lordmongrove
Antediluvian
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Peter Laws: The Hexham Heads.
Quite possibly. I vividly recall this from first time around. I would have been 5 or 6. I was thrilled by it. A mate of mine who was 10 -11 at the time was so scared by it he surrounded himself in his bed with teddies (yes he still had teddies), his logic being that if the werewolf burst into his bedroom (why it would come all the way from Hexham to High Wycombe is beyond me) it would attack the teddies first and he could make his escape. He cuddled a big teddy almost the size of him and ended up having sex with it via a hole in one of it's seams. He did this every night and his mum kept sewing the seam up and wondering why it kept splitting again. So the Hehxam werewolf made my friend lose his virginity to a giant teddybear!I was just about to post the same thing. This is a very, very significant find.
I wonder if the BBC have been sitting on this for a while just so they could post it on Halloween?
How I wish that I hadn't read that...Quite possibly. I vividly recall this from first time around. I would have been 5 or 6. I was thrilled by it. A mate of mine who was 10 -11 at the time was so scared by it he surrounded himself in his bed with teddies (yes he still had teddies), his logic being that if the werewolf burst into his bedroom (why it would come all the way from Hexham to High Wycombe is beyond me) it would attack the teddies first and he could make his escape. He cuddled a big teddy almost the size of him and ended up having sex with it via a hole in one of it's seams. He did this every night and his mum kept sewing the seam up and wondering why it kept splitting again. So the Hehxam werewolf made my friend lose his virginity to a giant teddybear!
Blimey, this thread took a strange turn in a short time! At least we have a headline for the Fortean Times article:Quite possibly. I vividly recall this from first time around. I would have been 5 or 6. I was thrilled by it. A mate of mine who was 10 -11 at the time was so scared by it he surrounded himself in his bed with teddies (yes he still had teddies), his logic being that if the werewolf burst into his bedroom (why it would come all the way from Hexham to High Wycombe is beyond me) it would attack the teddies first and he could make his escape. He cuddled a big teddy almost the size of him and ended up having sex with it via a hole in one of it's seams. He did this every night and his mum kept sewing the seam up and wondering why it kept splitting again. So the Hehxam werewolf made my friend lose his virginity to a giant teddybear!
the Hehxam werewolf made my friend lose his virginity to a giant teddybear!
I think Lord Mongrove's above post has given a very different spin to 'lower part was human', and I don't think there is enough brain bleach in the world to rid me of the image.Interesting that AI was a big factor in unearthing the footage.
"AI voice recognition technology and a search for the term, "lower part was human,” led to the thrilling discovery of half the missing audio, buried at the end of an unrelated religious affairs programme."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/articles/cdxyzq5g9vgo
It did occur to me when I read the article - is everyone sure that the heads (assuming that they did make it to the museum) aren't still in there somewhere? I've been in a few museums 'back rooms' and storage facilities and, to put it mildly, they are often Not Well Organised. As it's unlikely that the heads would be put on display (having no known history or provenance), then they'd likely have been shoved into storage somewhere and are probably rolling around in the back of a box on some racking somewhere, labelled 'random finds' or something.Is anyone else intrigued by this month's Fortean Times (452) reporting on the Hexham Heads? Firstly, in the one page report on the discovery of the Nationwide footage (p. 4), the article states in no uncertain terms that "they ended up being given to Tyne and Wear Museums, but promptly vanished, and have not been found despite an intensive search initiated by former director Iain Watson". That's pretty strong stuff considering nobody is sure whether the heads were even last seen in that half of the country, never mind if they made it to Tyne and Wear Museums.
The second intriguing thing is in the 'coming next month' teaser at the back of the magazine. The Heads are mentioned again so we can expect some sort of article in FT453 as well. Could this be the long promised article from the early 2020s which was discussed in detail on this forum but never saw the light of day?
