of:


Street-Perrott, F. A., Hooper T. and and Smith A.B.  2006.  Exotic cats in Britain: an historical perspective.  In Proceedings of the Eastern Cougar Conference 2004 (Tischendorf, J, McGinnis, H and Ropski, S J, Eds.), The Eastern Cougar Foundation and the American Ecological Research Institute, North Spring, West Virginia, 9-19.

Smith, A.B., Street-Perrott, F.A. and Hooper, T.  2006.   A method for grading sightings of non-native cats: application to South and West Wales.  In Proceedings of the Eastern Cougar Conference 2004 (Tischendorf, J., McGinnis, H. and Ropski, S.J., Eds.), The Eastern Cougar Foundation and the American Ecological Research Institute, North Spring, West Virginia, 102-121.

 

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