The Barking Beast Of Bath:The Facts!

People ask me why I feel so insulted when someone decides to call me  a “Fortean” or “Cryptozoologist”.  Let me explain.

    Well,Charles Hoy Fort apparently objected most strongly to the creation of a Fortean Society.  Most Forteans,even when they get one hundred per cent incontrovertible facts,will mix in half truths or even lies to “fill in the gaps” concerning an event.  They say it is “in the spirit of Charles Fort”.  Yes,Fort liked a bit of dry wit but that was his style.  To say that,as a Fortean,you are challenging science to look at mysteries is pointless if you cannot give straight facts.  That is why Forteans are seen as a loony fringe.

    Cryptozoologists.  Well,there are those who stand out in my mind:Ivan T. Sanderson,Bernard Heuvelman,Loren Coleman and John Green.  These people put in the work and reported facts,though a small amount of speculation is needed in this subject –but based on zoological knowledge. 

    Then there are “The Others”.  These people like to pretend to be scientific but will appear on TV,radio and in the newspapers making fools of themselves and in some cases issue the most sensationalist or downright stupid statements that they later have to retract because someone checked and pointed out they were talking rot.  These people will tell you with an inane chuckle:”No such thing as bad publicity,old chap!”  They will also plagiarise.

    If  the latter type could be gotten rid of then I might not be too insulted if someone asked whether I was a cryptozoologist.

    I prefer naturalist-research investigator.

    The case of the so called “Barking beast Of Bath” is a prime example and what these Forteans, Cryptozoologists and others say thirty years on I’ll come to later. First,the case itself and I need to point out that the incidents took place in the Limpley Stoke, Monkton Combe and Claverton Woods area not in Bath itself.

    At the time of this case I was acting jointly as Director of UFO International and running a branch of the late Ivan T. Sanderson’s SITU [Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained].  Both slotted in nicely with being Regional Investigations Co-ordinator [RIC] for the British UFO Research Association [BUFORA].

    It was BUFORA that seemed to want to get me involved and the Press seemed to be desperate for any UFO group to get involved!  The BUFORA National Investigations Co-ordinator at the time,Maureen Hall,sent me three newspaper clippings and urged me to get actively investigating –I was promised that more revealing information would be forwarded soon.

    Suddenly,my phone began to ring non-stop with local and national reporters from newspapers,radio and TV asking how my investigation was progressing?  I was told several times that “BUFORAs Press Officer said you were the man to contact”.  I got the hint that more was going on than I was being told.

    The Bristol Evening Post of 12^th August,1980,reported:

            “Beware of the Beast!  Anyone stalking the mystery

            beast of Brassknocker Hill,Bath,could be in for a

            nasty shock,RSPCA Inspector Peter Meyer warned

            today.  Renewed hunts are being made for

            the creature after a policeman and a taxi driver

            saw a monkey about three feet tall near the woods

            behind the hill at the weekend.  The beast first

            appeared last summer,damaging trees and

            frightening wildlife.  Efforts to track it down failed.

            Today Mr Meyer said:’If it is a chimp or a

            Monkey and it has been living in the wild for so

            Long it could be extremely dangerous…”

    The item went on to state that Mr. Meyer’s search on the 11^th had been unsuccessful but that he planned another search that day.  Mr. Ron Harper,a retired cabinet maker,who was then living on the edge of the woods,was convinced that this “beast” was a monkey.  He told reporters:

            “It has been here in the wood all the time but it

            comes out in August when it gets warmer and the

            new shoots appear on the trees.  We think that it was

            let loose from a car,probably by a foreigner who

            didn’t want to report the loss.”

    Mr. Harper repeated the same theory to me.  As much as I looked I could find no UFO angle.  The Daily Mirror of 12^th August had a field day and what it was reporting was “interesting”.  It reported that a “strange furry creature” was first seen in the August of 1979 and went on to inform its readers that:

            “…shaggy shapes and glaring eyes made some of

            the locals think twice about venturing out at night.”