It's a definite possibility. There was a story in the news this week about a school exercise book from 1975 which has just been found in a teacher's drawer. She was doing some tidying up and yanked the drawer open only to find a history exercise book jammed down the back which was put there in 1975.It did occur to me when I read the article - is everyone sure that the heads (assuming that they did make it to the museum) aren't still in there somewhere? I've been in a few museums 'back rooms' and storage facilities and, to put it mildly, they are often Not Well Organised. As it's unlikely that the heads would be put on display (having no known history or provenance), then they'd likely have been shoved into storage somewhere and are probably rolling around in the back of a box on some racking somewhere, labelled 'random finds' or something.
If you can lose a Canadian lynx in a museum basement you can lose two stone heads;It's a definite possibility. There was a story in the news this week about a school exercise book from 1975 which has just been found in a teacher's drawer. She was doing some tidying up and yanked the drawer open only to find a history exercise book jammed down the back which was put there in 1975.
If it can happen in a school it could definitely happen in a museum with all of their storage nooks and crannies.
I saw what I was led to believe were the Hexham Heads at Uncon over 20 years ago. They could be picked up and handled.
Seems I was looking at, not the originals or concrete replicas but different Heads altogether which were... cursed.
So I dunno what went on there.![]()
Apparently this was probably in 2011. The head in question was, from memory, about the size of a football whereas the Hexham Heads are the size of a Granny Smith apple. There are some replicas of the HH in existence.If it's what I'm thinking of David Clarke and Andy Roberts had a head similar to the Hexham Heads at UnCon which they were quite happy for people to handle. They'd bought it at an auction a few months prior to UnCon.
The bloke claiming to have carved it a few years previously sounds very similar to a claim a bloke made about the Hexham Heads. Is it possible the claim had been transferred from one case to the other?From David Clarke's PhD thesis
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3472/2/298881_vol2.pdf
"Bingley, West Yorkshire
An ovoid sandstone boulder with a crude human face carved upon one side of its surface was
unearthed in the grounds of a sixteenth century house, Ryshworth Hall, at Crossnats near
l3ingley, in 1985.
The boulder appeared to be worn as if to suggest it had been subject to
erosion for a numberof years, possibly as a boulder in the river Aire which flows just a quarter
of a mile from the house.
Both the form of the stone used to carve the face and the features
themselves are not of the typical style found in West Yorkshire.
The pupils are formed by shallow drilled holes framed by prominent eyebrows. The nose is triangular and complete with
tiny nostils, while the mouth is very prononuced, with the upper lip divided into two arcs which
give the face the impression it is smiling. Two shallow holes on either side of the head appear to
form rudimentary earlobes. The house's owner, Michael White, found the carved head lying
face down in the roots of a giant sycamore tree in the grounds which he had dug up with a
mechanical digger in 1984 or 1985. The stone was cleaned and the featuresof the face soon
became apparent. In a taped interview Mr White said:
There was a guy from the local historic society visiting at the time who took the head away for
verification and he said "the word is, don't have anything to do with it ... I'm not going to go
into details but have as little to do with it as possible"... my wife, who is more susceptible to
these things than I am would not have it in the house and it's been in the garage for the biggest
part of the time we have had it. However, one of our friends had it and bad luck befell him and
he moved away. Back it went into the garage again, and my wife who has a tendency to believe
there is something with this head, said "it must go."'
Describing the nature of the "bad luck" experienced by his friend, Mr White said:
"Although he was a professional person he had bad luck in his business and with his health
and he went bankrupt. His health deteriorated and he moved away. I'm glad to say both
situations have now been resolved and he is fine again."'
When asked to describe the nature of the advice given by the man from the historical society he
said:
"He would not elaborate on it, he said a guy who was the curator of a museum where he had
been to verify this head had himself had bad health which he had put down to these heads, and
he had said tell the gentleman concerned that really he is better off not having anything to do
with this head. Well, I don't believe in ghosts and bad luck like that, and I wanted to keep it.
