Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mc lean smith here with a quick apology,
Speaker 1: but due to a number of factors, our next episode
Speaker 1: won't be ready until next week. So in the meantime
Speaker 1: we're going back into the vaults to one of our
Speaker 1: most popular episodes, now available for the first time as
Speaker 1: one single episode. At the northern edge of Cumery's Brecon Beacons,
Speaker 1: in the shadow of the penny Fan Peak sits a
Speaker 1: large stone house named Hail Fannock or Road to the Peaks.
Speaker 1: For one couple who moved there in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: the house was everything they had ever dreamed of. Little
Speaker 1: did they know that, in truth, it would soon become
Speaker 1: the place of their worst nightmares. This is Unexplained Season four,
Speaker 1: episode one alone with everybody. Oh, and I have a
Speaker 1: message from the other Richard mc clean smith. I don't
Speaker 1: know who he thinks I am getting me to do this,
Speaker 1: but for what it's worth, he wants you to know
Speaker 1: that the first episode of Unexplained TV will be released
Speaker 1: next Tuesday, December third. You can find him at YouTube
Speaker 1: dot com forward slash Unexplained pod check it out. At
Speaker 1: the northern edge of the beguiling Brecon Beacons in Cumbrie,
Speaker 1: under the shadow of penny Fan to the south and
Speaker 1: the Black Mountains to the east. That sits a large
Speaker 1: stone house, long and narrow with its rickety roof and
Speaker 1: jumbled patchwork of brick. It lies at the intersection of
Speaker 1: two winding lanes, surrounded by a thick ring of oak,
Speaker 1: alder and witch elm, hidden from prying eyes by the holly,
Speaker 1: the hawthorn, and the ash from the front ivy pause
Speaker 1: green edily at its northern flanks, almost as if it
Speaker 1: were trying to drag it down and into the ground,
Speaker 1: while from the back the way the earth rises up
Speaker 1: into a rugged clearing of thick scrub. It'd be forgiven
Speaker 1: for thinking it was part way to succeeding. Its name
Speaker 1: is heel Fannock, or in English road to the Peaks,
Speaker 1: a reference to the hills and mountains that overshadow it.
Speaker 1: An entry point of sorts, or perhaps a gateway, as
Speaker 1: some might say. Constructed in the nineteen fifties, like a
Speaker 1: repurposed limb grafted onto the remnants of an old barn,
Speaker 1: it is comprised largely of stone taken from what was
Speaker 1: left at the old sixteenth century manor house. The lichen
Speaker 1: covered ruins, of which can still be found hidden deeper
Speaker 1: amongst the trees at the very back of the garden.
Speaker 1: It is May nineteen eighty nine, and all is quiet
Speaker 1: save for the distant chatter of skylarks. While high above light,
Speaker 1: tufts of cloud in the bright spring sky draw shadows
Speaker 1: across the roof. They drift lazily from front to back,
Speaker 1: east to west, slipping down onto the thick grass before
Speaker 1: heading into the trees and disappearing somewhere beyond. Inside, silence
Speaker 1: reigns as dust mots float through soft beams of light.
Speaker 1: Spiders twitch in dark corners. The barn door creaks up above,
Speaker 1: a large crow comes to rest on the chimney pot,
Speaker 1: digging its beak into its feathers as it breams. When
Speaker 1: suddenly its head jerks up, the eyes alert to something
Speaker 1: rustling in the undergrowth. Moments later, something else, far more ominous,
Speaker 1: is heard, the faint sound of an approaching vehicle. With
Speaker 1: a strained squawk, the crow spreads its iridescent wings and
Speaker 1: launches into the air, rising away and over the tree
Speaker 1: tops before it too disappears somewhere beyond. Back down below,
Speaker 1: he old fannok sits quiet and still as the sound
Speaker 1: of the engine draws ever nearer, until finally a car
Speaker 1: turns into the front drive and pulls up outside the house.
Speaker 1: Silence returns for the briefest of moments before the front
Speaker 1: doors swing open and its excitable passengers spill out into
Speaker 1: the warm spring air. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm
Speaker 1: Richard mc lean smith. Thirty year old Liz was first
Speaker 1: to exit, followed by her partner, Bill, thirteen years her senior,
Speaker 1: from the other side of the car, a big smile
Speaker 1: spreading across her face as she caught his eye. Fourteen
Speaker 1: year old Lawrence, Bill's son from a previous marriage, was
Speaker 1: the last to get out, slowly extricating himself from the
Speaker 1: back seat. Liz, her pregnancy bump just beginning to show
Speaker 1: above her waist, paused to take it all in as
Speaker 1: Bill and Lawrence set about unloading their things. It was
Speaker 1: even more beautiful than she remembered, She thought, the perfect
Speaker 1: place to raise their baby and begin afresh, free from
Speaker 1: the distractions of the past. For Bill, it was the
Speaker 1: sheer remoteness of the place and the large studio space
Speaker 1: above the barn that had first appealed a gifted and
Speaker 1: renowned artist of predominantly surrealist pop art peace Pie Bill
Speaker 1: had become increasingly frustrated with how much his time was
Speaker 1: being taken up with his more commercial endeavors, creating decorative
Speaker 1: boxes and other pieces for the casual consumer. He old Fannock,
Speaker 1: he hoped would be a chance to rediscover the true
Speaker 1: artist inside him. For most in similar circumstances, it is
Speaker 1: easy to become distracted by the excitement of a move,
Speaker 1: to become wrapped up in the accompanying sense of optimism
Speaker 1: it often brings. It is also easy, when in such
Speaker 1: a state, not to notice things that at the time
Speaker 1: might otherwise have seemed a little off kilter. The receipt
Speaker 1: for six pounds sixty six that Bill found shortly after
Speaker 1: moving in taken from the last meal the couple eight
Speaker 1: before arriving at the house, for example, or the sixty
Speaker 1: six pounds sixty grocery bill would incur shortly after. There
Speaker 1: were certainly no signs of anything untoward that first summer,
Speaker 1: as the family settled into their new lives, bringing a
Speaker 1: whole host of life to join them in their new adventure,
Speaker 1: from cats, to goats and even a pig. Named Lucinda,
Speaker 1: and with a steady run of orders for Bill's work
Speaker 1: coming in, it wasn't long before he was finally able
Speaker 1: to dedicate some time to his more personal and fulfilling work.
