Speaker 1: The island of Guernsey, located just off the northwest coast
Speaker 1: of France, is thought to be one of the first
Speaker 1: of the Channel Isles that was separated from the mainland,
Speaker 1: with communities believed to have resided there since at least
Speaker 1: eight thousand BC, back in the Mesolithic Age. It is
Speaker 1: little wonder then, that this place, with its singular and
Speaker 1: ancient history, has proved such fertile ground for so many
Speaker 1: folk tales over the years, many of which you can
Speaker 1: find in The Wonderful Guernsey Folklore by Sir Edgar McCulloch,
Speaker 1: first published in nineteen oh three. With chapter headings such
Speaker 1: as Ghosts and Prophetic Warnings, the Devil, Demons and Goblins,
Speaker 1: McCulloch's book really has it all. Within its pages, you'll
Speaker 1: find all manner of peculiar tales, from apparent ghostly apparitions
Speaker 1: to the many reported sightings of the terrifying black dog,
Speaker 1: an infamous omen of death known variously as she Co
Speaker 1: or shen Bodou that is said to stalk the island.
Speaker 1: One story regarding a cave known as lacrue Mahei, located
Speaker 1: on the island's south coast, suggests it may in fact
Speaker 1: be an entryway to the underworld of the Fairies, a
Speaker 1: race of other worldly beings that are said to make
Speaker 1: frequent appearances on the island. With Guernsey being an island,
Speaker 1: naturally maritime superstitions and the mysteries of the sea also
Speaker 1: feature heavily. Thus so much in fact, I felt certain
Speaker 1: I would find a story suitable enough for an episode
Speaker 1: of this podcast. However, as I dug a little further
Speaker 1: into the many tales collated there, I continually came up
Speaker 1: against the same problem, which was, namely, the distinct lack
Speaker 1: of solid facts with which to hang a story of
Speaker 1: the kind I like to tell. Unexplained. More often than not,
Speaker 1: stories of peculiar goings on seemed to have been relayed
Speaker 1: second or third hand. They were simply tales whispered and
Speaker 1: traded from one islander to the next, with many portrayed
Speaker 1: merely as vague superstitions for which the provenance had long
Speaker 1: been lost to time. Thankfully for me, I didn't have
Speaker 1: to look far for something with a little more meat
Speaker 1: on the bone. Perhaps the most startling stories to come
Speaker 1: out of Guernsey are those concerning so called which is
Speaker 1: between fifteen fifty and sixteen fifty It is thought that
Speaker 1: at least one hundred individuals were accused of witchcraft. There
Speaker 1: Those unfortunate enough to be convicted suffered or manner of punishments,
Speaker 1: from flogging to being burned at the stake. The story
Speaker 1: of Perrotine Massey is one especially horrific true tale that
Speaker 1: continues to haunt all to this day who hear it.
Speaker 1: In fifteen fifty six, Massey, along with her sister Guillemine Gilbert,
Speaker 1: and their mother, Catherine Couche, was accused of stealing a goblet,
Speaker 1: and all three were taken to trial over it. They
Speaker 1: were eventually found innocent of the crime. During their trial, however,
Speaker 1: it came out that the women, who identified as Calvinist
Speaker 1: had not been adhering to the religious standards of the
Speaker 1: day as demanded by the court of the queen at
Speaker 1: the time, the Catholic Mary. The first three women who
Speaker 1: became known as the Guernsey Martyrs, were subsequently found guilty
Speaker 1: of heresy and on the eighteenth of July fifteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: were burned at the stake. The method of the day
Speaker 1: was to strangle the accused first with a large rope
Speaker 1: so that they might die before the flames took hold. However,
Speaker 1: no sooner was this attempted than the rope snapped and
Speaker 1: or three fell alive into the flames. If that wasn't
Speaker 1: horrendous enough, Perrotine Massey was heavily pregnant at the time.
Speaker 1: As she fell down on her side, her flesh burning
Speaker 1: in the fire, her belly burst open, and her baby's son,
Speaker 1: as alive as a newborn, tumbled out of her. The
Speaker 1: boy was first recovered from the flames, only for Guernsey's bailiff,
Speaker 1: Elier Gosselin to demand that he be thrown back into them,
Speaker 1: and so he was. Best Fiends is a new, fun packed,
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Speaker 1: the persecution of so called witches and the horror of
Speaker 1: what befell the Guernsey Martyrs, it's little wonder that many
Speaker 1: believe something of those times still haunts the island. And
Speaker 1: perhaps it was just these such tales that were on
Speaker 1: the mind of the Colonnette family when in late nineteen
Speaker 1: oh two strange things began to happen in their rented home.
