Strange Britannia

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Story 1.

The Warminster Thing

During the Christmas period of 1964, the inhabitants of a small town in rural Wiltshire found themselves subjected to a series of horrifying and inexplicable sonic attacks.

Were these assaults a naturally occurring phenomenon, or were they something more insidious?

Join us as we look into the Warminster Thing.

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Although their task was mundane and monotonous, the two constables were keenly aware that their nocturnal patrol of the lesser-known backroads of West Devon would end up coming under a high degree of scrutiny.

Following a series of night-time break-ins at the area's more isolated farm buildings, the superintendent had ordered that one car be removed from its normal duties each night and be tasked with apprehending the offenders.

This evening, despite their protests to the sergeant at the beginning of their shift, the unenviable task had been bestowed upon Constables Willie and Waycott.

Having just passed through the village of Hatherley, both men felt they had by now amassed sufficient patrol time to justify returning to their parade station in Oakhampton for a brief comfort break.

But just as they had made the decision to head back, Willie had suddenly brought their patrol vehicle to an unexpected halt in the middle of a deserted stretch of carriageway.

Turning to ask what was going on, Waycott had followed the direction of his bewildered colleague's finger, pointing up out of the front windscreen to a strange-looking light hovering in the night sky just ahead of them.

The pair would later describe what they had encountered as a series of lights laid out in the pattern of a cross, which immediately made off at speed when it seemed to have become aware of their presence.

As Waycott had begun to update their control room about what was taking place, Willie had set off in pursuit of the craft, which was travelling about a thousand feet above the ground.

But even when he was able to get the patrol car up to a speed of 90 miles per hour on the more open stretches of road, he found that he was struggling to keep pace with the unidentified object.

For the next hour, the two policemen would chase this mysterious anomaly across the county, occasionally stopping to confirm that other motorists had seen it before quickly resuming their pursuit.

Both officers would confirm that what they were following was not only under controlled flight, but also seemed to be keenly aware of the pursuing police vehicle, eventually succeeding in losing them altogether.

And in the weeks that ensued, following repeated statements from the RAF that they had not been involved in the matter, local residents grew concerned that something far more sinister may be responsible.

A mysterious force which had terrorised a neighbouring county just two years prior, and which now seemed to have made an unwanted return to the southwest of England.

A phenomenon which had been dubbed the Warminster Thing.

The garrison town of Warminster is located in the English county of Wiltshire and sits a short distance away from both the Salisbury Plain military training area and the historic site of Stonehenge.

At first glance it is an unremarkable settlement.

And yet a quickly through the region's past demonstrates that it has played host to far more unsettling events events than many of its neighbouring communities.

Initially settled by the Romans, Warminster was the site of repeated clashes between the opposing forces during the English Civil War and has remained a focal point for the British armed forces ever since.

But during the dying days of 1964, The town became the subject of both national and international scrutiny following a series of inexplicable events.

The first of these would take place during the early hours of Christmas day, when a local resident named Mildred Head found herself awoken by an unexpected commotion.

The elderly homeowner had been lying in bed when her light sleep had been disturbed by an unnatural sound, which was emanating from the roof above her bedroom.

Sitting up, she had continued to listen as it gradually increased in intensity.

At first, the strange noise had resembled an unknown person dragging a bundle of twigs or a tree branch back and forth across the tiling of the roof.

But this odd scratching had then developed into a dull thudding, almost as if large hailstones were now falling upon her rooftop.

Bewildered, Mildred had risen from her bed and then moved over to the curtains to see if it was raining outside, only to find the skies overhead calm and completely cloudless.

The noise above her house had then changed once again, this time to a low hum, which continued to increase in volume until she was finally forced to cover her ears in order to drown it out.

This mysterious assault on her senses would continue for several minutes, until it then began to dissipate, resembling little more than a faint drone at the point it finally ceased.