Speaker 1: By September, Lizz and Bill were married, and the following month,
Speaker 1: as if to top it all off, her waters broke.
Speaker 1: Despite some initial complications, come November, the couple welcomed new arrival,
Speaker 1: Ben into their dream home. Life, as they say, couldn't
Speaker 1: have been more sweet. But all that was about to change.
Speaker 1: It was one afternoon in mid November when Liz stepped
Speaker 1: out of the house for some fresh air. As a
Speaker 1: sudden gust of wind rustled the leaves in the trees.
Speaker 1: She was struck for the first time by just how
Speaker 1: quiet it usually was out there, as if no birds
Speaker 1: ever seemed to alight in the garden. Perhaps it was
Speaker 1: just the drawing inn of the nights, or how winter
Speaker 1: had stripped the leaves from some of the larger trees,
Speaker 1: leaving her and the house feeling a little more exposed
Speaker 1: than usual. But as Liz watched the pale sun drop
Speaker 1: below the horizon, sending majestic crepuscular rays shooting white gold
Speaker 1: across the sky. It wasn't a sense of wonder that
Speaker 1: she felt, but dread. Early. With all the family laying
Speaker 1: fast asleep, baby Ben begins to twitch in his cot,
Speaker 1: kicking out with both legs, with his hands squeezed up
Speaker 1: into little fists, and his face beginning to redden and
Speaker 1: scrunch up. Finally, his mouth opens wide and he begins
Speaker 1: to cry. Liz, having woken, instantly switched on the light
Speaker 1: and gathered Ben from the cot as she prepared to
Speaker 1: feed him. A weary Bill pulled back the covers and
Speaker 1: headed toward the toilet downstairs. He had just started to
Speaker 1: pee when an unexpected noise startled him, a loud, hammering
Speaker 1: sound that seemed to be moving along the corridor above
Speaker 1: like heavy footsteps. Bill froze as the apparent footsteps near
Speaker 1: the top of the stairs for coming to a sudden stop.
Speaker 1: Assuming it to be his son, Lawrence, Bill headed back
Speaker 1: up stairs, only to find the corridor completely empty and
Speaker 1: Lawrence's bedroom door now closed. He switched off the light
Speaker 1: and returned to his own bedroom, where he found Liz
Speaker 1: quietly placing Ben back into his cot. Bill asked if
Speaker 1: she'd heard anything too, but to his surprise, she hadn't
Speaker 1: heard a thing. He poked his head back into the hall,
Speaker 1: switched on the light, and stood watch for a moment,
Speaker 1: keeping his eyes trained on the studio door at the
Speaker 1: far end. Hearing and seeing nothing, he switched off the
Speaker 1: light and returned to bed. The following morning, Bill and
Speaker 1: Liz were stunned to receive an exorbitant electricity bill from Swayleck,
Speaker 1: the South Wales Electricity Board, which was almost four times
Speaker 1: what they had been expecting. That afternoon, as she sat
Speaker 1: down on the bed to feed Ben, Liz couldn't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about the extortionate invoice and what Bill had said
Speaker 1: the previous night that he'd heard something moving about the house.
Speaker 1: Although it was true that she hadn't heard anything herself,
Speaker 1: there was something that she hadn't mentioned that recently in
Speaker 1: her private moments, she had begun to feel as though
Speaker 1: something was watching her. Just then, the studio door at
Speaker 1: the far end of the house slammed shut with a bank,
Speaker 1: startling Liz. Momentarily thinking it was nothing, she returned to
Speaker 1: feeding her baby when a second closer door slam shut,
Speaker 1: startling her again. It must be Lawrence, she thought, with
Speaker 1: ann with her eyes now trained on her own door.
Speaker 1: Liz jumped again when the sound of a third door
Speaker 1: being slammed was heard, this time leaving her utterly frozen
Speaker 1: in fear, for although the noise seemed to have come
Speaker 1: from inside her own room, the door hadn't moved an inch. Bill,
Speaker 1: who had heard the bangs from downstairs, burst in moments
Speaker 1: later to find a scared and confused Liz struggling to
Speaker 1: comprehend what had just happened. Convinced it had something to
Speaker 1: do with Lawrence, she demanded that Bill tell him to
Speaker 1: pack it in, but Bill didn't understand Lawrence hadn't been
Speaker 1: home for over an hour. Bill called the electricity board
Speaker 1: at the first opportunity to dispute their invoice, eventually forcing
Speaker 1: them to send an electrician round to monitor the meter. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they found nothing wrong with it, though they couldn't say
Speaker 1: exactly how the family were racking up such a large bill.