Speaker 1: Number seven Union Street lies in Saint peter Port, Guernsey's capital,
Speaker 1: located in the middle of the island's east coast. Basil Colonnet,
Speaker 1: who lived there with his wife and children, was a
Speaker 1: photographer who also used the property as his studio. It
Speaker 1: is said to have begun late one night with a
Speaker 1: series of loud knockings and bangs that reverberated through the walls.
Speaker 1: Before long, the furniture was beginning to move. A chair
Speaker 1: left in one spot might be found moments later in
Speaker 1: a completely different part of the room. One morning, the
Speaker 1: family was said to have awoken to find a number
Speaker 1: of portraits hanging up on their walls had all been
Speaker 1: turned around. These bizarre events appeared to have piqued when
Speaker 1: Basil sat down for dinner one night only to see
Speaker 1: a ghostly pair of hands reach out from over his shoulders,
Speaker 1: as if about to snatch away his food. But the
Speaker 1: worst was yet to come. One night, one of Basil's
Speaker 1: daughters was making her way upstairs to bed when she
Speaker 1: was suddenly confronted by a terrifying fission, the spectral image
Speaker 1: of a woman dressed in white staring right at her.
Speaker 1: This ghostly figure is said to have reached out toward
Speaker 1: her with hideously elongated fingers that were streaked with blood.
Speaker 1: The young woman was so disturbed by the incident she
Speaker 1: ran straight to her room and didn't come out for days.
Speaker 1: The family vacated the property soon after, with Basil only
Speaker 1: using it in the daytime for his studio. As word
Speaker 1: quickly spread of the terrifying events, people from the local
Speaker 1: neighborhood flocked to the house in the hope of witnessing
Speaker 1: the ghostly goings on for themselves. As a result, the
Speaker 1: police were called out to keep the peace, with one
Speaker 1: report claiming that when the officers arrived to investigate, children
Speaker 1: burst out the front door screaming for help. They had
Speaker 1: apparently been conducting an investigation of their own insight when
Speaker 1: they saw the ghostly image of a man staring at
Speaker 1: them from behind a broken window. One officer, after entering
Speaker 1: the property, was reportedly struck in the face by a
Speaker 1: flying doormat, while another was levitated into the air after
Speaker 1: taking a seat in Basil's studio. Some local residents, keen
Speaker 1: to get evidence of the apparent ghost, placed chalk on
Speaker 1: the stairs, then locked a chocolate box in a cupboard
Speaker 1: and challenged the entity to remove it when they returned
Speaker 1: a short time later, with no one having entered the
Speaker 1: house in the meantime, It is said that footsteps were
Speaker 1: clearly visible in the chalk, while the chocolate box was
Speaker 1: found left out in the middle of the kitchen table,
Speaker 1: with the peculiar detail that small feather was balancing on
Speaker 1: top of it. At some point, it was recommended to
Speaker 1: the family that they searched the house for any human
Speaker 1: remains that might account for a spirit being trapped there.
Speaker 1: To that end, the kitchen range was removed in order
Speaker 1: to excavate the floor underneath. However, no remains were discovered.
Speaker 1: By March nineteen o three, with the story having made
Speaker 1: it into the local press, it caught the attention of
Speaker 1: well known Guernsey resident Henry Turner. The then sixty year
Speaker 1: old Turner, who was once described by the Guernsey Evening
Speaker 1: Press as a showman, a lover of publicity and maybe
Speaker 1: an eccentric, is perhaps best known for being Victor Hugo's
Speaker 1: personal bookbinder, arguably Guernsey's most famous former resident. Turner, who
Speaker 1: owned over twenty properties on the island, including his famed
Speaker 1: antique store at number seven Mill Street, Saint Peter Port,
Speaker 1: received regular mentions in the island's principal paper, The Guernsey Star,
Speaker 1: which gives you some idea of his standing in the
Speaker 1: local community. After hearing about the mysterious events in Union Street.
Speaker 1: Turner wrote to The Guernsey Star offering to donate ten
Speaker 1: pounds to the recipient's charity of choice if they could
Speaker 1: prove beyond reasonable doubt that the property was indeed haunted.
