Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane smith. For
Speaker 1: the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that,
Speaker 1: for one reason or other, didn't make it into the show.
Speaker 1: In last week's episode, Whispers in the Trees, we looked
Speaker 1: at the unsettling mystery of the skeleton found inside the
Speaker 1: hollowed out trunk of an old witch elm tree. The
Speaker 1: gruesome discovery was made one evening in April of nineteen
Speaker 1: forty three by four young boys looking for rabbits and
Speaker 1: birds eggs. The boys had been searching through a small
Speaker 1: stretch of forest just west of Birmingham known as Hagley
Speaker 1: Wood when they came across the bizarre tree and its
Speaker 1: grizzly secret. For over seventy years, numerous attempts have been
Speaker 1: made at piecing together the mystery, but to this day,
Speaker 1: the identity of both the victim and the perpetrator remains unknown.
Speaker 1: There is one theory, however, relating to the case that
Speaker 1: stands out amongst all others. In nineteen forty five, the
Speaker 1: historian and anthropologist doctor Margaret Murray surmised that whatever crime
Speaker 1: had been enacted may have been ritualistic in nature. Suggesting
Speaker 1: a possible link to witchcraft and the occult. Murray's supposed
Speaker 1: authority on the subject was crystallized in her nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: one book The Witch Cult in Western Europe. The book
Speaker 1: drew a great deal of criticism, but in equal measure
Speaker 1: it was also to become exceedingly influential to a number
Speaker 1: of like minded individuals, individuals such as Gerald Gardner. Today,
Speaker 1: Gardner is perhaps best known for having been a leading
Speaker 1: figure of pagan witchcraft, also known as wicker. What is
Speaker 1: perhaps less known is the extraordinary story of what Gardner,
Speaker 1: along with sixteen other witches, claims to have attempted on
Speaker 1: behalf of the British war effort in August of nineteen forty.
Speaker 1: It was an unsettling time, to say the least, after
Speaker 1: the Nazi invasion of Poland in September nineteen thirty nine,
Speaker 1: Belgium and the Netherlands was to follow in May nineteen forty.
Speaker 1: After a gallant but disastrous attempt to halt the invading forces,
Speaker 1: the British Army were forced to evacuate from the continent
Speaker 1: at Dunkirk. Barely ten days later, the Nazi army had
Speaker 1: captured France. It seemed only a matter of time before
Speaker 1: Hitler would send his forces across the Channel to claim
Speaker 1: the British Isles, and so it was when Gerald Gardner,
Speaker 1: operating as part of a group known as the New
Speaker 1: Forest Covern, hatched a cunning plan to halt the anti
Speaker 1: Scipated invasion. Born in eighteen eighty four in Blundell Sands
Speaker 1: in the northwest of England, into a wealthy line of
Speaker 1: timber merchants, Gardner was to spend his formative years traveling
Speaker 1: the world with his nurse maid, Josephine McCombe. Such exposure
Speaker 1: to many different peoples and cultures filled Gardner with a
Speaker 1: deep sense of searching and a desire to get to
Speaker 1: the root of life. It was a path that would
Speaker 1: lead him to increasingly esoteric and occult interests, culminating ultimately
Speaker 1: in his devotion to pagan witchcraft. In nineteen thirty eight,
Speaker 1: shortly after returning to the UK with his wife Dorothea,
Speaker 1: Gardner had become fascinated with a group known as the
Speaker 1: Rosicrucian Order krotona fellowship who were operating in his newly
Speaker 1: adopted town of Highcliffe on the Dorset coast. But something
Speaker 1: didn't fit. Within a year, Gardner became skeptical of some
Speaker 1: of the Orders followers who were taken to believing that
Speaker 1: their founder, George Alexander Sullivan, was immortal. After expressing his
Speaker 1: dissatisfaction to other members of the group, Gardner was invited
Speaker 1: to join a small gathering at a large house known
Speaker 1: as the Mill House in Highcliffe. After arriving, Gardner was
Speaker 1: invited to strip naked before being taken through a series
Speaker 1: of initiation rituals, by the end of which Gardener had
Speaker 1: become a fully fledged member of the New Forest Covern.
Speaker 1: Twelve months later, the fate of the British nation hung
Speaker 1: in the balance. Are you always taking care of your family?
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Speaker 1: It was shortly after night descended on Lamas Day, the
Speaker 1: first of August nineteen forty, when seventeen people made their
Speaker 1: way deep into the new forest. They gathered a few
Speaker 1: miles north of High Cliff at the foot of an
Speaker 1: ancient gallows tree known as the Naked Man. Once the
Speaker 1: group had assembled, they made their way to a part
Speaker 1: of the woodland known as Ferny Nap, in a forest
Speaker 1: clearing of ancient primordial beauty, surrounded by birch, oak and fern.
Speaker 1: The group marked out a large circle of about nine
Speaker 1: feet in diameter. It was a witch's circle. A shutter
Speaker 1: lantern was placed to the east of the circle, facing
Speaker 1: out towards Berlin, providing a beacon for which the group
Speaker 1: could focus their powers. One by one, the group lined
Speaker 1: themselves around the circle and began to strip free from
Speaker 1: their clothes in preparation for the ritual. Some covered themselves
Speaker 1: in goose fat to better endure the chill summer air.
Speaker 1: On the order of one the group began to dance
Speaker 1: in a spiral pattern about the circle, slowly at first,
Speaker 1: but then as their awareness grew, the movement became faster
Speaker 1: and more fluid. Then they began to chant louder and louder.
Speaker 1: As the bodies spun around the circle. More and more
Speaker 1: they moved as their voices built in unison to an
Speaker 1: ecstatic crescendo. Finally, with the cone of power established in
Speaker 1: all their minds, a collective picture was drawn of a
Speaker 1: circular base of energy moving up like clay on a
Speaker 1: potter's wheel, squeezing to an apex of power, rising high
Speaker 1: into the night sky before being flung through the air.
Speaker 1: The energy bursting forth from the cone thundered over the
Speaker 1: tree tops and across the fields, across the freezing gray
Speaker 1: waters of the North Sea and the lowlands of Europe,
Speaker 1: and headed straight for the mines of the German High Command.
Speaker 1: You cannot cross the sea. They said you cannot cross
Speaker 1: the sea. You will not cross the sea. The rest is,
Speaker 1: of course history. All elements have Unexplained are produced by me,
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Hello, it's
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