Speaker 1: Tales of haunted roads and vanishing hitchhikers are among the
Speaker 1: more ubiquitous of ghost story tropes to be found throughout
Speaker 1: the world. In a classic sense, the notion might bring
Speaker 1: to mind Washington Irving's headless horsemen from his gothic and
Speaker 1: satirical masterpiece The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and although not
Speaker 1: a ghost in the regular sense, you'd be hard pushed
Speaker 1: to find a more iconic incarnation of the mysterious roadside
Speaker 1: wanderer than the eponymous hitchhiker from HBO's Darkened Trashy anthology series.
Speaker 1: The prevalence of such stories has been clearly aided by
Speaker 1: the growth of the automobile industry and the frequency with
Speaker 1: which people might, as a result, find themselves driving alone
Speaker 1: through eerie nights on deserted roads, miles from familiar surroundings,
Speaker 1: in other words, the perfect environment for a spectral encounter.
Speaker 1: And it is this the basic utility of the humble road,
Speaker 1: or any other thoroughfare for that matter, that for me
Speaker 1: makes it in many ways the most apt location for
Speaker 1: a haunting. Not only is the path a metaphor with
Speaker 1: multiple applications, but also literally, it is the pathway's basic
Speaker 1: function to deliver you from one place to another, a
Speaker 1: journey that often involves traveling through the unfamiliar places rarely
Speaker 1: experienced only glimpsed in passing, and often at speed from
Speaker 1: inside the relative comfort of a moving vehicle. On the
Speaker 1: fifteenth of May two thousand and nine, in London, work
Speaker 1: began on a major transport project to construct to high
Speaker 1: speed rail link traveling east and west through the heart
Speaker 1: of the city. In March two thirteen, construction workers tunneling
Speaker 1: deep below the ground found the remains of twenty five
Speaker 1: skeletons in a small five meter wide shaft. The remains,
Speaker 1: found to be almost seven hundred years old, were later
Speaker 1: discovered to have been victims of the Black Death, a
Speaker 1: plague that swept through Europe in the fourteenth century. The
Speaker 1: discovery is one of many extraordinary archeological finds uncovered by
Speaker 1: excavations for the New Line, including a number of similar
Speaker 1: burial sites with some dating as far back as seven
Speaker 1: thousand to BC, as well as the discovery of over
Speaker 1: ten thousand artifacts spanning across thirty different sites throughout the city.
Speaker 1: Not only does the revelation of the burial site bring
Speaker 1: to mind Nigel Neels wonderful Sci Fi Cereal, Quatermat and
Speaker 1: the Pit. But it also serves as a gruesome reminder
Speaker 1: of those that have walked the paths before, and perhaps
Speaker 1: in some ways still do. It certainly begs the question that,
Speaker 1: even when traveling the most seemingly deserted of roads, are
Speaker 1: we ever truly alone? You're listening to Unexplained and I'm
Speaker 1: Richard McClean smith. The A six one six is a
Speaker 1: road that begins just to the north of the town
Speaker 1: of Newark on Trent in the county of Nottinghamshire in
Speaker 1: the East Midlands. Tracing a path northwest through the country.
Speaker 1: The road bends round Sherwood Forest, crossing the border into
Speaker 1: Derbyshire at the town of Cresswell, before disappearing into the
Speaker 1: concrete vortex of the M one motorway, and then, as
Speaker 1: if by some mysterious process of refractive urban planning, it
Speaker 1: appears again some fifty miles further up, now in Yorkshire,
Speaker 1: sprouting westward from junction thirty five just above the city
Speaker 1: of Sheffield. Prior to nineteen eighty eight, the road continued
Speaker 1: on through the town of Stocksbridge at the northern fringe
Speaker 1: of the Peak District, before eventually coming to an end
Speaker 1: at the city of Huddersfield. In nineteen eighty seven. However,
Speaker 1: building began on a small stretch of the road that
Speaker 1: would later become known as the Stocksbridge Bypass, a stretch
Speaker 1: of road now generally regarded as one of the most
Speaker 1: haunted in the whole of the UK. The years since
Speaker 1: the construction of the bypass have seen a highly unusual
Speaker 1: amount of strange sightings and sounds that remained to this
Speaker 1: day unexplained. It began on a warm September evening in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven when two security guards, Stephen Brooks and
Speaker 1: David Goldthorpe, were patrolling the building site of the unfinished bypass.