Later that same morning, another of Warminster's inhabitants, Marjorie Bay,

experienced an eerily similar sonic attack whilst making her way through town towards Christchurch.

She was late in attending that morning's Holy Communion service, and as it was Christmas Day, the streets were deserted.

But she had stopped in her tracks when she detected what sounded like the distant echoes of cackling laughter, emanating from the Bell Hill area of the town.

The commotion seemed to be getting closer and closer to where she stood, steadily increasing in volume until it reached a point where its effects virtually paralyzed the churchgoer.

Bai would later describe being assaulted by a series of relentless vibrations and shock waves, which seemed to pound away at her head and shoulders, physically preventing her from progressing forwards.

Desperately willing her body to move on, she had forced herself to stagger in the direction of the church, in an attempt to move away from the relentless sound waves.

Finally, after several steps, She was able to break free of this strange phenomenon and hurried away as fast as she could.

When she shared her experience with the church congregation, Marjorie's encounter made its way around the rest of the town, finally reaching the offices of the local newspaper, the Warminster Journal.

Upon publishing the story, the newspaper's features editor, Arthur Shuttlewood, was contacted by more than 30 other witnesses, each of whom claimed to have experienced something very similar.

Amongst their number was a man named Roger Rump, who resided in a house near the church where Marjorie had experienced her affliction.

The postmaster stated that that same morning, he had been in bed when there had been a tremendous clatter coming from the roof of his house.

This had quickly escalated, to the point where it sounded as if each tile was being lifted individually and then slammed back down again by a powerful force.

After about a minute of this, the noise had abruptly ceased, only to be replaced by a high-pitched humming tone, which had continued for a further minute before ceasing as quickly as it had manifested itself.

But by far the most compelling testimony would come from members of the armed forces who were stationed near the town.

One of these professional witnesses was an army sergeant who was based at Nott Camp, which lay 8km to the east of the town.

Several of his men had approached him in confidence after reading the newspaper article to share that they too had been awoken on Christmas morning by a deafening sound from the skies above.

The men described this noise as if a huge chimney stack was being smashed to pieces, with the ruins being strewn around, landing haphazardly on the parade square and car parks of the base.

And yet as the weary and confused soldiers had risen from their bunks to see what had caused the commotion, they found the base perfectly still and quiet, with no trace of anything unusual having occurred.

Shortly after this, an officer from the same base contacted the newspaper on a condition of anonymity to share a strange event which he too had recently experienced.

Late one evening, the army major had been travelling back to the camp from a formal engagement.

He had been driving his personal vehicle and was nearing a section of woodland known as Colloway Clump, when for no apparent reason, the engine and all of the electrics had mysteriously cut out.

As he had sat in the car, making repeated efforts to start the engine, The officer had suddenly become aware that the vehicle chassis was beginning to vibrate.

These vibrations continued to increase in intensity, violently shaking the metal framework of the car, as if some unnatural force had taken hold of it.

The major began to feel a blinding pressure in his forehead, as if a heavy force was pushing down on him from above.

An electrical hum then came out of nowhere and rose to a deafening crescendo before it suddenly cut out again, as quickly as it had commenced.

Moments later, the engine fired into life, the vehicle's headlights illuminating an eerily silent nocturnal landscape, with no sign of what had caused the strange phenomenon.

During the opening weeks of 1965,

Yet more witnesses came forward to share stories of having been afflicted or paralysed by an ear-splitting unseen force.

One witness who lived on Five Ash Lane on the outskirts of the town claimed to have awoken one morning to find a whole flock of pigeons lying dead in his garden.

When he had gone outside to inspect the bodies of the animals, he could find no obvious sign of what might have caused their deaths.

In the wake of this unsettling incident, a further rash of sonic attacks were reported.

accompanied now by sightings of mysterious objects in the night skies.

On the 10th of August, a lorry driver who was travelling in the vicinity of Colloway Clump had slowed his vehicle when he had detected a strange sound coming from above him.