Speaker 1: Further to this, Turner offered to investigate the property himself,
Speaker 1: vowing to spend seven nights there alone in order to
Speaker 1: prove there was no ghost. Turner, as a landlord himself,
Speaker 1: claimed he felt compelled to make the gesture out of
Speaker 1: concern for the building's owner, Miss Mollett, and the value
Speaker 1: of her property, which he feared would decrease should it
Speaker 1: acquire a reputation for being haunted. Mollett gladly took him
Speaker 1: up on the offer, and so on the evening of
Speaker 1: March twenty sixth, nineteen o three, Turner, accompanied by his
Speaker 1: trusty dog Fido, entered the vacant property, having arrived at
Speaker 1: eight pm. He spent the first few hours in the
Speaker 1: company of other curious parties, then, shortly before midnight he
Speaker 1: bid them all a good night, then locked himself up
Speaker 1: inside alone, with only candle light to guide him. He
Speaker 1: hung up some pictures on a few of the walls
Speaker 1: and placed a plate of flour on the kitchen floor
Speaker 1: to test for ghostly footprints. Then, with candle in hand,
Speaker 1: he retired to the living room, where he took a
Speaker 1: seat in one of the property's few remaining chairs and
Speaker 1: blew out the flame. Plunged instantly into darkness, with only
Speaker 1: the loyal Fido curled up on the floor by his
Speaker 1: feet for company. He felt his senses slowly beginning to
Speaker 1: heighten as he sat waiting in the pitch black stillness.
Speaker 1: The darkness seemed to morph and swirl before him as
Speaker 1: his eyes fought to adjust. When all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: something touched his leg. Turner cried out in fright and
Speaker 1: hurriedly fumbled for the matches. On first strike, a burst
Speaker 1: of orange light flooded the room to reveal Fido sat
Speaker 1: up at his feet, with his paw resting gently on
Speaker 1: Turner's leg. With great relief and a little disappointment, Turner
Speaker 1: soon collected himself and returned to the task at hand.
Speaker 1: Three hours later, the first light of dawn crept in
Speaker 1: through the curtains and gently illuminated the room. Turner's vigil
Speaker 1: was over. As promised, Turner completed his week's worth of
Speaker 1: nightly vigils in the property but in the end found
Speaker 1: no evidence whatsoever that the house was haunted. Perhaps most
Speaker 1: relieved was miss Mollett, who later thanked him in an
Speaker 1: open letter for dispelling the potentially costly rumor. As for
Speaker 1: the place itself, it isn't known who occupied it after
Speaker 1: the Colonnett's tendency came to an end, or indeed, if
Speaker 1: any other peculiar events were known to have happened there. Ironically,
Speaker 1: despite his commitment to disproving the apparent haunting at Union Street,
Speaker 1: Turner insisted that rather than being scared at the notion
Speaker 1: of seeing a ghost, he would much rather have seen
Speaker 1: one than not, due to what this might reveal in
Speaker 1: regards to the possibility of life after death. In nineteen
Speaker 1: oh seven, only a few years after these bizarre events,
Speaker 1: Turner was struck down with ill health and died soon after,
Speaker 1: when perhaps he finally learned the truth about the possibility
Speaker 1: of ghosts, or perhaps he learned nothing at all. Turner's
Speaker 1: sentiment about wanting to see a ghost is one I
Speaker 1: share myself, and perhaps you two would be comforted by
Speaker 1: the sighting of a ghost, particularly that of a friend
Speaker 1: or a lost loved one. Almost without exception, however, dating
Speaker 1: back to our earliest cultures, from those of the Ebo
Speaker 1: in West Africa to the Bengali of South Asia, the
Speaker 1: sighting of a ghost was rarely something to celebrate. Commonly,
Speaker 1: the appearance of a ghost would speak of something unsettled,
Speaker 1: the result of a body not properly buried, perhaps, or
Speaker 1: one that had been lost at sea, or maybe, if
Speaker 1: the ghost was especially angry, a final resting place that
Speaker 1: had been disturbed. That people lived on the land we
Speaker 1: know today as Guernsey, certainly as far back as four
Speaker 1: thousand BC, is evidenced by the many incredible relics that
Speaker 1: have been found there dating back to that era, most
Speaker 1: prominently the many dolmen that have been unearthed in the
Speaker 1: last few hundred years. A dolmen is essentially a megalithic
Speaker 1: tomb or burial chamber comprised of two large stones placed
Speaker 1: side by side, with another large stone known as a capstone,
Speaker 1: placed on top to create a chamber underneath where a
Speaker 1: body or bodies would be laid, and Guernsey is littered
Speaker 1: with them. In Edgar McCulloch's book Guernsey Folklore, in the
Speaker 1: chapter Prehistoric Monuments and their Superstitions, he outlines one especially
Speaker 1: troubling story connected with these sepulchral monuments. Laroque Quisson, one
Speaker 1: of the largest dolmans discovered on Guernsey, or what remains
Speaker 1: of it, can now be found in the playground of
Speaker 1: Vale Primary School in the parish of Vale, in the
Speaker 1: northeast of the island. As the story goes, the dolmen
Speaker 1: was discovered sometime around eighteen hundred on land belonging to
Speaker 1: a mister Hocart. With little interest in its archeological significance,
Speaker 1: Hokart promptly had its smashed up for use as a
Speaker 1: building material. Most of it was split into paving stones
Speaker 1: or smashed into smaller pieces, with a view to being
Speaker 1: sold off and shipped to England. From the moment the
Speaker 1: rocks were found, however, there were murmurings among the locals,
Speaker 1: worried about Hocart's plans. Some tried to warn him against
Speaker 1: destroying the Dolman for fear that it might put a
Speaker 1: curse on him and the island, but Hocart didn't listen.