Speaker 1: Something in that house was draining the electricity one way
Speaker 1: or another. It was about the same time that Bill
Speaker 1: started noticing a foul smell emanating from somewhere in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: as if something putrid had been set on fire. A
Speaker 1: plumber was duly called to locate the source of it,
Speaker 1: but found nothing untoward. As winter approached, life at the house,
Speaker 1: superficially at least, carried on as normal. However, though the
Speaker 1: couple had yet to acknowledge it to each other, both
Speaker 1: had the sense that something of the atmosphere in their
Speaker 1: home had re shifted. A few days later, Bill received
Speaker 1: a disappointing phone call from a major client. They were
Speaker 1: terribly sorry, they said, but they would have to cancel
Speaker 1: their order. Conscious of the unwieldy electricity bill still hanging
Speaker 1: over their heads, Bill tried to remain upbeat. After all,
Speaker 1: he still had another large order to fulfill. Later that afternoon,
Speaker 1: they canceled too. As the holiday season approached, Bill and Liz,
Speaker 1: with their newborn son and Lawrence, who they felt was
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly withdrawn, found themselves in the grip of a
Speaker 1: very domestic sense of uncertainty. For by now Liz and
Speaker 1: Lawrence were noticing those footsteps too, and the occasional eruptions
Speaker 1: of the inexplicable putrid stench that continued to plague their home.
Speaker 1: But most of all, they couldn't escape that unmistakable, skin
Speaker 1: crawling sensation that something else was in there with them.
Speaker 1: After sharing a first Christmas together in their new home,
Speaker 1: not least for the benefit of Lawrence and their baby's son.
Speaker 1: Bill and Liz agreed to not let the disappointments of
Speaker 1: the last few months and the increasingly strange events, get
Speaker 1: the better of them. It wouldn't be long, however, before
Speaker 1: they were being challenged again. Early in the new year,
Speaker 1: Liz entered the barn overjoyed to find their goat Lulu
Speaker 1: had given birth to two kids, but when she neared them,
Speaker 1: her excitement turned to horror. Though one kid seemed bright
Speaker 1: and healthy, the other lay completely still, its tiny glassy
Speaker 1: eyes fixed and rolled back into its head. The mother
Speaker 1: had crushed it with her hind legs shortly after it
Speaker 1: was borne. Not long after that, Lucinda the pig was
Speaker 1: found rushing about the barn, screaming wildly. A few days later,
Speaker 1: she was diagnosed with a rare disease for which there
Speaker 1: was no cure. The devastated family had no option but
Speaker 1: to have her put down. Liz tried her best not
Speaker 1: to overthink it all, to put it down to unfortunate coincidence,
Speaker 1: but when Bill's orders started drying up too, she couldn't
Speaker 1: ignore it any more. Picking up the phone one morning,
Speaker 1: she took a deep breath and died. A few moments later,
Speaker 1: Bridget Buscombe, the previous resident of hio Fannok, answered the call.
Speaker 1: After introducing herself, Liz, cautious not to sound too odd,
Speaker 1: proceeded to ask Bridget about her time living in the house.
Speaker 1: She was disappointed, however, to learn that she had only
Speaker 1: fond memories of her experiences there. But as the pair
Speaker 1: were just saying their goodbyes, Liz sensed a slight pause
Speaker 1: from Bridget's end. Actually, she said, Finally, there was one thing, yes,
Speaker 1: replied Liz. Once, when she had been lying alone, reading
Speaker 1: in bed, with her husband away on business, she became
Speaker 1: aware of a very gentle creaking sound. Looking across to
Speaker 1: the other side of the room, she was astonished to
Speaker 1: see her antique spinning wheel slowly turning of its owner call.
Speaker 1: She had stared at it utterly perplexed for a number
Speaker 1: of seconds before eventually rising from the bed and jamming
Speaker 1: it with a piece of paper. She knew it, thought Liz.
Speaker 1: They hadn't been imagining it after all. As if in
Speaker 1: response to Lizzie's renewed conviction that something untoward was occurring
Speaker 1: in their home, the strange activity intensified, and in early
Speaker 1: March they finally agreed to seek help. A priest was
Speaker 1: found to bless the house, and although he didn't notice
Speaker 1: anything himself, the family were reassured by his lack of
Speaker 1: judgment and determination to help, and in the days that
Speaker 1: followed the house seemed lighter and more spacious than it
Speaker 1: had done in months. One morning, after Bill had driven
Speaker 1: into town to run some errand Liz took Ben for
Speaker 1: a walk. When she returned, for the first time she
Speaker 1: could remember, Liz felt pleased to see the house, smiling
Speaker 1: warmly at the sight of her husband in one of
Speaker 1: the top floor windows as she made her way up
Speaker 1: the driveway with Ben. But then her smile dropped. Bill's
Speaker 1: car was not in the driveway, meaning it wasn't her husband.
Speaker 1: Standing at the window, with her breath quickening, Liz forced
Speaker 1: herself to look up again. There staring back at her
Speaker 1: from inside the house was the gaunt face of an
Speaker 1: elderly woman she didn't recognize. A moment later it was gone.
Speaker 1: Left terrified at the recent turn of events, but unable
Speaker 1: to afford a move elsewhere, the couple turned their attention
Speaker 1: to the history of the local area in the hope
Speaker 1: that they might uncover something to help understand what seemed
Speaker 1: to be stalking their home. Soon after, a builder, responding
Speaker 1: to a hopeful article placed by Bill in the local paper,
Speaker 1: got in touch. There was something he thought the couple
Speaker 1: should know. The man, as he went on to explain,
Speaker 1: had helped build the house in the nineteen fifties. At
Speaker 1: some point during construction, he and his co workers were
Speaker 1: gathering stones from the ruins of the old manor House
Speaker 1: when they came across a set of old, smashed up
Speaker 1: headstones in amongst the rubble. Could it be, he wondered,
Speaker 1: that the house had in fact been built on the
Speaker 1: site of the old manor houses burial ground. One afternoon
Speaker 1: in the spring of nineteen ninety, Bill was upstairs working
Speaker 1: in his studio when Liz, who was just finishing cleaning
Speaker 1: up in the kitchen, had the sudden urge to check
Speaker 1: on their baby. With a rising sense of panic, Liz
Speaker 1: hurried to the bedroom. Rushing through the door, she looked
Speaker 1: up in horror to find sitting in the chair opposite
Speaker 1: the crib the same elderly woman she had seen looking
Speaker 1: at her from the window a second later, she was gone.