Moments later, a fiery ball of glowing light had hurtled out of the sky, speeding head-on towards him before veering off to one side at the last moment, disappearing into the night.

Later that evening, Rachel Atwell had been fast asleep asleep when she had been awoken by what she described as a dreadful droning sound coming from outside.

Jumping from her bed and hurrying across to the window, Atwell caught sight of a bright light, hovering roughly 600 feet above the ground.

As this brilliant object glowed and pulsated above her, sitting completely still in the night sky, The young housewife began to experience a severe headache.

This pressure had grown in strength, to the point where it felt like someone was fastening a tight steel band around her forehead before it had abruptly ceased.

Looking out of her window, she saw that the object had now vanished, with no sign of its direction of travel.

There were also instances involving multiple witnesses.

the most infamous of which took place in the summer of 1965 at a lake named Shearwater, which is located to the southwest of the town.

One evening, several different groups comprising 17 people in total had decided to visit the lake to fish and swim.

All of a sudden, they were surprised by a large cigar-shaped object, which rapidly descended from the sky.

Such was the object's incredible speed and sound, that several of the witnesses who had been standing in or near the water's edge fell over in shock.

However, these incidents were to be amongst the last reported, with one final sighting taking place over Christmas that year.

And with that, the Warminster thing passed into local legend.

In the years since the town and its inhabitants were subjected to these strange and repeated attacks, There have been numerous theories about what may have taken place.

Wiltshire and its neighbouring counties in the southwest of England are a hotbed of bizarre and inexplicable sightings, with many claiming that the rural and isolated landscapes almost seem to invite strange happenings.

It is cited by some that there are large concentrations of ley lines situated in the region, many of which seem to terminate at nearby Stonehenge.

There is speculation that these generate invisible forces, which can catapult objects back and forwards through time, or act as homing beacons for alien visitors.

Others have suggested that the military may have been responsible for the phenomenon, perhaps testing some early prototype of the sonic weaponry, which is now commonplace on the modern battlefield.

Despite this being the most popular explanation cited by sceptics, The British Ministry of Defence has always denied it had anything to do with the events which took place, claiming the reports allegedly made by soldiers to the newspapers were never formally recorded, and that no such technology was in existence at the time.

Witness reports of sudden and unexpected loud noises and strange lights have been attributed to nighttime firing exercises, which may have confused and disorientated those who saw them.

The blinding flashes and shockwaves of massive artillery explosions on nearby training grounds could explain how birds and other wildlife were killed, leaving no apparent cause of death.

These instances may have resulted in some level of mass hysteria being caused amongst the locals.

This in turn may have led some in the community to view the events as a means to increasing the town's status and revenue.

Arthur Shuttlewood in particular would use his coverage of the events to make himself something of a brief national celebrity.

In addition to writing a series of books on the incidents, he also organised mass UFO watching events and gave numerous lectures on the phenomenon.

Alongside this, a local man named David Holton, who spoke to national news outlets, was also found to have exaggerated and lied about some of the incidents he was alleged to have been involved in.

Regardless of whether the spectacular events which took place in and around Warminster during the 1960s were caused by military training exercises or extraterrestrial visitors, they have gone on to cement the town's place in history.

A mural was recently painted in the town centre to mark the 50th anniversary of the incident, and the region still attracts a significant number of visitors who are eager to catch sight of a possible UFO.

In the time since the perceived attacks on the people of Warminster, there have been no further reported incidents, and no further evidence has been forthcoming, which either proves or disproves the various explanations put forward.

With each passing year, the likelihood that we might learn the truth behind the reports seems to diminish ever more,

with the events which took place there almost sixty years ago looking set to remain an unsolved mystery.

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Story 2.

The Mysterious Risley Encounter

For several weeks in March of 1978, a quiet and unassuming community in the north of England became the site of a media circus, following an inexplicable incident.