Speaker 1: Shortly after using some of the material in his new
Speaker 1: house built, the house burned down, killing two servants inside.
Speaker 1: Then two ships transporting fragments of the stones to England
Speaker 1: were lost at sea, with all on board believed to
Speaker 1: have drowned. Not long after, Hocart moved across to the
Speaker 1: island of Alderney, where once again his house burned down,
Speaker 1: and on his return journey to Guernsey he is said
Speaker 1: to have encountered rough seas. As his boat was tossed
Speaker 1: about on the waves, the rigging collapsed, hitting him square
Speaker 1: on the head, killing him instantly. The people of Guernsey,
Speaker 1: it seemed, had been warned. Have you ever been interested
Speaker 1: in a conspiracy theory? What's the most fascinating one you've
Speaker 1: ever heard? In Land of Delusion, cultural historian and acclaimed
Speaker 1: author Colin Dickey dives deep into two bizarre theories gaining
Speaker 1: traction in the United States and Russia today from a
Speaker 1: worldwide empire erased from the history books to a claim
Speaker 1: that history itself began only eight hundred years ago. Taken
Speaker 1: entertaining but grimly serious journey into the warped logic of
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorists that just hint at where present society is heading.
Speaker 1: In Land of Delusion, I immensely enjoyed Dickie's book, which
Speaker 1: was riveting and maddening an equal measure as I came
Speaker 1: face to face with one character after another who, despite
Speaker 1: having access to the exact same information about the world
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Speaker 1: That's try dot scr ibd dot com slash unexplained to
Speaker 1: start with a free sixty day trial. On the north
Speaker 1: coast of Guernsey in the district of Lelay, just off
Speaker 1: the corner of close to Sablon, Hidden behind a wall
Speaker 1: and some trees lies a small patch of grass dotted
Speaker 1: with stones. Many years ago it would have been a beach,
Speaker 1: but due to the land to the north of it,
Speaker 1: being artificially reclaimed in eighteen twelve. It now sits roughly
Speaker 1: six hundred feet in land. In the years that followed
Speaker 1: its reclamation, the area became a natural repository for sand
Speaker 1: blown in from the newly established beach to the north.
Speaker 1: In time, as the sand deposits became more substantial, builders
Speaker 1: began to use it as a natural sampit for local
Speaker 1: building operations, and it was there in late October nineteen
Speaker 1: twelve that a laborer by the name of Fork made
Speaker 1: his way, stepping past the clumps of long grass and
Speaker 1: brambles at the pit's edge, towards one of the few
Speaker 1: mounds of sand that had yet to be dug out.
Speaker 1: After taking away a few cartloads, he suddenly noticed something
Speaker 1: peculiar about the handful of rocks that had gradually begun
Speaker 1: to protrude at the top of it. The stones were
Speaker 1: positioned in a circle, and, even to Fork's untrained eye,
Speaker 1: had clearly been placed there deliberately. After informing his employers,
Speaker 1: they in turn contacted the Guernsey Society of Natural Science
Speaker 1: and invited them to come and examine the sight. Having
Speaker 1: spent a day carefully excavating around the stones, the Society
Speaker 1: were excited to find they had uncovered a small Neolithic
Speaker 1: stone circle. Looking around the sight at some of the
Speaker 1: other larger stones that peaked above the sand, the Society
Speaker 1: volunteers began to wander. A hammer was taken to one
Speaker 1: especially big boulder that stuck out of the middle of
Speaker 1: the pit and brought down hard against its surface. The
Speaker 1: resultant reverberation suggested the stone was far bigger than first assumed.