Speaker 1: The next morning, Bill woke in agony to find both
Speaker 1: his hands strangely dry, the skin red and cracking all
Speaker 1: over them. The sudden affliction left him unable to paint
Speaker 1: for weeks on end, But just as the increasingly oppressive
Speaker 1: atmosphere in the house was threatening to overcome them, the
Speaker 1: mood was lifted when the couple learned that Liz was
Speaker 1: pregnant again. The joyous revelation left them more determined than
Speaker 1: ever to find an end to their problems. Local spiritualist
Speaker 1: Ray Williams was recommended to the couple, having apparently succeeded
Speaker 1: in helping other parishioners in similar situations to themselves. Arriving
Speaker 1: one bright April morning along with two colleagues, he swiftly
Speaker 1: set about examining each room of the house for any
Speaker 1: sign of psychical disturbance. Within minutes, Williams was in no
Speaker 1: doubt that something dark had found its way into the property.
Speaker 1: A few days later, with Liz and the children staying
Speaker 1: at her mother's in the nearby village of Cowbridge, Bill
Speaker 1: arrived at the property to meet with the three men again.
Speaker 1: After letting them in, he waited in the kitchen as
Speaker 1: they carefully made their way around the house, blessing each room.
Speaker 1: A short time later, while Bill went through his mail,
Speaker 1: he heard a cry coming from the back of the house.
Speaker 1: Racing outside to investigate, he found one of the men
Speaker 1: doubled over in pain, claiming it had come on as
Speaker 1: soon as he approached the window to the downstairs bathroom.
Speaker 1: Returning to the house, the men made a bee line
Speaker 1: for the small area between the bottom of the stairs
Speaker 1: and the restroom downstairs. Convinced it was where the malicious
Speaker 1: activity was centering, Bill explained with amazement that indeed, it
Speaker 1: was the exact spot where most of the strange events
Speaker 1: seemed to occur. With their investigation completed, the men relayed
Speaker 1: their findings to Bill, stating that they had felt the
Speaker 1: presence of four entities in total, three being an elderly
Speaker 1: woman and two young men, whom they had now successfully
Speaker 1: banished from the house. However, there was one other, far
Speaker 1: darker and clearly not of this world. It was their
Speaker 1: opinion that, unlike the three other entities, it had not
Speaker 1: originated at the sight of the property, but had in
Speaker 1: fact arrived with Bill and may have been following him
Speaker 1: for the past. Twenty years. Later, in an effort to
Speaker 1: provide protection for the family, one of the men returned
Speaker 1: to construct a psychic wall of protection around the house.
Speaker 1: Finding a spot on the kitchen floor, he carefully outlined
Speaker 1: a pentacle with chalk, before placing incense at each point.
Speaker 1: As the perfumed smoke drifted and dispersed into the room, quietly,
Speaker 1: he implored any spirit to vacate the immediately. Twenty minutes
Speaker 1: later he was gone, leaving Bill alone to rack his
Speaker 1: brains for any reason as to why a malicious entity
Speaker 1: might have attached itself to him. And then it came
Speaker 1: to him Alex Sanders. Back in his early twenties, when
Speaker 1: Bill was trying to make a name for himself as
Speaker 1: an aspiring artist in London, he was introduced to a
Speaker 1: man named Alex Sanders, the self styled King of the Witches.
Speaker 1: The controversial Sanders had at one time been a follower
Speaker 1: of renowned Wiccan practitioner Gerald Gardner, before splitting from his
Speaker 1: teachings to pursue his own interpretations of ceremonial magic. Having
Speaker 1: at one point been informed of Bill's ambitions, Sanders offered
Speaker 1: to initiate him into his coven in an effort to
Speaker 1: aid his development as an artist. With nothing to lose
Speaker 1: and curious to know more, Bill accepted his invitation. However,
Speaker 1: no sooner had Bill begun the series of initiation rituals
Speaker 1: than he had a change of heart and pulled out
Speaker 1: of it. Could it be? He wondered that his failure
Speaker 1: to complete the initiation had opened some kind of gateway,
Speaker 1: allowing something unsavory to come through and attach itself to him.
Speaker 1: Either way, when the family moved back to the house
Speaker 1: that summer, they found that whatever the spiritualists had done
Speaker 1: appeared to have worked. Gone was the heavy, oppressive atmosphere,
Speaker 1: those strange noises and noxious smells. Despite the apparent cleansing
Speaker 1: of Iyolfannock. However, Bill, growing increasingly worried about the impact
Speaker 1: it was all having on Lawrence, was unwilling to take
Speaker 1: any more chances. After consulting with his ex wife, it
Speaker 1: was arranged to have Lawrence take a room at a
Speaker 1: nearby boarding house. Though Bill was relieved that his oldest
Speaker 1: son could now get on with life away from the Mayhem,
Speaker 1: it was a further hit to the family finances. As
Speaker 1: if things weren't complicated enough, a nationwide recession had all
Speaker 1: but done for his regular stream of income. In July,
Speaker 1: they were forced to sell the car, and being unable
Speaker 1: to pay the phone bill, their line was cut off.