It's an artefact I found at the house, and I wanted it to stay with the house. However, the guy
who had the head verified for us died shortly afterwards so we didn't get any more information
ftom him."
it was at this stage, while the head remained in the garage of the house, that Mrs Alison White
began to link its presence with a series of mishaps and misfortune both in health and finance
which began to beset his family. Mr White said:
"We moved into this house and everything looked quite well business wiseand health. My wife
had very poor health, but nothing happened to me. We have had a run of bad luck which is
very unusual for us, shall we say,we've been moving forward with the times and things have
been good but this last five years things have not been as rosy as we would have expected.
This we didnt attribute to the head until it was brought to our attention... and of course, when
someone pointed it out, we started tallying it up and thought yes we have had a lot of bad luck
in the last five years."
It was the suggested connection between the discovery of the head and the bad luck which
allegedly dogged the family which produced the idea of a "curse" which caught the attention of
the press, and early in November 1990 the story made both local and national newspaper
headlines. Freelance journalist Ian Macgill heard about the story when the Whites took the head
to an auctioneer in Nottinghamshir eand put it up for sale in a bid to break their perceived run of
bad luck. Macgill produced a story about the head turning the "bad luck into a "curse" and this
was carried by the Yorkshire EveningPost .
" The story told how Mr White, aged43, and his 34-year-old wife Alison were putting their
eight-bedroomed home at Ryshworth Hall up for
sale because of persistent bad luck which had bedevilled the family since the discovery of a
"ancient stonehead" in the garden behind the building. In the story, subsequently followed up
by the London tabloids,' Mr White was quoted as saying:
"I found it stuck in the roots of a giant sycamore tree I had upended with a mechanical digger.
That was five years ago. Since then, nothing has gone right.""
The Celtic connection with the head was supplied in the story by the proximity to a nearby hill
called the Druid's Altar where it was said
"Mr White suspects human sacrifices were made," and
it added: "He is convinced the head originated with the Druids and carries a curse.""
Further details were provided by the local newspapers about the illness suffered by Alison White, and
the hauntings which had been witnessed both by Mrs White and the couple's two young
daughters, Samantha, aged seven, and Victoria, aged five. Mrs White was suffering from
rnyalgic encephalomyelitis or ME, which forced her to give up her public relations job. She
connected the onset of the illness with the discovery of the head, along with a series of
subsequent mishaps including a car crash and the burst in the central heating system which
flooded the kitchen.
She said:
"I am not superstitious but I am now and I blame the head. It is one of those things you know
instantly you don't like."
On the subject of the hauntings, Mrs White claimed she had encountered a ghostly disembodied
hand at the top of the staircase in the house one night, which suddenly disappeared when she
turned on a light. In a subsequent interview Mr White said:
"We don't talk too much to the children about it, we dont want to ftighten the kids. But they
do come into our room and say there is someone in their room. Theys ay it has been a dog, a
man, a boy and a woman. And they say these people come and talk to them. And we say "it's
only a bad dream... don't worry .. off you go back to bed."
However, not wanting to take any chances,the Whites subsequently movedtheir two children
out of the "haunted" room and away from the adjacent landing, two places which they
connected with a "queer feeling."
Meanwhile, the head which was blamed for the troubles went
for auction at Henry Spencer in Retford, Nottinghamshire. The owners expected it would fetch
upwards of £300, but were disappointed to find there was only one bidder. The head was in fact
sold to Andy Roberts and David Clarke for £180.
The catalogueentry number 177 read:
-A primitive carved stone head, of ovoid form. Probably Celtic period, found in the West
yorkshire region, 24cm long.
Shortly afterwards,the Whites put Ryshworth Hall up for sale at an asking price of £210,000.
The following entry appeared in the Home finder section of the YorkshirePost :
"There has been tremendous interest in Ryshworth Hall, Crossflats, since the T&A revealed
that its owners were being forced to put it on the market - because of a cursed stone head.