Speaker 1: The men employed by the reputable ratherum based firm Constant Securities,
Speaker 1: were both well experienced and would often work the night
Speaker 1: shift together. Just to the south of the bypass lay
Speaker 1: the white, low rise hangars and dusty roads of the
Speaker 1: Stocksbridge Steelworks, and to the north, stretching for miles nothing
Speaker 1: but open fields and farm land. It is hard to
Speaker 1: resist the strange energy of such places. The concrete byway
Speaker 1: separate from the town but not fully removed, forming an
Speaker 1: unnatural threshold between the urban and the pastoral. It is
Speaker 1: in such locations we often find those most peculiar of places,
Speaker 1: the siding, unfrequented, almost forbidden, pockets of land where wild
Speaker 1: flowers and grass compete with the cast off detritus of
Speaker 1: modern life. Running almost parallel to the road was the
Speaker 1: usual chain of electricity pylons, their spindly metal arms and
Speaker 1: drooping cables, just visible in the moonlight as they stretched
Speaker 1: off towards the dark moors of the Peak District. Cruising
Speaker 1: round the site in their van, on the night of
Speaker 1: Tuesday eighth, Stephen and David were nearing the newly constructed
Speaker 1: p Roid Bridge when they spotted something peculiar. It was
Speaker 1: Stephen who noticed it first, some sort of movement at
Speaker 1: the base of a pylon near to the approach road
Speaker 1: to the bridge. As they got closer, Stephen couldn't quite
Speaker 1: believe what he was seeing. The movement appeared to be
Speaker 1: a group of young children playing and dancing at the
Speaker 1: base of the pylon. It was odd, to say the least.
Speaker 1: Not only had it gone past midnight, but there were
Speaker 1: no houses anywhere nearby. And then David noticed something strange
Speaker 1: about the children's clothes, how old fashioned they were, but
Speaker 1: before they could get a closer look, the children completely vanished.
Speaker 1: The two guards immediately pulled up and got out of
Speaker 1: the van. More than a little unsettled, they made their
Speaker 1: way to where the children had been dancing only moments before,
Speaker 1: but found no footprints or any other sign that anyone
Speaker 1: had been there at all, and all around the air
Speaker 1: was still save for the quiet hum of the electricity
Speaker 1: pylon overhead. Confused, the men returned to the van and
Speaker 1: continued their patrol, but no sooner had they reached the
Speaker 1: bottom of the bridge, Stephen caught sight of something else peculiar.
Speaker 1: Look there, he said, pointing to the top of the bridge.
Speaker 1: What on earth is that? David pulled up the van
Speaker 1: and looked out at the windscreen. It appeared to be
Speaker 1: the silhouette of a man wearing a hooded cloak. Together
Speaker 1: they called out to the man to leave the site,
Speaker 1: but the figure did not reply and remained frozen on
Speaker 1: the bridge. Assuming they were the victims of a practical joke,
Speaker 1: Stephen got out of the van, keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: the figure as David drove the van to the opposite
Speaker 1: side of the bridge and switched the lights on. Too
Speaker 1: full beam Stephen watched in horror from the other side
Speaker 1: as the light shone straight through the body the figure.
Speaker 1: But what was more terrifying was that whatever it was
Speaker 1: appeared to be missing its head. Moments later, the figure disappeared.