Speaker 1: With a number of friends and family having found it
Speaker 1: difficult to sympathize with their recent plight, having no experience
Speaker 1: of what it was they had been through, the family
Speaker 1: could scarcely have felt more isolated that summer of nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: The trees that surrounded the house seemed to loom higher
Speaker 1: than ever, the rising hills of the beacons taller and
Speaker 1: more foreboding, and it wasn't long before Bill and Liz
Speaker 1: were hearing those footsteps again. Bill deftly wiped away the
Speaker 1: paint with the cloth and tried once more, this time
Speaker 1: taking extra care as he dipped the brush before again
Speaker 1: attempting to correct the line from the upper thigh to
Speaker 1: the knee. He stood back to get a better look
Speaker 1: and was immediately disappointed. Damn it, he thought, as he
Speaker 1: grudgingly wiped the paint away again. Though the weeks since
Speaker 1: the house had been exercised in July had been comparatively calm,
Speaker 1: the family's financial situation was becoming increasingly desperate. Things appeared
Speaker 1: to be looking up, however, when Bill was commissioned out
Speaker 1: of the blue by his neighbour Susanna, to paint a
Speaker 1: portrait of her favorite horse, Echo. Bill wasn't entirely sure
Speaker 1: if it had been out of sympathy or genuine interest,
Speaker 1: but either way he was grateful not only for the money,
Speaker 1: but also the chance to finally put his mind at
Speaker 1: rest and move on from the stress of the previous year.
Speaker 1: It was a fairly simple piece to complete by his standards,
Speaker 1: constructed in two parts, the first being the composition of
Speaker 1: the backdrop, which Bill had decided on himself after spending
Speaker 1: the day scouring the local countryside for the perfect setting.
Speaker 1: With that completed, he had then set about painting in
Speaker 1: the horse on top, using a recent photograph provided by
Speaker 1: his neighbour. All was going well until it came to
Speaker 1: finishing up the back leg. No matter how many times
Speaker 1: he tried, the brush just wouldn't do what he wanted.
Speaker 1: In the end, despite countless efforts, Bill was eventually forced
Speaker 1: to admit defeat, hoping that his neighbour wouldn't notice. Thankfully, Susanna,
Speaker 1: who was clearly very fond of the animal, was delighted
Speaker 1: with his efforts, and so it was with some distress
Speaker 1: when she informed Bill a few weeks later that Echo
Speaker 1: had died. It began soon after Susanna had hung up
Speaker 1: the painting. Watching the horse in the paddock one afternoon,
Speaker 1: she noticed he was limping and clearly in some considerable pain.
Speaker 1: A subsequent check up with the vet revealed a peculiar
Speaker 1: injury to one of its hind legs, which had caused
Speaker 1: it to swell up inexplicably. Echo's condition to deteriorated rapidly
Speaker 1: over the next few days, until one morning he simply
Speaker 1: wandered out into the fields, keeled over and died. Having
Speaker 1: returned home after burying the animal, A devastated Susannah found
Speaker 1: herself reminiscing in front of Bill's painting when she noticed
Speaker 1: something peculiar at the precise spot where the horse had
Speaker 1: developed his injury. Bill's multiple attempts to get the leg
Speaker 1: just right had left it looking oddly swollen. Then she
Speaker 1: noticed something else that sent a sharp chill along her spine.
Speaker 1: The backdrop that Bill had randomly chosen was the precise
Speaker 1: spot where Echo had been found dead. A few nights later,
Speaker 1: Bill and Liz were woken at home by that familiar
Speaker 1: sound like heavy footsteps lumbering about the house. The thing,
Speaker 1: it seemed was back. In August, it was the turn
Speaker 1: of Reverend Roy Matthews of the Holy Trinity Church in
Speaker 1: Abergavenny to try and put an end to the couple's troubles.
Speaker 1: Arriving with three colleagues, he immediately set about getting a
Speaker 1: feel for the property, extraordinarily without any prompting from Bill
Speaker 1: or Liz. He also came to the unsettling conclusion that
Speaker 1: a plaintive elderly woman, as well as two young men
Speaker 1: and one other much darker and distinctly inhuman entity, were
Speaker 1: haunting their home. The couple were left a little disappointed, however,
Speaker 1: when the best the reverend could offer was to get
Speaker 1: together and pray whenever they sensed the atmosphere growing oppressive.
Speaker 1: Soon after, whilst clearing space in his studio, Bill discovered
Speaker 1: a photograph of an elderly woman hidden amongst some old furniture.
Speaker 1: When he showed it to Liz, her face dropped in astonishment.
Speaker 1: The woman, who turned out to be Marian Hoburn, the
Speaker 1: landlord's mother and former occupant of heel Fannock, was the
Speaker 1: same ghostly figure she had been seeing in December nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: the couple's second child, Rebecca, was born, arriving like a
Speaker 1: spark of fire to illuminate the incessant gloom. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before the darkness was beginning to press in
Speaker 1: once more. Shortly after the birth, Liz had just returned
Speaker 1: to the house after taking the babies for a stroll
Speaker 1: when she sent something moving across the kitchen door, calling
Speaker 1: out for Bill. She got no reply, despite now clearly
Speaker 1: seeing the outline of a tall figure offering just inside
Speaker 1: the door. Hurriedly, she gathered up the children, and, whilst
Speaker 1: keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the figure in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: quietly backed out of the house. A few days later,
Speaker 1: Liz and Bill packed their things and moved into Lizzie's
Speaker 1: mother's house in nearby Cowbridge. The quiet market town of
Speaker 1: Cowbridge was a welcome respite from the isolation of Hulfannog,
Speaker 1: and though money was still an issue, with demand for
Speaker 1: Bill's work struggling to pick up, it wasn't long before
Speaker 1: they felt a sense of normality being restored for a
Speaker 1: short while. At least, it was Liz who noticed at
Speaker 1: first that sudden familiar feeling of being watched as if
Speaker 1: a wispy tendril of darkness were reaching out to them
Speaker 1: from out of the depths of the countryside. One evening,
Speaker 1: having put the children to bed, Bill, Liz and her
Speaker 1: mother were just sitting down for dinner when a weird
Speaker 1: crackle of static came through on the baby monitor. That
Speaker 1: wasn't static, thought Liz with horror. It was a voice.