Speaker 1: A few hours of digging later, and it was revealed
Speaker 1: to be a capstone lying on top of a much
Speaker 1: bigger structure. They'd uncovered a dolmen about six foot long
Speaker 1: and four feet wide. On Friday, October twenty fifth, the
Speaker 1: dolmen had been sufficiently exposed to begin the process of
Speaker 1: opening it. With great care, the vast capstone, essentially a
Speaker 1: giant coffin lid made of rock, was eased back and
Speaker 1: the Society volunteers were finally able to access the chamber
Speaker 1: inside and in there. Beside a few fragments of pottery,
Speaker 1: the team also found what appeared to be to fragments
Speaker 1: of human bone. Early the next morning, with news of
Speaker 1: the latest archeological find beginning to filter through to the
Speaker 1: wider community. The owner of Burt and Co. Butchers at
Speaker 1: Saint Sampson Bridge arrived at their store to find the
Speaker 1: place had been ransacked. The unknown assailant appeared to have
Speaker 1: crawled in through the front window like a dark and
Speaker 1: disappeared with an assortment of raw meats from insight. As
Speaker 1: local police pondered on who on earth had done such
Speaker 1: a thing, more revelations were uncovered at the site. In Lelay.
Speaker 1: A beautifully preserved urn was found at the entrance to
Speaker 1: the large dolmen, which itself was found to be the
Speaker 1: centerpiece of a much wider stone circle, measuring about twenty
Speaker 1: five feet in diameter, but the north and south ends
Speaker 1: either side of the central tomb to More dolmen were discovered,
Speaker 1: including one that had possibly been built for a mother
Speaker 1: and child. The Archeology Society had not uncovered one to
Speaker 1: whom they had uncovered a graveyard, and it wasn't long
Speaker 1: after that that strange things began to happen. On the
Speaker 1: morning of November fifth, on Bertelow Street in some peter Port,
Speaker 1: some builders were working on scaffolding at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the road when a car was parked a little further
Speaker 1: up the hill, with the driver having left the vehicle.
Speaker 1: A few moments later, the car suddenly jumped inexplicably and
Speaker 1: began to roll down the hill, straight toward an elderly
Speaker 1: woman who just stepped into the road below, and toward
Speaker 1: the builders on the scaffolding. The woman leapt out of
Speaker 1: the way just in time before a slight bump in
Speaker 1: the road knocked the vehicle off course and diverted it
Speaker 1: away from the scaffolding, sending it smashing into the corner
Speaker 1: of a nearby house. It was a miracle that no
Speaker 1: one was hurt. An hour or so later, ten year
Speaker 1: old Roger Boussier was walking down Mill Street when his
Speaker 1: foot somehow slipped from underneath him just as a van
Speaker 1: drove by. The van miss to the boy's head by inches,
Speaker 1: but drove right over his arm, crushing his elbow. And
Speaker 1: at almost precisely the same time, a man cycling along
Speaker 1: the North Key for some unaccountable reason, was suddenly thrown
Speaker 1: from his bike head first into the tarmac, smashing his
Speaker 1: face and knocking him out cold. It was the following
Speaker 1: night when much loved Reverend George Lee, the sixty year
Speaker 1: old rector of Saint Peter Port was climbing the stairs
Speaker 1: of his home when he suffered a massive heart attack
Speaker 1: and collapsed, dying shortly afterwards. As it happened, Reverend Lee
Speaker 1: was one of the archeological volunteers who had been helping
Speaker 1: out at the Dolman sight in Leelee, though he'd been
Speaker 1: ill for some time. It was reported soon after in
Speaker 1: the press that there was no indication that is indisposition
Speaker 1: was of so serious a character as it eventually proved
Speaker 1: to be, and that was just the beginning. You've been
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained Season six, episode twenty six, Under the
Speaker 1: Rocks and Stones, Part one of two. Part two will
Speaker 1: be released next Friday, December ninth. If you enjoy Unexplained
Speaker 1: and would like to help supporters, you can now do
Speaker 1: so via Patreon. To receive access to add three episodes,
Speaker 1: just go to patron dot com forward slash Unexplained pod
Speaker 1: to sign up. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring ten
Speaker 1: stories that have never before been covered on the show,
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements
Speaker 1: of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share. You can reach us
Speaker 1: online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained
Speaker 1: Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained
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