Whitegates Bingley office are selling the Old hall, a grade II listed building which dates back to
the sixteenth century and is said to "ooze character." Mike and Alison White say the ancient
carved head has brought misery to their family in the five years since they dug it up in the
grounds."
Not surprisingly, and despite the claimed interest, the hall remained unsold. Then came an
unexpected twist in the tail of this story. Following the appearanceof the press stories a Halifax
woman, Jean Jones, contacted a local newspaperand claimed the "Celtic" head was not the
work of the ancient Druids but was actually carvedby her father, the late William Hodgson, to
amuse his grandchildren in 1978. Hodgson was a carpenterwho lived in part of Ryshworth
Hall seven years before the Whites moved into the premises. She said:
"He buried it for a joke to amuse his grandchildren, telling thein it would be dug up in
hundreds of years. He'll be sitting on his cloud rocking with laughter."
The newspaper then tried without success to contact both the Whites and Nigel Smith, the
auctioneer at Henry Spencer and Sons' Harrogate office who had arranged the auction at which
the head was sold. The reporter did speak-to another memberof the firm's staff who reportedly
said: "Carved in 1978? How awful!"
This revelation appeared to end the press's interest in the story, but one year later the Bradford
Telegraph and Argus resurrected the tale and made contact with the White family. The
subsequent story suggested their fortunes had changed dramatically for the better since "the
1,500 year old head was auctioned at a knock-down price twelve months ago."
Mr White himself had found a new well-paid job and his wife had conquered the debilitating effects of ME
and had enrolled on a teacher-training course. He said:"We have had a tremendous year and are
very happy to have put the stone head behind us."
However, most significant of all were the comments which followed, suggesting that the misfortune he believed lay with the head:
"had switched to the head's new owner who bought it dismissing talk of a curse... he said
the anonymous man who bought the Iron Age artefact had contacted him and said he had been
laid low by an unknownillness."
The current owner and custodian of the head, Andy Roberts, was most surprised to hear of his
irnpending misfortune. Far from being anonymous he had been named and quoted in a story on
the head published by the same paper just twelve months before, where he had bee nreported as
saying heads were traditionally used as lucky charms. ' And he continuesto enjoy good health!
In the same article, Mr White said:
"If it is suppposed to have brought good luck, goodness knows what would have happened to
us if it was supposed to bring bad luck. The mouth of the head is carved in the shape of a
smile, but I always thought it was an evil sneer."
I was at that Uncon! I thought I vaguely remembered seeing these heads!Apparently this was probably in 2011. The head in question was, from memory, about the size of a football whereas the Hexham Heads are the size of a Granny Smith apple. There are some replicas of the HH in existence.
Sorry to revive a slow thread again but this case has always been one of my favourites. In Urban prehistorians blog post (quoted above) this prank seems a likely explanation for some of those involved to have retained that kind of image and merely had some false memory of experiencing the creature. Especially because the dates for the whole thing seem somewhat loose.another explanation seems more reasonable. In an article about the Heads from Fortean Times 294 (November 2012) Stuart Ferrol noted a tale he heard locally of a prank that very same night that involved a drunk with a stolen sheep carcass on his back (taken from a nearby abattoir) staggering up Rede Avenue.
Sorry to revive a slow thread again
What Frides saidWe positively encourage reviving threads! A changing audience and people changing their paradigms means that notihng is wasted![]()
Thank you guys! I did lurk occasionally when I had a subscription to FT a few years back. Looking forward to delving more into some of my favourite "cases"What Frides said.
Edited to add:
This is a fairly current thread. Feel free to revive any thread. The forum has existed since very early 2000's.
We've got several threads that die back and then are fanned into regular life every year or so. We love it!Thank you guys! I did lurk occasionally when I had a subscription to FT a few years back. Looking forward to delving more into some of my favourite "cases"