    When I talked and corresponded with Mr. and Mrs. Harper they made it very clear that they were in no way afraid of the creature.  Mr. Harper was not amused by the Daily Mirror report.

    John Elphinstone,a taxi driver,was driving along when the beast,according to reporters,”hailed him” from the roadside.  A strange shaggy creature flagging down a taxi?  A policeman dispatched to the scene was just in time to see the creature lope off.  Inspector Mike Price of Bath Police said:

            “We were sure that this mystery creature would turn

            out to be a monkey of some sort.  After all,men from

            Mars aren’t hairy are they?”

    I decided that I really needed to track some of these people down and see what they were really seeing/thinking.  According to most of the reporters Bath’s neighbourhood was being invaded by night-crawling hairies from Pluto!

    My first port of call was the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [RSPCA] Bath office.  I tried to telephone and make an appointment to meet Mr. Meyer.  It took several attempts but I then spoke to someone who asked me to hold on.  I waited for minutes and was then told “Mr. Meyer is not here.  Can you leave your telephone number?”  The way it was said I knew I was getting the brush off.  I pointed out that I would be in Bath the next day –perhaps if I popped in?  Silence.  Then several reasons why Mr. Meyer might not be in the next day. 

    I left my telephone number and asked if he could contact me urgently it would be greatly appreciated.  I was using my naturalist hat and never even once mentioned UFOs,shaggy men from Mars or anything of the kind.  By nine o’clock in the evening it was obvious Mr. Meyer was not going to return my call.

    The next day I concluded my business at the Ministry of Defence in Bath and walked around to the RSPCA office.  The person I spoke to said Mr. Meyer was not in that day but I showed my semi-official [non-UFO] credentials and the lady went through a door to reappear several minutes later with another lady.  I was told Mr. Meyer’s was not in and was on leave.  Glancing through a window I saw a man whom  I recognised from a TV news item as Mr. Meyer rush into a car and drive off.

    I actually laughed out loud.  The two ladies stared.  I handed a business card to them and pointed out that I was not a nut-case but a naturalist and I was interested in talking to Mr. Meyer –confidentially if need be— about the concerns of residents regarding the animal in the woods.

 

    I never did hear from Mr. Meyer or find out why he avoided me –though a few years later I did get offered one explanation and it involved the “beast”.

    When I later contacted the Bristol RSPCA to explain my interest and the situation I was told,without a moment of hesitation:”You ought to try the Primate Protection League.”  So,I contacted the International Primate Protection League and explained my interest as a naturalist.  No response to my letters.  I tried telephoning but was asked to leave my number and someone would get back to me.  No one ever did and this was the Secretary of the League.

    I then tried to get a response from the League’s local representative, Mr. tony Pain.  No call back after I left a message.  No responses to letters.  I was beginning to think the shaggy men from Mars were mind-controlling people –and

that’s a joke,just in case someone thinks I’m being serious!

    A reporter –a stringer for The Daily Telegraph—contacted  me and asked if I had heard about the strange lights being seen at night at the same time that the beast was seen stalking the area?

    I was getting fed up and fast.  So I contacted Bath Police and a very helpful officer told me:”Oh,right. You really need to read the Daily Mirror article!” 

    The situation was becoming a farce.  It seemed half the reporters in the country were out at Brassknocker Hill.  I needed to talk to Maureen Hall at BUFORA and find out just what the additional information was that she hinted BUFORA had.  I got through to Maureen and after a few pleasantries got down to brass tacks and asked just what it was BUFORA knew because as far as I was concerned all that had been reported was an escaped primate.  I was promised “certain information” was going to be forwarded to me very soon.  Whichever way I asked I just could not get any hint of what this information was.

    I’d already visited the area where,apparently,”everyone” was said to be either searching/hunting/pursuing the beast.  I saw no one.  Locals responded to my question:”Have you seen the RSPCA man or journalists around?” with a look of surprise and,usually,the words:”Are they supposed to be around here?”  It seems that,apart from local BBC TV and ITV news types who went “a bit potty” when the story broke,that was it.