Speaker 1: Immediately she rushed to the bedroom and switched on the light,
Speaker 1: but found only her two children fast asleep in their beds.
Speaker 1: A few days later, having heard all about Liz's troubles,
Speaker 1: a neighbor suggested she make contact with local reverend David Holmewood.
Speaker 1: Having reached out to him, Homeward arrived at Lizzie's mother's
Speaker 1: home a few days later along with his associate Anita,
Speaker 1: to discuss the couple's predicament. By the time he left
Speaker 1: at two a m. He was in no doubt as
Speaker 1: to the source of their affliction. It was simple, he
Speaker 1: told them, you were being stalked by demons. That night,
Speaker 1: as David and Anita drove home through the narrow, winding
Speaker 1: country roads, something shot toward them from out of the
Speaker 1: dark and smashed into the windscreen with a mighty crack.
Speaker 1: The pair screamed as David slammed on the brakes and
Speaker 1: brought the car to a shuddering stop by the side
Speaker 1: of the road. Catching their breath, they looked up to
Speaker 1: find the shattered windscreen covered in blood. Cautiously, David stepped
Speaker 1: out into the road, and there, illuminated by the glare
Speaker 1: of the head lights, he found the twitching body of
Speaker 1: a dead owl. The message was clear, he thought, stay
Speaker 1: away from the house. It was two weeks later that
Speaker 1: David and Anita were back on the road, keeping their
Speaker 1: eyes fixed on Bill's car up ahead as he led
Speaker 1: them through the winding country lanes toward their destination under
Speaker 1: the shadowed edges of the Northern Beacons. But as they
Speaker 1: turned a corner, David was gripped by a sudden pang
Speaker 1: of anxiety, as if something were pushing down hard on
Speaker 1: his chest. Anita could only watch in terror as he
Speaker 1: struggled to keep control of the vehicle before finally bringing
Speaker 1: it to a skidding stop by the side of the road. Immediately,
Speaker 1: David reached out for Anita's hand, and there they sat,
Speaker 1: repeating the Lord's prayer over and over until they were
Speaker 1: certain that disturbance had been lifted. Moments later, they pulled
Speaker 1: into the driveway of heel Fannock. The plan was simple
Speaker 1: to get in and out as quickly as possible, confiscating
Speaker 1: anything that could be serving as a conduit for the
Speaker 1: demonic forces which David believed were plaguing the home. From
Speaker 1: incense burners to books on the paranormal and Buddhism, all
Speaker 1: of it was thrown into a box and taken out
Speaker 1: to the car. Upsettingly for Bill, it was largely his
Speaker 1: own artwork that was of most concern to the evangelists.
Speaker 1: It was this, above all else, that David believed to
Speaker 1: be empowering whatever demons were stalking the family. Bill could
Speaker 1: only watch with dismay as one offending article after another
Speaker 1: was removed and promptly escorted from the house. But what
Speaker 1: will you do with it all, he asked? We will
Speaker 1: burn it, of course, came David's prompt reply. The following morning,
Speaker 1: with the help of his son, David dug a shallow
Speaker 1: pit in his garden into which all the tainted items
Speaker 1: were dumped, covered in lighter fluid, and set on fire.
Speaker 1: The pair watched as the flames jumped and licked ever higher,
Speaker 1: spitting and crackling as the fire feasted on the myriad items.
Speaker 1: Then slowly David became aware of another sound, seeming to
Speaker 1: emanate from deep within the flames, a hideous screeching sound,
Speaker 1: as if something inside the fire were being burned alive,
Speaker 1: but it would all be in vain. Sadly, despite his
Speaker 1: best efforts, David's attempted exorcism would ultimately prove ineffective when
Speaker 1: only a few weeks later the Hauntings returned with a vengeance.
Speaker 1: Unable to afford a move away and with all avenues
Speaker 1: seemingly exhausted, Bill and Liz had no choice but to
Speaker 1: try and learn to live with it all, and so
Speaker 1: they did, doing all they could to ignore the disembodied
Speaker 1: footsteps and strange spectral visions. As ever, Bill sought solace
Speaker 1: in his painting, and with one painting in particular, with
Speaker 1: which he was becoming increasingly immersed, a peculiar canvas of
Speaker 1: pastal colors and tubular strands that seemed to wrap and
Speaker 1: snake around themselves. It was like nothing he had painted before.
Speaker 1: But such endeavors only ever provided fleeting moments of comfort,
Speaker 1: and by the end of nineteen ninety three, they had
Speaker 1: all but given up hope of ever escaping their horrifying ordeal.
Speaker 1: Little could they have known then that help was just
Speaker 1: around the corner. Film producer Annie mac donald had been
Speaker 1: wrestling with a documentary idea for some time regarding the
Speaker 1: exploits of apparent psychic and self styled ghost hunter Eddie Burkes.
Speaker 1: Back in August nineteen ninety two, Burkes had achieved some
Speaker 1: notoriety after he claimed to have successfully banished the ghost
Speaker 1: of a sixteenth century courtier from the offices of the
Speaker 1: exclusive British banking Institut Coots. Incredibly, not only had Burkes
Speaker 1: been invited to locate the ghost by representatives of the
Speaker 1: bank itself, but they had also attested to his success
Speaker 1: in removing it from their offices. When MacDonald, who also
Speaker 1: lived near the brecam Beacons, heard about the peculiar goings
Speaker 1: on at he Olfannock, she wasted little time in contacting
Speaker 1: Lissendbill with a proposition she would set them up with
Speaker 1: Burkes if they agreed to let her film his process.