Speaker 1: Constant security director Mike Lee had been sound asleep when
Speaker 1: he received a panicked call at four thirty am requesting
Speaker 1: he head out immediately to the building site. When he arrived,
Speaker 1: he found both Stephen and David waiting for him in
Speaker 1: a state of abject fear. The guards proceeded to describe
Speaker 1: to Mike what they had seen that night, and from
Speaker 1: the tone of their voices, it was clear to Mike
Speaker 1: that this was no joke. Mike knew the men as
Speaker 1: two down to earth, tough South Yorkshire lads, a rugby
Speaker 1: player and weightlifter, but now what he saw in front
Speaker 1: of him were two frightened boys shaking with shock, with
Speaker 1: Stephen even being reduced to tears as he recounted the
Speaker 1: knight's events. Are you always taking care of your family?
Speaker 1: Do you often take care of others and not yourself?
Speaker 1: Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make
Speaker 1: time for you. You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist to help you get back to
Speaker 1: feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc,
Speaker 1: you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video.
Speaker 1: Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven
Speaker 1: am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed
Speaker 1: sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely,
Speaker 1: or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue,
Speaker 1: teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches,
Speaker 1: so they make it easy to change counselors if needed.
Speaker 1: For free, teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers.
Speaker 1: Download the app or visittelldoc dot com forward slash Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast today to get started. That's t e ladoc dot
Speaker 1: com slash Unexplained podcast. The following afternoon, a call came
Speaker 1: in to nearby Deep Car Police Station. Police Constable Dick
Speaker 1: Ellis answered the phone to find a trembling voice on
Speaker 1: the other end of the line. It was Stephen calling
Speaker 1: from home, desperate for any kind of help, but there
Speaker 1: was little that Pcllis could do other than to suggest
Speaker 1: that Stephen tried contacting his local church, and so it
Speaker 1: was with some surprise that the next day Dick received
Speaker 1: another phone call about the same matter, only this time
Speaker 1: it was from a priest. He said that he was
Speaker 1: calling on behalf of two men security guards from the
Speaker 1: Stocksbridge Bypass construction site. He explained that they had come
Speaker 1: to see him in a state of deep distress. The
Speaker 1: men had requested an exorcism of the road, worried that
Speaker 1: perhaps a graveyard had been disturbed in the construction of it.
Speaker 1: So convinced of the men's stories, or at the very
Speaker 1: least convinced of their fear, the priest asked PC Ellis
Speaker 1: if he could investigate the site before he started making
Speaker 1: any cause to the Vatican. The following day, on the
Speaker 1: evening of Friday, September the eleventh, PC Dick Ellis and
Speaker 1: Special Constable John beat got into their regulation Fiat Panda
Speaker 1: patrol car and made their way towards the construction site.
Speaker 1: Before long, they passed the quiet and deserted steelworks on
Speaker 1: the edge of town and pulled into the building site
Speaker 1: just at the foot of Proid Bridge. A short time later,
Speaker 1: the men were sat with the engine and lights turned off,
Speaker 1: admiring the bright full moon hanging in the sky above them,
Speaker 1: while the radio crackled intermittently in the background. The men
Speaker 1: agreed to give it a few more minutes before calling
Speaker 1: it a night and heading back to the station. But
Speaker 1: then something caught the eye of pc Ellis. Turn off
Speaker 1: the radio, he said to John, what is that up
Speaker 1: there on the bridge. John could see it too, some
Speaker 1: sort of shadow moving about in front of a set
Speaker 1: of large palletts. John tried flashing the car lights to
Speaker 1: get a better sense of it, but the angle wasn't
Speaker 1: quite right. Stay here, said Dick, as he got out
Speaker 1: of the car made his way over to the boxes
Speaker 1: to investigate. Despite all his experience and training, a peculiar
Speaker 1: feeling had begun to settle over PC Ellis, a feeling
Speaker 1: of dread that seemed to wrap itself around him, tightening
Speaker 1: as he drew nearer to the pallets. And there it
Speaker 1: was again, the shadow, moving quickly in front of him.