    It’s easy to suppose that the article that appeared in The Guardian on the 23^rd August,1979,had much to do with the mystery and confusion.  However,when I contacted the reporter,Mr. Dennis Barker,he could not recall much other than that  there was “something” to do with UFOs.  All his notes were gone anyway –though he did later find a couple of contact numbers that I had already told him I had.  This was very surprising since it turned out that it was Mr. barker who tried to rope in UFO International in 1979 –a year before BUFORA had contacted me.

    Barker’s article reported that the four feet tall [1.2m] tall beast had shattered the peace of the little village “using its Draculaesque teeth”.  I love reporters.  The beast gave the impression of wearing white [framed] spectacles.  Pigeons,magpies and jackdaws had vanished from the area and bark had been stripped off trees as far up as twenty feet [6 m].  Yes,this is why it was hailed “the barking beast of Bath”,not because of any vocalisation but because it tore bark from trees.  If it had barked I’m sure that it would have been reported as stalking the quiet village with “werewolvesque teeth”!

    The theory was put forward,though I have no idea by whom,that the beast must be able to hang upside-down and lean over to do the damage.  The beast always did its work at night it seemed.

    Bless him,but Mr. Harper then gave reporters [mainly Mr.Barker] a morsel that they could use to boost the story even more.  Mr. Harper reported that it was some kind of rodent.  And he wrote that a man from the Bath Parks Committee had paid a visit and stated:

           

                       “You know,Mr.Harper,if I was not talking silly,I

                       would say that you have a squirrel ten times

                       bigger than normal.”

    I’m glad he wasn’t “talking silly”;though I have mused over that line many a time.  Mr. Harper also wrote that the teeth marks found were “ten to twenty times the size of a squirrel’s”.

    I think we need to interject a few facts into this madness.  When I spoke to the head of the Bath Parks Committee he admitted his man had made the remarks quoted by Mr. Harper.  He wishes that the man had not but he did and was not thinking anyone would publish them.

    There were no Red Squirrels [Sciurus vulgaris] in the woods around Monkton Combe,Limpley Stoke or any part of Bath.  So that would leave the Grey Squirrel [Sciurus carolinensis],of which there was some evidence but I got the distinct impression that squirrels,like magpies and pigeons,were “fair game” to humans so the drop in numbers might not be that unusual.

    The total length of a squirrel skull is under 54mm [just over 2 ins],it has a hind foot measurement of roughly 2.5 x 3 cms [around 1-1.25 ins].  The body length is 200-236mm [roughly 9.5 ins];the tail on average is 165-200mm [roughly 6-9 ins].

The body weight 250-400 g.. 

    So,if in proportion with the teeth at 10-20 times the size of normal,you’ll get a squirrel with a 0.508-1.016m [20-40 ins] long jaw;a 0.254-0.508m [10-20 ins]hind foot not to mention a 2.29-4.88m [7.5-16 ft] long body and to which we can add a 1.53-3m [5-10 ft] long tail. More worrying,it would weigh around 2500 – 5000 g [5.5-11+lbs] body weight—and the ability to hang upside-down while leaning over! 

    Impressive.  No wonder some foreigner passing by dumped it from his car.

    The Harpers noted that their pet goat would not go near to one tree that the beast had “attacked”.  There were some fifty other trees damaged in a similar fashion in the area. 

    At the time of the stripped bark being discovered,no one had actually seen the alleged beast or,at least,had they it was not reported.   This all changed when,at around 00:30 hours,Mr. Christopher Morris and a friend were driving through Monkton Combe.  Both saw the beast in the middle of the road,illuminated by the car headlights.  “It” was 3-4 feet [90cms- 1.2m] tall and had what seemed to be bright white rings around the eyes which was interpreted as looking like spectacles.  Interestingly,Mr. Morris thought that the beast “looked like a baboon”,though his companion was quite adamant that it was a chimpanzee.

    Being young and stupid I decided to check the area out and lived rough for a week,not telling any locals who might be hoaxing or unintentionally mention the fact to hoaxers.  Each evening I climbed up into a different tree.  Covered in dirt and leaf sap to try to hide my smell.

Just some of the newsclippings pertaining to The Barking Beast Of Bath and covers the sensationalist warnings of possible attack by “the beast” to its connection with UFO sightings.  These reflect the tones taken by local BBC TV and radio as well as Independent TV.  More than one reporter refused my invitation to join me at night in the woods.

    In that entire week,while the RSPCA and reporters were supposedly moving around by the handful I saw no one.  No RSPCA Inspector.  No member of the International Primate Protection League.  Not a solitary reporter.  Well,I did hear someone one evening;a couple decided to go to a tree nearby where they got rather,uh,”involved”.  I couldn’t very well make a noise to let them know I was up a tree closeby or else they may have wondered just what I was doing up the tree.  I also had to consider the possibility that the police might be called and then I’d have to explain to them what I was doing.  I closed my eyes and put my fingers in my ears –one has standards.

    I did find one quite old track in dried out mud that looked like a chimpanzee foot but damp had gotten into my camera and when I later returned with casting material there were deer tracks obliterating it.  But by a shed frequented by the beast there was a strong smell.  One I knew all too well.  While at Greenway Boys School in the early 1970s,we one day had a visit from the owner of the Westbury-on-Trym Wildlife Park a nice spot to visit in Bristol back then.  The owner had,in those pre Dangerous Wild Animals Act days,brought along a chimpanzee with a couple more mundane creatures.  As the chimp was held up to be handed to me it decided to relieve its bladder…a lot.  That smell,mentally,has stayed with me for a long time now,but in 1979/1980 my hair stood on end when I smelt that same odour again.

    I checked but there were no droppings I could associate with a chimpanzee.  Ron Harper had told me that he had seen a chimpanzee on several occasions and.later,his widow re-iterated that they had both seen the chimpanzee on a stone wall that stood next to one of the damaged trees –the tree their pet goat would not go near.

    A few years later [1996] when I wanted to see whether anyone else might have plucked up courage to finally report their own sighting,I received at least two phone calls from different sources telling me that there could be between 2-3 chimpanzees loose in the area.  I checked but it seemed,as I suspected,to be nothing.

    I had,through a contact,seen the statement made by two police officers who had clearly seen a chimpanzee –one had been to Bristol Zoological Gardens a few days before and spent some time watching the chimps.  Sadly,as is procedural,the reports were later destroyed along with other files when “dead”.

    But 1996 saw a letter arrived from the Isle of Benbecula,in the North Atlantic.  The taxi driver mentioned in the press reports,Mr. John Elphinstone,was now living on the isle but a relative had sent the article mentioning the beast to him.  He wanted me to know that he was familiar with chimpanzees and their habits and was worried it might be approached by a child or member of the public with an image of friendly “chimp tea party” creatures in their heads.  It was because he saw the animal so clearly that he contacted the police and he pointed out that the policeman had gotten a good long look at it –not the brief glimpse suggested by the press. 

Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries surrounding The Barking Beast Of Bath involved the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [RSPCA].  Contact with the Press/Media was always strictly guided and watched over.  Their Inspector at Bath tried to take ludicrous measures to avoid me [as did other staff].  An RSPCA Inspector’s face all over TV news items as well as in the Press and same Inspector making statements on radio would,you might think,be known to the RSPCA hierarchy but when Bath HQ told me I needed to speak to Bristol I got the above letter.  The Media sensation was totally ‘unknown’ to them.  In 1981 a similar statement came from Bath HQ.

    Back in 1980,smelly,cold and really needing a bath,I arrived home and immediately telephoned Maureen Hall.  I told her that it was clear that one of the odd lights seen in 1979 was a meteorite as that had been seen by amateur astronomers I knew.  The other lights seemed to be aircraft and a military helicopter.  I emphasised that there was no alien or aliens running around the area.  What I was then told helped me decide to leave BUFORA.

    I was told that the new chairman had instigated a big publicity push and had been contacted by Mr. Barker and a seeming promise of publicity was made [but never kept].  BUFORA had been told about the meteorite and other information suggested to them that aircraft lights were the “UFOs” and because there had been a report from the south east of England of a UFO and “monkey-like alien in silver” they decided to get me to investigate:though they never had any doubt it was an escaped chimpanzee.

    Speculation was that Mr. Meyers was a friend of Mr. Pain,the local Primate Protection League man and one of his colleagues.  Mr. Barker,when I spoke to him on the telephone told me he would send a list of people he’d spoken to and added:”Check out where the Primate man lives”.  Mr. Pain lived in Limpley Stoke.  The suggestion,unsubstantiated,was that somehow the wall of silence was due to a chimpanzee escaping locally.

    The stripped bark that I saw looked as though it had been torn off in places but clearly squirrels had been at work on others.  No sign of giant squirrel anywhere.

    But the idea that the beast “comes out in August when it gets warmer and the new shoots appear on the trees” was mind boggling.  No chimp could have survived the Winter of 1979-1980 out in the open.  On the 12^th December,1979,it remained at 8 degrees Celsius for a 24 hour period with sharp drops in the temperature throughtout the month.  In January,1980 to temperature was fluctuating between 4 degrees Celsius in the day and 2 degrees at night –and those were town temperatures.

    Forraging would not be good for a chimpanzee.  My guess was that a chimpanzee kept in the area,had escaped twice;once in 1979 and again in 1980 and on both occasions was recaptured after a few days,though chimpanzees once they get the liking for it become habitual escapees as Longleat Safari Park found out in the early days.

    It was as simple as that.

    I wrote a report on this for the Flying Saucer Review which rejected the item because I could not see the cosmic game being played out by paranormal forces.

A more lengthy item was written and sent to The Fortean Times who acknowledged it’s receipt and I was told in a later phone conversation with one of the editors that the article would appear in the next year [over ten years later and I’m still waiting]

    However,UFO groups as well as various Fortean sources got copies of the report and two even published the articles.  The editor of one still wanted to make it a Fortean mystery despite the facts and still does. I’ve even put the article online sending out links.  So,just to “see”,I ran an internet search.  Not one source gives factual accounts and American Monsters,Man Beast UK, Farshores,Scottish Big Cats,International Folklore Tales as well as Tinwiki all list the Beast Of Brassknocker Hill as either some paranormal Bigfoot type,simple myth and even worse.

    Rather like the Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island [related in Some Things Strange And Sinister],very little detail is given and even the basic data is distorted to keep it a mystery,yet I have had several articles published in widely read magazines explaining the events!

    And when HTV set two very young producers the task of making a 25 minute documentary on the affair in the mid 1990s they were given complete files and I arranged for them to meet and film those witnesses still alive.  On the day of filming I waited but no TV crew.  Apparently they had decided to opt for a group of sensationalist Cryptozoologists who had never even visited the area and the whole programme turned into a very amateurish and horrendous to watch “Blair Witch Project” spoof –the higher ups at TV Centre were not amused and I don’t think the producers worked for HTV again.

    So,please understand why I don’t like being called a Fortean or Cryptozoologist.

References

1.  Mystery Of Bath’s Beast Of Bark,The Guardian,23^rd August,1979

2.  Taxi! It’s the Beast,Daily Mirror,12^th August,1980 

3.  Beware Of The Beast!,Bristol Evening Post,12^th August,1980

4.  Report On The Barking Beast Of Bath:Escaped Chimpanzee,Society for the

     Investigation of The Unexplained [SITU],October,1980.  A copy of this report

     was sent to the RSPCA Bristol and Bath as well as Primate Protection League.

Note:Other letters,documents,etc.,are contained in my report The Barking Beast Of Bath:1979-1980 now unavailable.  All original material is still held on file but contain personal information on witnesses,etc. so cannot be released yet.

   

                                                            

What Landed At Gatton? Or: Watch Out What You Investigate

Note: 17th August 2017
Since first writing about this incident it has caused me more than a few (official) problems. I expect more after this re~post but I am not in this to make friends ~official or otherwise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, since writing this piece I have heard that John Green has passed away.  In fact, John died before he could send me photographs of the area he had taken along with witness statements and his own account of a rather official interrogation regarding his own investigation at Gatton!

*******************************************************************************

The following is taken from Some More Things Strange & Sinister

    On a quiet Sunday afternoon the last thing you ought to expect is to become embroiled in yet another UFO mystery.  Well, unless you are me that is.  

    In February, 2004, I answered the telephone to find it was Squadron Leader “Colin Tarr”, who had been an associate of Air Vice Marshall Sir Victor Goddard and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Peter Hill-Norton, and knew as much about the AOP Bureau as I did –and then some. I had never met Tarr nor spoken to him but he knew all the case reports we had sent to the Ministry of Defence as well as about reports that never got submitted officially.  When he initially contacted me I had thought it a hoax but he’d proven his connections easily.  For that reason when he asked “Fancy hearing something interesting?” I was interested but replied “I am retired now,you know” which got a loud laugh followed by “No such thing, old boy!”

 I was told that something unusual had happened in 1999 near to a place called Gatton, in Shropshire.  Some rough details were given but I pointed out that what I was being told amounted to not much at all.  “Wait a day or so and you’ll be contacted by a field officer –he’ll give you the details.” 

Surprisingly, the person who contacted me I already knew so it wasn’t long before I had all the pieces.

Around September 1999*, at approximately 15:15 hours and in good, clear daylight, a large number of observers including hill-walkers, horse-riders and botanist Nora Hill, saw a low-level flying discoidal object.  Walkers on Stiper Stones,were able to look down at the object as it passed and reported that the top of it looked “like mother of pearl.”  Colouration –possibly markings?—were reported.  The object was seen to land “heavily” and remained on the ground for some 6-7 minutes before ascending into the air and flying off.

Looking at the information later supplied to me helped to conclude that there may have been a strong electro-magnetic field present because particles kicked up by the object created a circle around it.

This would just have been another “UFO landing” had it not been for what happened next.   A local RAF man had mentioned that a team had been to the area to check things out and talk to some witnesses.  The RAF man immediately asked the Field Officer not to mention this, however, when another officer mentioned the team it was considered an “open fact”.

The Field Officer contacted the base in question –MoD Boscombe Down. The MoD Boscombe Down is an aircraft testing site located south of Amesbury, Wiltshire. And it is run and managed by QinetiQ; the company created as part of the break-up of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 2001 by the UK Ministry of Defence. It is the home of the Empire Test Pilots' School.

At the time of the Gatton landing it was known as RAF Boscombe Down and since 1939 had evaluated aircraft for the British armed forces and a lot more.  The Field Officer identified himself and requested confirmation that a team had been sent to Shropshire.  There was a delay as someone else was passed on to field the call.  This person   asked a few questions and then stated: “We don’t just send people out anywhere you know.  We are a busy establishment and I can’t recall anyone mentioning Gatton.”  After an apology for not being able to help the conversation ended.

The Field Officer told me that it had been very interesting because: ”I never once mentioned Gatton –just an incident in Shropshire!”  Made me wonder.

But then came the task of talking to people.  For this the Field Officer called on a well known local man who had worked with Customs and Excise as well as the police and passed on local UFO reports, James Green.  While the Field Officer was talking to Mr. Green, a warden responsible for the area in question, the phone rang.  The caller identified himself as “Dr. David Clark, Sheffield University” –as it was a speaker phone the Field Officer confirmed this.  Mr. Green was asked whether he could investigate the incident and pass all the  data along to an address [a Post Office Box as it turned out]?  Mr. Green agreed, though he was suspicious as ‘Dr. Clark’ had mentioned knowing that he’d visited the site.

The RAF team who had visited the site were reported to Mr. Green who had not been contacted and vehicles had crossed land without permission.  A Wing Commander who would not give his name but claimed to be from the Flight Investigation Unit, Boscombe Down, denied Mr. Green access to the area and stated that it was “for public safety”.

Green, and others, watched as coverall suited men began sanitising the area; picking up anything that was not going into “odd looking vacuum cleaner style devices”.  A couple of other men were using devices that could not be clearly seen.  Site integrity was maintained until they had finished and with a “thank you” they drove off.

All of this was duly noted down.  The odd thing was that the object, according to all the witnesses, was far too small to have been manned.

When I later spoke to Dr. David Clark, at Sheffield University, he was brief and to the point: he had never heard of the Gatton incident and had certainly not contacted Mr. Green.  That was that.  

Incidentally,there is no one else based at Sheffield University called “Clark”/”Clarke” with an interest in UFOs.  A request had been placed in with the report Mr. Green sent to the address given which stated that there was “something” that he didn’t want to put into writing so could he meet Dr. Clark?

He never received a response.

We could all speculate on who the caller might have been but it really was not important to the incident.  I checked around, the Field Officer checked around and even Mr. Green tried his bit but we all reached a dead-end.  One UFO group did claim that they were told “small bodies were removed and flown off in a helicopter” but this was pure fantasy.

To my mind, once everything had been collated, it was quite clear what had come down in Gatton and then flown away.  A Remotely Piloted Vehicle [RPV].  The size and details seemed right and similar devices had been tested for assessment as battlefield intelligence gatherers.  This was probably a far more up-to-date device than the one that created a huge UFO stir when it was sighted by a trainee pilot and instructor over Blackbush,Hampshire in the 1980s: that device had originated at Boscombe Down.

I sent everything to Squadron Leader Tarr and washed my hands of the whole affair.  Why had I been contacted to look into a “possible UFO incident” if it was known from the start what the object was?  To confuse the issue –or to find out whether anyone had spotted something that might give a clue to why it temporarily landed?

One thing I learnt with the AOP Bureau was that sometimes we were given leads that led to non-UFO events and the data we gathered was obviously useful to someone.  So, if you read of a “UFO crash” in 1999, at Gatton,Shropshire, you know what it really was!

 *It has been requested, for a specific reason, that the exact date is not given and I have agreed.

UFOs? Anomalous Photographs. July, 2010

 This posting from 2010 is another that may have been missed by new readers. I make no comments.  These are guaranteed NOT faked.  The caption by the photographer was made when he saw what he had captured and shared the images initially.

*******************************************************************************

Anomalous Photographs. July, 2010

The following photographs were taken on a hot sunny day in July 2010.  The location was Purdown, Lockleaze, Bristol, from which you can see most of the City.  The photographer and his partner were not the only ones present -so was I!

The photographer (DMH) shouted "I can't believe what I just saw -I think I got it on the camera!"  He then pointed out where the objects had come from and took a photograph.

I had been distracted at the time but I can make it clear that absolutely NO FAKERY was involved.

I waited to see whether the images showed anything and soon received this one:

And then I got an excited call about a figure in the window of the building the objects had shot from.  Look at the second window where you can see what appears to be a "Grey" type entity.

I can swear on any number of Bibles that these are NOT faked.  They show exactly what was seen at the time and the witness CAN be trusted. Had I not been distracted with my own suddenly malfunctioning camera (a few hundred yards away) I might have seen or photographed the same things.


I tried to get in touch with  former official contacts about this but was informed that none were now at the Ministry of Defence and when I asked whether I should forward a report and copies of the images was told:"No need. We are no longer interested in UFOs. You could try a civilian UFO group."

de occultis non judicat ecclesia

This  posting I did  in 2011. Some of you may have missed it.  Here is the item again with missing images replaced...so to speak!
__________________________________________________________________________
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 discuss it.

  

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