Speaker 1: Though the couple were reticent at the thought of letting
Speaker 1: a documentary crew into their home, they also knew they
Speaker 1: had nothing to lose. It was difficult to know quite
Speaker 1: what to make of the slight, bespectacled Burks when he
Speaker 1: first arrived that early March afternoon, dressed unassumingly in his
Speaker 1: dark green and Iraq. Nonetheless, lissen Bill tried to remain
Speaker 1: optimistic as they invited him, along with his friend and
Speaker 1: writer Gillian Cribbs, as well as MacDonald and her production
Speaker 1: crew into their home. Moments later, with everyone gathered around
Speaker 1: the kitchen table, Liz and Bill filled them in on
Speaker 1: all that had happened so far. The tiredness and distress
Speaker 1: etched across the couple's faces as they talked showed just
Speaker 1: how difficult the last few years had been, while behind them,
Speaker 1: long triangular strips of wallpaper hanging limply from the wall
Speaker 1: gave the impression that even the house itself was starting
Speaker 1: to crumble from the strain. When Liz finally brought their
Speaker 1: account to an end, Burkes became suddenly distracted and asked
Speaker 1: to be taken outside to inspect the ruins of the
Speaker 1: old manor house. With the camera operator following close behind,
Speaker 1: the group made their way into the garden through a
Speaker 1: line of trees and on to the crumbling ruins behind. Strangely,
Speaker 1: when they arrived, however, much to the operator's dismay, the
Speaker 1: camera completely shut down. The battery, despite having been almost
Speaker 1: fully charged only minutes before, had gone completely flat. A
Speaker 1: second camera operated by MacDonald appeared unaffected, as she kept
Speaker 1: it steady on Burkes while he requested quiet from everyone,
Speaker 1: and then promptly fell into a trance. When mc donald
Speaker 1: had first traveled to meet Burkes, not long after she
Speaker 1: first informed him of the situation at Lisonbill's home, he
Speaker 1: had also entered a trance. When he came out of it,
Speaker 1: he explained that he had been communicating with a young
Speaker 1: man whose soul he said was trapped at hee Olfanno.
Speaker 1: The man had apparently described the experience to him as
Speaker 1: like being caught in a thicket that conspired to entrap
Speaker 1: him every time he tried to escape. The young man
Speaker 1: had apparently also told Burkes that he had been murdered
Speaker 1: sometime in the nineteenth century by a sickening blow to
Speaker 1: the back of the head. Back in the garden. Burke's
Speaker 1: voice broke the silence. The young man was with them now,
Speaker 1: he said, and was trying to tell him something. This
Speaker 1: was the place, he was saying, where he had seen
Speaker 1: something he shouldn't have, the very thing that had cost
Speaker 1: him his life. As Burkes went on to detail more
Speaker 1: about the boy's murder, Gillian noticed a look of recognition
Speaker 1: spreading across Liz's face. As Liz explained, late during the
Speaker 1: second year of their stay at the house, she had
Speaker 1: learnt about the brutal murder of a young farm hand
Speaker 1: that occurred in the mid nineteenth century within walking distance
Speaker 1: of heieol Fannock. All this time she had wondered if
Speaker 1: it had anything to do with the strange activity in
Speaker 1: their home. Could it be she thought that this was
Speaker 1: the young man that Burkes had been communicating with. It
Speaker 1: was a cold and misty morning in November eighteen forty
Speaker 1: eight at Coomboody Farm, a kilometer away from what would
Speaker 1: later become heieol Fannock, when farm servant Elizabeth Phillips rose
Speaker 1: just before dawn and made her way to a nearby
Speaker 1: brook to fetch some water. Approaching the entry gate to
Speaker 1: the yard, she was surprised to find seventy teen year
Speaker 1: old farm hand James Griffith suddenly appear from out of
Speaker 1: the dark with an odd grin on his face. After
Speaker 1: muttering a brief good morning, he headed off toward the farmhouse,
Speaker 1: leaving Elizabeth to fetch the water on her own. When
Speaker 1: she returned via the gate a few minutes later, she
Speaker 1: was startled by a strange, moaning sound that seemed to
Speaker 1: rise out of nowhere. In terror, she hurried back to
Speaker 1: the house and called out for James to help her
Speaker 1: find the source of the noise. When Elizabeth heard it again,
Speaker 1: coming from somewhere toward the back of the yard, she
Speaker 1: asked James to stay put while she went to fetch
Speaker 1: a torch. By the time she returned, however, James had
Speaker 1: disappeared after failing to find a source for the noise.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until much later in the day that Elizabeth
Speaker 1: caught sight of something lying underneath a dung heap that
Speaker 1: caused her to cry out in horror, a pair of
Speaker 1: legs lying in a pool of blood. Having been roused
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth's screams, farmer John Powell and his son rushed
Speaker 1: to her aid. Together they pulled the body from the
Speaker 1: heap to find it was in fact another of their
Speaker 1: farm hands, the eighteen year old Thomas Edwards. Remarkably, the
Speaker 1: young man was still alive, remarkable because on picking him
Speaker 1: up to carry him inside, they discovered a four inch
Speaker 1: wide hole in the back of his head, bleeding profusely,
Speaker 1: and beneath him clearly visible on the ground the missing
Speaker 1: pieces of his skull. Thomas clung on for a number
Speaker 1: of hours in a state of severe confusion, before eventually
Speaker 1: succumbing to his injuries. Just as Eddie Burkes had claimed,
Speaker 1: the unfortunate man had been killed by a sickening blow
Speaker 1: to the back of his head. Four months later, James Griffiths,
Speaker 1: who also went by the name of Thomas Williams, was
Speaker 1: arrested in Ipswich, some three hundred miles away, still wearing
Speaker 1: clothes that he had stolen from Thomas Edwards. Griffiths eventually
Speaker 1: confessed that he had murdered Edwards to steal what little
Speaker 1: money he had in his possession. It was Eddie Burkes's belief, however,
Speaker 1: that Edwards had in fact stumbled upon some kind of
Speaker 1: satanic ritual and was murdered by Griffith, acting under the
Speaker 1: instructions of someone unknown to protect the identities of those
Speaker 1: who had been seen. However, no evidence has ever been
Speaker 1: found to support this theory. Although curiously not that it
Speaker 1: suggests anything to do with the greatly misunderstood practice of Satanism.
Speaker 1: When Griffiths first confessed committing the murder, he also claimed
Speaker 1: that a woman named Jane Morgan had been the cause
Speaker 1: of it. This name was later retracted from his confession.
Speaker 1: Once convicted of his crime, Griffiths, who had been abandoned
Speaker 1: by his family at a young age and spent most
Speaker 1: of his teenage life drifting from one job to another,
Speaker 1: was sentenced to death by hanging on Wednesday, eighteenth April
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine. That by then eighteen years old, James
Speaker 1: Griffiths was marched to the gallows at Brecon County Jail
Speaker 1: in front of a large crowd of onlookers and hung
Speaker 1: from his neck until death. With Liz concluding the tragic
Speaker 1: tale of the farm hands, something striking occurred to the group.
Speaker 1: Could it be that perhaps the spirits of those two
Speaker 1: young men were the same spirits that the couple had
Speaker 1: been told on two separate occasions were trapped in the property,
Speaker 1: with the landlord's mother possibly accounting for the third, that
Speaker 1: left only the fourth in human entity unaccounted for. With
Speaker 1: the group back in the kitchen, the quiet, Burkes took
Speaker 1: a seat at the table. After confirming that the spirit
Speaker 1: of the young man he had been communicating with had
Speaker 1: now moved on, he closed his eyes and fell into
Speaker 1: another trance. Opening them again, Burke was drawn immediately to
Speaker 1: the spot near the bathroom, close to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the stairs, sensing a strange darkness was being harboured there.
Speaker 1: But there was also something else. He closed his eyes again.
Speaker 1: He could see a vision, he said outloud. A bright
Speaker 1: cross was manifesting, bringing light into the house. Something holy,
Speaker 1: he said. Bill got up immediately from the table and
Speaker 1: appeared a moment later holding a large canvas painting. Burkes
Speaker 1: opened his eyes and looked up. Though the background was
Speaker 1: an abstract mesh of dark colors and thick brush strokes,
Speaker 1: the large white cross in the middle was unmistakable. It
Speaker 1: was just as Burkes had described. Yes, he said quietly,
Speaker 1: that is what's been keeping you safe. Bill had painted
Speaker 1: the white cross three years previously, over the course of
Speaker 1: a few nights, the imagery having come to him completely
Speaker 1: out of the blue one evening. Burkes's friend Gillian, was
Speaker 1: instantly intrigued to know what else Bill might have unconsciously
Speaker 1: channeled and asked to see the studio. In amongst what
Speaker 1: Gillian later described as a collection of landscapes and pop
Speaker 1: art studies, there was one painting that stood out against
Speaker 1: the rest, A strange and puzzling picture, unlike anything else
Speaker 1: in the room, comprised of a vast pastal colored mesh
Speaker 1: of tubular, tendril like things linked together in a bizarre
Speaker 1: organic circuitry. Looking closer, Gillian noticed they were in fact vines,
Speaker 1: complete with sharp thorns, and in amongst them were what
Speaker 1: looked like internal organs, outstretched hands, and even the occasional
Speaker 1: face peering out with pained expressions as if they were screaming.
Speaker 1: Gillian was instantly reminded of Eddie Burkes's first conversation with
Speaker 1: producer Annie MacDonald. Was this, she thought, not a depiction
Speaker 1: of the imprisoned soul, as had apparently been described to
Speaker 1: Burke's by the spirit of the deceased young man. Had
Speaker 1: he been calling out to Bill for help all this time.
Speaker 1: Although a possible identity to the apparent forth in human
Speaker 1: presence was never ascertained, Burke's was adamant he had done
Speaker 1: enough to exercise whatever it had been from Liz and
Speaker 1: Bill's home in the immediate aftermath of his trip to
Speaker 1: the house. Once again the family felt a renewed lightness,
Speaker 1: and though they experienced a few subsequent troubles with Burke's
Speaker 1: returning in June to conduct a further exorcism, his intervention
Speaker 1: appeared to have done the trick. That following day, after
Speaker 1: Burke's second visit, the rate of electricity usage dropped for
Speaker 1: the first time since they had lived in the house.
Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety five, the family experienced no further hauntings,
Speaker 1: and Bill's work was starting to pick up again. As
Speaker 1: for film producer Annie MacDonald, she never did quite get
Speaker 1: her film of Burke's in action, with the battery of
Speaker 1: one camera having inexplicably died as Burke's attempted communication with
Speaker 1: the spirits, McDonald's second camera appeared to be capturing it
Speaker 1: all fine. It was only when she returned home later, however,
Speaker 1: that she had a chance to review the footage. Switching
Speaker 1: on the camera, she ran the tape forward to the
Speaker 1: point where the group made their way to the back
Speaker 1: of the garden and pressed play. With great anticipation, She
Speaker 1: watched as Burkes positioned himself by the ruins and asked
Speaker 1: for silence, then just at the moment of apparent contact,
Speaker 1: the screen went blank. She fast forwarded in desperation, but
Speaker 1: it was to no avail. The rest of the tape
Speaker 1: was completely empty. This episode was written by Richard McLain Smith.
Speaker 1: Thank you as ever for listening to the show. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe and rate it if you haven't already done so.
Speaker 1: Unexplained will be coming to YouTube very shortly in video form,
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Speaker 1: Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast asked created by
Speaker 1: Richard McClain smith. All other elements of the podcast, including
Speaker 1: the music, are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained.
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