Speaker 1: He called out, but there was no reply. Slowly he
Speaker 1: continued forward until finally he could see it clearly, just
Speaker 1: a loose sheet of polythene partially ripped from the pallet
Speaker 1: and flapping about in the wind. With some relief, Ellis
Speaker 1: returned to the vehicle and relayed the news to John.
Speaker 1: The two men couldn't help but laugh and decided to
Speaker 1: call it a night. But something wasn't quite right. Despite
Speaker 1: uncovering the true cause of the mysterio his figure on
Speaker 1: the bridge, Ellis couldn't quite shake that lingering feeling of dread.
Speaker 1: Now back in the car, it seemed to be intensifying.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a fear as such, but more of a
Speaker 1: sudden sense of impending and inevitable doom. Ellis wound down
Speaker 1: the window to get a little air and looked out
Speaker 1: again across the deserted site, and then Ellis noticed something else.
Speaker 1: Despite the warmth of the night, the temperature in the
Speaker 1: car had dropped dramatically, and now Ellis had the distinct,
Speaker 1: unmistakable feeling that he was being watched. But what was
Speaker 1: really terrifying was the dark shape that had just then
Speaker 1: appeared standing right outside his open window. Ellis froze and
Speaker 1: slowly turned his head head to face the figure, but
Speaker 1: when he looked out of the window, it had gone.
Speaker 1: John screamed as there now standing on John's side of
Speaker 1: the car was the same shadowy figure, but this time
Speaker 1: John could see it clearly. At first he saw an
Speaker 1: old fashioned waistcoat and some sort of cravat, and then
Speaker 1: he lifted his eyes for a moment he caught a
Speaker 1: glimpse of a face, its blank eyes staring directly at him,
Speaker 1: before it vanished again. The men leapt immediately from the vehicle,
Speaker 1: convinced someone was messing with them, But as they looked
Speaker 1: frantically around the car, there was little to be seen
Speaker 1: save for the soft yellow lights of nearby Stocksbridge and
Speaker 1: the bright full moon hanging high above them in the sky.
Speaker 1: After a quick search of the surrounding bankside, the pair,
Speaker 1: now deeply rattled, returned to the car to mount a
Speaker 1: proper search of the area. Unable to find any one,
Speaker 1: they returned to the bottom of the bridge, pulled up
Speaker 1: the car and attempted to radio back to base, only
Speaker 1: the radio wouldn't turn on. Suddenly, two loud bangs rang
Speaker 1: out from the back of the car, as if something
Speaker 1: was pounding on the roof with all its might. John,
Speaker 1: now shaking, turned the ignition, but the engine refused to start.
Speaker 1: The thumps came again. John hurriedly tried the key once more,
Speaker 1: and this time the engine sputtered into life. He shifted
Speaker 1: the car into gear, turned it around and sped off
Speaker 1: back to the safety of Stocksbridge. The following day, both men,
Speaker 1: despite the obvious potential for ridicule, reluctantly reported their accounts
Speaker 1: of the previous night, with Ellis putting the incident down
Speaker 1: to inexplicable phenomena. Unsurprisingly, the two officers were roundly mocked
Speaker 1: by many of their colleagues, and the story inevitably found
Speaker 1: its way to the local paper, The Sheffield Evening Star. Incredibly,
Speaker 1: as writer Dave Clark noted having investigated the story years later,
Speaker 1: both the officers stuck rigidly to their story, with Ellis
Speaker 1: maintaining there was definitely something there, but I can't explain it.
Speaker 1: I might have dismissed it as my imagination, but my
Speaker 1: partner saw it and had the identical eerie feeling at
Speaker 1: the same time. It was definitely unnerving, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: a publicity stunt, as was claimed at the time. We
Speaker 1: don't do that sort of thing in the police force.
