Frank Earps account of his encounter with a “Boggart” was originally appeared in Unidentified – Identified and was feature4d in the last AOP Journal. This German incident, some may feel, ties in with such accounts and has not been published before though a few people have been told about it over the years.
And that brings us to the German incident involving a trio of young lads around 1967. One of those lads happened to be myself.
The weather at the time was overcast with low, brown tinted cloud and a light drizzle every-so-often. There had been a big summer storm previously and local streams were fast flowing and full. The whole atmosphere was very oppressive which was not that odd considering the area and weather. I was with my cousin and a friend and he had strolled along from Dalborn, a small village in Lippe, to Lemgo, the local town. We were watching army trucks and traffic go by as we played by a road-side stream across which was a large chunk of tree trunk positioned as a foot-bridge.
At one point, having surveyed the fast flowing stream, we decided to cross it to get into the unfenced grass field on the other side as a track-way led up to an arch-way of trees. As kids we often spent time in woods or forests looking around. My two companions crossed the tree-bridge and called me over: I took another look at the fast-running stream and really did not want to have another drowning experience. However, I took careful steps and was soon in the field.
I recall that we looked back at the road –not 10 feet (3 metres) away as some more army trucks splashed by. I don’t think anyone said anything and I think we all turned around at the same time to look up along the track-way toward the arch-way created by tree branches. Standing right in the middle of the arch-way was a tall, smoke-grey figure and what I think impressed us was that it had to be tall. As kids we might have been able to guess the height of someone nearby but this figure was around 100-120 yards (91-109 metres) away. But there was no doubt that the figure was tall.
Even at that distance we should have been able to see features or clothes but all we saw was a bulky grey and featureless form. There was no mist caused by the drizzle as that had stopped again. We could see tree details and leaves so there seems to be no reason why we should not see features on a person. The image is burnt into my memory and has never altered and the fact that I felt unusually apprehensive was odd. I do recall one of my companions saying “It’s a farmer –we better go!” and we all turned and were across that tree-bridge double-quick and I never even thought about the water below!
I do also recall that we turned to look back and the figure was gone. I think one of my companions later told someone that a “farmer chased us off” but other than that we never discussed the incident (as far as I know) with family. In fact, farmers back then were quite easy going as long as you were not messing about in crops and the only time they’d say much is to warn about anything dangerous we should keep away from. Local farmers all knew each other and so things tended to be reasonably friendly.
Why did the “it’s the farmer” pop up as a sudden explanation? I think that being rough-and-tough village kids used to exploring the wilds as it were no one wanted to admit that they had been scared –let alone unnaturally scared.
The question is just what had we seen? As I note, the weather conditions were good and we could see all the insignia on the military vehicles on the road as well a tree that formed the arch-way. Why could we not see any details on the figure –was this a paranormal entity –a boggart?
Yes, the figure was big but it may just be that a very light mist –not blocking out the light beyond the arch-way— had formed to make someone look featureless and grey. The oppressive weather may have led to us being jumpy. The truth is that I have no idea but am not going to jump into the paranormal explanation because, when it comes down to the facts we all saw a big grey figure and even the seeming quick disappearance of said figure when we looked back might just mean someone moved to a pathway to one side through the trees. Now I would head straight up the track-way but as a kid –no.
(1) Earp, F. E. , The A to Z of Curious Nottinghamshire, History Press, 2014:
pp. 17-20
(2) Hooper-Scharf, T., Unidentified- Identified: pp. 113-118
(3) AOP Journal 5