Who or what was the mysterious figure reported to the authorities?

and did it ultimately contribute to the death of its only witness?

This week, we recount the mysterious Risly Encounter.

It had been a mercifully quiet start to the evening, and the officers who were on duty were grateful to have some time to catch up on their paperwork after what had been an unusually busy week.

There was a low murmur of conversation emanating from the report writing room, as the men inside compared notes and asked each other questions, but without sufficient volume to attract the attention of their sergeant.

For his part, as he sat in a nearby office leafing through the week's crime reports, the shift sergeant was happy enough to let the officers get on with it.

Admittedly, if things got to the point where they were all clearly just sat around talking to one another, he would end up turning them out into the evening on patrol.

But for the time being, he was content to allow them to finalise their existing cases.

The only officer not catching up on his workload was PC Harrison, who was still subject to a reprimand following a car crash which had occurred during the week prior.

The hapless constable had caused sufficient damage to his patrol car to have been grounded for the foreseeable future, relegated to the station's front office.

So, whilst his colleagues laboured and chatted away in the next room, Harrison sat alone at the front desk, with nothing but his pen and paper and a lukewarm cup of coffee for company.

He was grateful then when the front doors to the station opened and a couple walked in off the street.

The young officer listened with keen interest as the wife explained what had transpired whilst her husband stood beside her looking sheepish.

He took note of the bandage that covered the man's right hand and his slightly haunted expression before asking a couple of questions and then hurrying off to find his supervisor.

Moments later, later, he returned with the sergeant, who asked more questions before frowning and then heading back to his office to make a phone call.

Within minutes, the parade room was filled with the sounds of equipment being pulled from desk drawers.

There was a flurry of activity as the officers inside reached for their handcuffs and battens, threw on their tunics, and hurried outside to the rear yard.

Two of them beckoned for the husband to join them, which he did with no small degree of reluctance, before he was escorted off to a waiting vehicle.

Led by the sergeant, a small convoy of police cars pulled out of the rear yard and then headed off in the direction of the nearby atomic energy complex.

As he watched their headlights disappear around the corner, P.C.

Harrison sighed to himself dejectedly and then asked the man's wife if she fancied a cup of tea.

It was most likely going to be a long night.

On the evening of March 17th, 1978, Kenneth Edwards was driving past the lengthy perimeter fencing of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority complex, situated in the Risley District of Warrington.

The 39-year-old service engineer was on his way home, from a union meeting he had attended in Greater Manchester, only a couple of miles away.

A quick glance at his van's interior clock informed him that it was 11.30pm,

far later than he had anticipated.

He was quite looking forward to getting home and going to bed, when something caught his attention up along the fence line he was passing.

Intrigued, he slowed down and then brought the van to a complete stop.

With his vehicle now stationary, Edwards watched in growing astonishment as a dark silhouette gradually lumbered into view.

and then slowly began to make its way down the embankment to his right.

He could see that the figure was unnaturally tall, perhaps around 8 feet in height, and considerably bulkier than the average man.

It was clad in some kind of silver suit or protective clothing, and appeared to be having great difficulty in negotiating the relatively gentle slope it was descending.

Edwards would later describe its movements as laboured and unnatural, with a torso that was hunched and bent forwards, and legs that moved in a strange and stiff gait, as if they did not possess kneecaps.

Its arms were fixed out in front of it, completely immobile, in a pose he found reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster.

He watched on in amazement as the figure finally reached the bottom of the embankment, and then stepped out onto the road roughly 50 feet ahead of him.

Caught in the headlights of his vehicle, he could now see the figure's face, which was completely black.

The only facial features discernible within this apparent mask were a pair of red glowing eyes, which slowly turned to meet his gaze.

Without warning, Edward saw the light coming from them rapidly increase in intensity.

Two narrow beams of energy suddenly travelled the short distance to his van and struck the front of it.

The service engineer was immediately consumed by a paralysing sensation, becoming short of breath, as if an immense force was crushing him from above.

This horrifying feeling began to subside a few moments later, and the driver was suddenly aware of a burning odour.

He looked down and could see that acrid smoke was now pouring from the radio.

Worse still, the fingers on his right hand, which had been holding onto the steering wheel, were now bright pink and in severe pain.

As he massaged his right hand in a vain effort to make the pain go away, he looked up to see that the silver man had now started to shuffle off again, slowly making its way towards the fencing surrounding the local fire station.

When it reached the metal barrier, it suddenly stiffened in an apparent attempt to stand upright.

The figure then appeared to walk on, directly through the chain link fence.

It did not pause or seem to be impeded in any way, passing through the obstruction as if it did not exist, before disappearing from view.

Utterly consumed by fear and bewilderment, Edward sat motionless in his van for a moment, before starting the engine and driving home as quickly as possible.

When her husband staggered in through the front door an hour later, Barbara Edwards had been sat waiting for him in the living room, but as she began to launch a terade of abuse at him for coming home late, she immediately stopped herself.

Ken's face was a mask of terror and confusion, his injured hand held protectively close to his body.

She listened with apprehension about the encounter with the silver man as he poured himself a drink and then agreed that they should drive straight to Padgate Police Station to report the matter.

Despite some initial scepticism, the man's clearly distressed state was enough to persuade the officers there to react and he was quickly taken back to the scene.

Prior to leaving the station, the officers had found the Atomic Energy Facility to notify them of the incident.

and they were slightly surprised to find a group of 20 security guards waiting for them at the site.

They were struck by the lack of surprise or disbelief on the faces of these guards, who insisted that Edwards point out the exact spot where he had seen the intruder.

For the next hour or so, Edwards and the police officers watched on as the security staff combed the ground either side of the fence where the silver man had emerged.

Despite repeated requests, they refused to allow the police officers access to the complex.

before announcing that there was nothing to support the allegation and asking everyone to leave.

In the week after the event, Edwards found it impossible to sleep.

The pain and burns to his right hand took much longer to fade, and when he tried to take his van radio in for repair, he was informed it was too badly damaged.

The engineer who examined it found that its internal workings had been completely destroyed by what appeared to be a massive surge of energy.

The local newspapers soon caught wind of the story, and Ken and Barbara were besieged by by both reporters and UFO enthusiasts, who insisted Edwards had experienced a close encounter of the third kind.

A deeply private individual, Ken refused to engage with these groups, hoping that the matter would just go away.

Sadly, for him, this was not to be the case.

Despite the absence of any assistance from the UKAEA, the local police continued their own investigation.

They They found a circle of flattened grass at the top of the slope where Edwards had seen the Silverman appear, and also located the body of a dead rabbit close by.

There was no obvious cause of death for the creature, which fueled speculation that it too had been struck by whatever force the entity had used to paralyse Edwards.

With a lack of viable inquiries, The police investigation was soon discontinued, but it seemed that whatever strange force Edwards had encountered was not yet done with him.

Three weeks after the incident, he and his wife had again been driving home past the facility, when Ken had suddenly experienced the same mysterious and paralysing sensation as before.

He had pulled over not far from the spot where he had seen the silver man and then got out of his van.

The smothering feeling had only got stronger outside the vehicle.

growing in intensity to the point where Ken had blacked out.

Barbara was able to revive him a few minutes later and then the two had driven home, vowing to avoid the roads surrounding the facility during any future trips.

A week later, Ken was awoken in the middle of the night by a deep electrical humming sensation.

He got out of bed and then walked purposefully around the house trying to locate the source of the noise but found nothing.

When he opened a window, the sound seemed to increase in intensity, but he could not see anything that might be causing it.

In the days that followed, the local newspapers were filled with reports from witnesses who alleged to have seen a cigar-shaped UFO hovering over the atomic energy facility, emitting a deep humming noise.

Over the following months, Ken's health began to decline.

He experienced significant weight loss.

and started to suffer from debilitating stomach cramps.

When he finally sought out a diagnosis for these symptoms, he was informed that he had developed cancer of the kidneys.

Despite major surgery, he was unable to recover from the disease and eventually passed away only five years later.

So what was it that Ken Edwards encountered on that fateful journey home in 1978?

For many commentators, This incident bears the hallmarks of a classic alien encounter, which is difficult to explain away or refute.

Edwards had little to gain from his story, and far more to lose.

It brought him nothing but misery and may ultimately have been a contributory factor towards his eventual death.

The defensive response of the UKAEA to the incident, as noted in the police reports, has prompted some to suggest that they may have been aware of what Edwards encountered.

Could this being have been an alien observer of their work?

Or perhaps some form of interdimensional traveller, explaining its apparent difficulty in negotiating terrestrial gravity and its ability to pass through solid structures.

Conversely, there are many more who think otherwise.

Sceptics were quick to point out that Edwards had been drinking at his union meeting in Manchester and was most likely intoxicated at the time of the alleged sighting.

They speculate that his perception of whatever he witnessed was skewed by the alcohol he had consumed and was maybe a deliberate fabrication to placate his wife after coming home both late and drunk.

One explanation which seems to support this is a story that began to circulate several years after the incident.

Situated within walking distance of the fire station was a college dormitory, which had been sealed and secured so that the behaviour of the students residing there could be studied.

The staff observing these students were conducting research into circadian rhythms, and how these could alter and change during a lengthy period of isolation.

Witnesses came forward to relate a tale where a local fireman, named Big John due to his sheer size, had decided to try and play a prank on the students.

Dressing himself in one of the protective suits from the fire station, which was made of silver material designed to protect the wearer from high temperatures, He had then made his way across to the dormitory in an attempt to elicit a response from the isolated youths.

Having failed to do so, the fireman had then returned to the station, presumably encountering Ken Edwards as he did so.

With the fireman struggling to move around in the cumbersome and bulky suit he was wearing, it's possible that a combination of the van's headlights reflecting off the suit's shiny exterior and Ken's intoxicated state could have led him to believe he was under attack from an alien entity.

It should be noted that the presence of the silver suits, both at the fire station and inside the atomic facility itself, was an idea explored by the police during their investigation.

They even went as far as to ask someone from the station to reenact what Ken had witnessed, dressed in one of these suits, but Edwards was quick to point out that this was nothing like what he had seen.

When researching this event, The main argument in favour of its legitimacy is the character and demeanour of Ken Edwards himself.

A quiet and hard-working man, he was clearly deeply disturbed by what he is alleged to have seen.

He rigidly maintained his story in the years following the incident, neither altering nor embellishing it.

The police officers and investigators who spoke to him were utterly convinced of his honesty and the emotional upheaval he had clearly sustained.

And whilst many have been quick to offer alternative theories and hypotheses for the event, few can refute the injuries to Ken's hand and the damage to his radio.

It could be that the radio simply malfunctioned at the exact moment he witnessed Big John crossing the road in front of him, which then went on to burn his hand.

But this would have to have been an extraordinary coincidence.

Not impossible, but certainly implausible.

And yet, the explanation of this innocent motorist having been unexpectedly caught up in a prank by a local fireman does seem extremely compelling.

Is it possible that the figure he thought he saw passing right through the metal fence was in fact using a hidden side gate, and that the reason the site authorities were quick to dismiss the police was due to their embarrassment over their staff having perpetrated such a childish prank?

It is possible that in years to come, key evidence could yet be forthcoming in relation to the Silverman of Risley.

There may still be confidential reports awaiting declassification, which either support or contradict the testimony of Kenneth Edwards.

Until that time,

the encounter will remain a complete mystery.

Bedtimes, glorious.