Speaker 1: As for the security guards, Stephen Brooks and David Goldthorpe,
Speaker 1: neither stepped foot on the site again, and one of
Speaker 1: the men is believed to have since moved to Canada
Speaker 1: partly due to the stress caused by the event, and
Speaker 1: it was only the beginning. Soon many more sightings and
Speaker 1: strange occurrences would come to light. John Holmes, a lorry
Speaker 1: driver from Hillsborough, reported pulling into a depot close to
Speaker 1: the bypass late one evening when he became aware of
Speaker 1: childish voices. After a moment, he realized they were singing,
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of children anywhere. The voices
Speaker 1: seemed to be emanating from a nearby wood. Sometime later
Speaker 1: in the autumn of that year, Graham Brooke and his
Speaker 1: fourteen year old son Nigel were running close to the
Speaker 1: bypass construction site when they too saw something strange. Graham,
Speaker 1: a seasoned runner training for the London Marathon, had a
Speaker 1: regular route running from his home in northwest of Sheffield
Speaker 1: up to the village of Wortley, located close to where
Speaker 1: the bypass would eventually be built. After roughly forty five
Speaker 1: minutes of running, with dusk quickly descending, Graham, who was
Speaker 1: a short distance ahead of his son, was approaching a
Speaker 1: lay by on his way into the village when he
Speaker 1: caught sight of something unusual. It was the figure of
Speaker 1: a man who appeared to be walking with his back
Speaker 1: towards the oncoming traffic. When Nigel finally caught up with
Speaker 1: his dad, he too saw the reckless man wandering along
Speaker 1: the road. The figure, who was no more than fifty
Speaker 1: yards away, appeared to be dressed in some sort of
Speaker 1: cloak with a dark brown hood. They noticed too that
Speaker 1: it was dragging some kind of bag attached to a
Speaker 1: chain along the ground. But what was most peculiar was
Speaker 1: that the legs of the figure looked as though there
Speaker 1: were sunk into the road. As they stared in disbelief,
Speaker 1: they moved along the road to get a look at
Speaker 1: the man's face. It seemed to be covered in soot,
Speaker 1: with two dark sockets where the eyes should be. The
Speaker 1: figure drew nearer and nearer until a huge lorry swept past,
Speaker 1: right into the path of the man. As the lorry
Speaker 1: continued down the road, the figure had completely disappeared. The
Speaker 1: bypass would eventually be opened the following year, on Friday
Speaker 1: the thirteenth in May of nineteen eighty eight, and the
Speaker 1: sightings would keep coming. In July nineteen ninety, Judy Simpson
Speaker 1: and her husband David were driving close to the village
Speaker 1: of Wartley alongside the bypass when they both caught sight
Speaker 1: of someone jogging in the middle of the field to
Speaker 1: the left of the road, but looking closer. Although the
Speaker 1: jogger had the shape of a David and Judy realized
Speaker 1: with amusement that the figure appeared to be more like
Speaker 1: an outline of a person. What's more, it was moving
Speaker 1: about three feet above the ground. Suddenly, the figure leapt
Speaker 1: from the field over an embankment up ahead and landed
Speaker 1: straight in the middle of the road. Judy and David
Speaker 1: both braced for an impact, but there was nothing. It
Speaker 1: was as if the figure had melted into the vehicle.
Speaker 1: The car skidded to a halt, clambering out to search
Speaker 1: for whatever it was that they hit, there was nothing
Speaker 1: to be seen. Seven years later, on New Year's Eve,
Speaker 1: twenty eight year old Paul Ford and his wife Jane
Speaker 1: drove to Jane's sisters home in Stocksbridge to attend a party.
Speaker 1: They had just moved on to the bypass when Paul
Speaker 1: looked up to see a dark cloak clad figure standing
Speaker 1: in the road right in front of him. He immediately
Speaker 1: swerved and slammed on the brakes, wrestling with the steering
Speaker 1: wheel as the car came to a judging halt by
Speaker 1: the side of the road, but again when they looked
Speaker 1: for the figure afterwards, it was nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 1: Since such sightings have been recorded throughout the world, often
Speaker 1: with surprisingly similar details, there is the temptation to label
Speaker 1: such events as urban myths, and yet rarely does one
Speaker 1: particular location garner such a collection of similar sightings, and
Speaker 1: over time a number of suggestions have been put forward
Speaker 1: to explain the strange events. During the Industrial Revolution, the
Speaker 1: area surrounding the Stocksbridge Bypass and the A six one
Speaker 1: six road had flourished as a hub of the British
Speaker 1: coal mining industry. Up until the mid nineteenth century. It
Speaker 1: was common for children as young as five years old
Speaker 1: to be sent down the coal pits to work. Jobs
Speaker 1: undertaken by children included pulling the loaded carts along the
Speaker 1: small tunnels of the mine, or if you were really lucky,
Speaker 1: you might get a job as a trapper, opening small
Speaker 1: doors along the tunnels to let the air in. Often
Speaker 1: trappers would work for up to eighteen hours at a time,
Speaker 1: sat alone in the dark, with only the flickering light
Speaker 1: of a solitary candle for company. Naturally, accidents and deaths
Speaker 1: were a regular occurrence, perhaps, as some have suggested, one
Speaker 1: such fatal accident occurred in the Stocksbridge region, giving rise
Speaker 1: to the ghostly apparitions of the large and dancing children.
Speaker 1: Another local tale of law details the story of a
Speaker 1: monk who had rejected his monastery and as a result,
Speaker 1: after he passed away, had been buried in unconsecrated ground.
Speaker 1: Perhaps this was the very same ground that had been
Speaker 1: so brutally disturbed by the construction of the bypass. However,
Speaker 1: despite the local fondness for such explanations, no substantial evidence
Speaker 1: has been found to corroborate either of these tantalizing stories,
Speaker 1: and it is merely a coincidence, no doubt that the
Speaker 1: number six one six is considered by many scholars to
Speaker 1: be the original number of the beast. Whatever you believe,
Speaker 1: it is difficult not to at least think upon the
Speaker 1: possible traces and ghostly echoes that we traverse as we
Speaker 1: make our way from A to B to wonder whose
Speaker 1: pasts and whose buried secrets do we callously smother with
Speaker 1: our grit and tarmac. What ancient grounds, once considered consecrated,
Speaker 1: are now to be ripped apart by diggers and drills
Speaker 1: loud enough to wake the dead. Many years from now,
Speaker 1: a new generation of Planners will come across the remnants
Speaker 1: of an archaic pathway buried deep below the Earth, with
Speaker 1: nothing to discern its purpose save for a rusted sign
Speaker 1: buried near by, bearing a strange, cryptic alphanumeric code that
Speaker 1: read simply A six one six. And what then if,
Speaker 1: in the words of the illustrious Douglas Adams, it is
Speaker 1: decided one day that the entire planet is to make
Speaker 1: way for a hyper space bypass. Perhaps future intergalactic travelers
Speaker 1: will too feel that strange shiver as they make their
Speaker 1: way between Venus and Mars, turning to each other to say,
Speaker 1: I heard there were people here once, and sometimes you
Speaker 1: can almost feel them. This episode and episode five extra,
Speaker 1: due out in a couple of weeks, concludes season two
Speaker 1: of Unexplained. So I just wanted to take a moment
Speaker 1: to once again thank everyone for listening to the show
Speaker 1: and for all your support. It's been incredible, And to
Speaker 1: everybody that has made a donation, I really can't thank
Speaker 1: you enough, and I look forward to putting your donations
Speaker 1: to good use on season three. For which I may
Speaker 1: have a few changes in store, and I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy them. For anyone else who might like to do
Speaker 1: to the show, you can find the support page on
Speaker 1: the website at Unexplained podcast dot com, forward slash Support. Finally,
Speaker 1: I'd also just like to thank listener Emma Bruce for
Speaker 1: bringing the story of the Stocksbridge Bypass to my attention.
Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard Acclaimed Smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
Speaker 1: or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video any time between seven am
Speaker 1: to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc
Speaker 1: Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the
Speaker 1: app or visit teledoc dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Podcast
Speaker 1: Today to get started. That's t E la d oc
Speaker 1: dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast