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Speaker 1: Hello is Richard McClean smith here. Season seven of Unexplained

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Speaker 1: will begin next week on Friday, July twenty eighth. Until then,

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Speaker 1: there's time for one final favorite episode. This week, we're

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Speaker 1: heading back to broad Haven in Wales, the scene of

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Speaker 1: a series of extraordinary events that occurred over the course

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Speaker 1: of a few bizarre months in nineteen seventy seven, and

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Speaker 1: it all began in the playground of a local primary school.

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Speaker 1: This is Unexplained Season three, Episode six, Shores of the Unknown.

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Speaker 1: In February nineteen fifty three, a letter was published in

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Speaker 1: the national British newspaper The Times with an extraordinary revelation.

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Speaker 1: The letter, sent by an associate of Ampleforth Abbey in

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Speaker 1: North Yorkshire, gave details of an ancient manuscript that had

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Speaker 1: recently been discovered in the abbey's archives. The text, dating

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Speaker 1: to around twelve ninety CE, described the various mundanities of

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Speaker 1: the lives of the Benedictine monks who were thought to

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Speaker 1: have lived there at the time, all fairly predictable, save

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Speaker 1: for one startling detail. Whilst preparing food for a feast,

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Speaker 1: it was written that when Henry the Abbot was about

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Speaker 1: to say grace, John, one of the brethren rushed into

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Speaker 1: the hall, claiming to have seen a great portent outside.

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Speaker 1: The monks stepped out together, where moments later they witnessed

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Speaker 1: a large, round, silver thing like a disk, flying slowly

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Speaker 1: above them. It is a story often repeated in the

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Speaker 1: animals of Eupology, up there with Ezekiel's biblical vision of

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Speaker 1: glowing metal in the sky. It was, of course a hoax,

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Speaker 1: fabricated by two schoolboys of Amplefoth College. As it transpired,

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Speaker 1: there had never been an Ampleforth Abbey as far back

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Speaker 1: as the thirteenth century. In later iterations, to accommodate this

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Speaker 1: minor contrary detail, the story was changed, swapping Amplefoth for

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Speaker 1: the far more ancient and credible location of nearby Biland Abbey.

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Speaker 1: We might say that the mutation of such a story

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Speaker 1: is evidence of its fictitious origins. And yet, as a

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Speaker 1: species of storytellers, we seem naturally predisposed to adapt our

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Speaker 1: stories in our endless retelling of them, regardless of their fit.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it is only in small ways, a slight change

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Speaker 1: of detail here or there, but never so much that

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Speaker 1: we lose the principal truth of it. Other times they

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Speaker 1: can become so reworked, we are left to wonder, much

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Speaker 1: like the Theseus paradox, If any of the original truth

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Speaker 1: remains at all, the stories become unmoored, creating realities all

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Speaker 1: of their own. It is as though the stories themselves

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Speaker 1: are alive, living, organic things to be handled with care,

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Speaker 1: which is why it is all the more compelling, particularly

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Speaker 1: for those tellers of stories of a fourteen persuasion, when

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Speaker 1: their accounts remain stubbornly resistant to change. You're listening to Unexplained,

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Speaker 1: and I'm Richard mc lean smith. The rain had been

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Speaker 1: pummeling down for hours, though most of the children had

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Speaker 1: not been put off by the torrent, glad for any

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Speaker 1: opportunity to run around outside. Ten year old David Davies

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Speaker 1: had always preferred the comfort of the class room, a

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Speaker 1: place to read and work while the wind rattled the

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Speaker 1: windows from outside. Aside from the unusually wet weather, it

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Speaker 1: had been a fairly average Friday in broad Haven, the

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Speaker 1: quaint coastal village overlooking the majesty of Saint Bride's Bay

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Speaker 1: on the southwestern edge of Cumery, also known as the

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Speaker 1: Country of Wales. At the local primary school, however, Fridays

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Speaker 1: were always tinged with a certain magic lifted by the

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Speaker 1: promise of the approaching weekend. It was the perfect day,

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Speaker 1: you might say, for David's friend Philip to concoct the

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Speaker 1: story he was just preparing to tell him as he

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Speaker 1: burst into the classroom full of excitement, Talking wildly, he

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Speaker 1: was barely able to get it all out as David

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Speaker 1: tried his best to keep up. They had seen something

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Speaker 1: at the far end of the playground, he said, some

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Speaker 1: kind of vehicle hovering above the ground. Soon others joined in.

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Speaker 1: Who had seen it too? A ufo, said one. No,

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Speaker 1: a flying saucer, said another. David listened incredulous as the

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Speaker 1: tale grew bigger and bigger. They had watched it for

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Speaker 1: thirty minutes, they said. One boy had even seen a

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Speaker 1: man in a silver suit with spiked up ears climbing

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Speaker 1: out of it. David laughed it away, and, not being

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Speaker 1: one to believe such nonsense, resolved to expose the prank

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Speaker 1: at the first opportunity. And so it was that, at

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Speaker 1: roughly three forty five p m. David found himself making

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Speaker 1: his way over the small concreted playground and out into

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Speaker 1: the boggy playing fields beyond to where this apparent ufo

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Speaker 1: had been seen. The playing area comprised of about two

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Speaker 1: acres of land, boarded at the back by a small

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Speaker 1: stream and pockets of woodland, beyond which the surrounding fields

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Speaker 1: merged into a series of soft rolling hills. With the

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Speaker 1: wind and rain whipping at his face and his feet

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Speaker 1: becoming increasingly sodden, as he approached the perimeter fence, David

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Speaker 1: was beginning to wonder why he'd bothered to make the journey.

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Speaker 1: Stopping at the fence, he stared out into the trees beyond.

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Speaker 1: It was only when he'd placed one leg over the

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Speaker 1: fence that something in an adjacent field caught his attention,

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Speaker 1: and then he saw it. It appeared to be attempting

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Speaker 1: to exit the woods, but had become stuck. At roughly

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Speaker 1: thirteen meters in length, it was evidently mechanical, but oddly shaped,

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Speaker 1: with a central dome and a red pulsating light on

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Speaker 1: the top of it. Curiously, there was no sound, But

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Speaker 1: what struck David the most was the strange color of it,

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Speaker 1: a swirl of soft but vibrant shades like mother of pearl.

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Speaker 1: For a moment he couldn't take his eyes off it,

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Speaker 1: But as the craft moved back behind the trees, an

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Speaker 1: urge started to grow in his mind. The urge was

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Speaker 1: run before he knew it, he was already half way

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Speaker 1: back towards the school, running as if his life depended

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Speaker 1: on it. When he returned home that afternoon, David's mother

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Speaker 1: was immediately concerned by his distressed state. Quite unsure who

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Speaker 1: to contact, but convinced of his story, she placed a

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Speaker 1: call to Randall Jones Pew. Pew was a member of

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Speaker 1: the British UFO Research Association and well known in the

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Speaker 1: local area as something of an expert on the subject.

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Speaker 1: Excited by the proximity of this latest apparent sighting, the

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Speaker 1: amateur investigator drove immediately to the Davies family home in

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Speaker 1: tears Cross to interview David. Not long after, the pair

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Speaker 1: was stood at the edge of broad Head, a school playground,

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Speaker 1: as David took him through exactly what he had seen. However,

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Speaker 1: with the light fading fast and the rain continuing to

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Speaker 1: pelt down, Pugh decided to return the next day to

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Speaker 1: investigate further. The following morning, Randall returned with local journalist

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Speaker 1: Hugh Turnbull, but found no track marks in the ground

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Speaker 1: or any other evidence of a vehicle, having recently been

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Speaker 1: in the area, until something peculiar caught their eye. A

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Speaker 1: wooden telegraph pole close to the area of the apparent sighting,

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Speaker 1: listing at a forty five degree angle. The mud at

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Speaker 1: its base ripped up from the ground as if it

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Speaker 1: had only recently been knocked over that weekend. David, along

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Speaker 1: with the thirteen other children who claimed to have witnessed

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Speaker 1: the ct tried their best to come to terms with

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Speaker 1: what they had seen, whilst parents did their best to

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Speaker 1: reassure them that it had all been a figment of

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Speaker 1: their imagination. The school's head teacher, Ralph Llewellyn, had been

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Speaker 1: the first adult to hear about the incident, after being

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Speaker 1: chased down by one excitable pupil shortly after lunchtime on

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Speaker 1: the Friday. Naturally, believing it to have been some kind

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Speaker 1: of joke, he had assumed it would all blow over

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Speaker 1: by the following Monday. However, when the children returned even

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Speaker 1: more adamant that what they had seen had not been

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Speaker 1: a mere trick of the mind, Llewellyn was forced to

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Speaker 1: think again. Now a little unnerved by their sincerity, he

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Speaker 1: invited all fourteen pupils who claimed to have witnessed the

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Speaker 1: peculiar event under exam conditions to draw for him what

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Speaker 1: they had seen. Perhaps it was the therapeutic process of

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Speaker 1: putting into pictures what they hadn't quite been able to articulate,

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Speaker 1: or merely the sense that they were finally being taken

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Speaker 1: seriously that brought a sense of calm to the school

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Speaker 1: that morning. But if head teacher Llewellyn was hoping for closure,

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Speaker 1: he would be sorely disappointed. That afternoon, a strange atmosphere

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Speaker 1: descended on the staff room as one by one the

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Speaker 1: teachers laid out the pictures side by side, despite not

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Speaker 1: knowing that they would be asked to draw what they

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Speaker 1: had seen and having little to no time to confer

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Speaker 1: on the matter. Each of the children's pictures were startlingly similar.

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Speaker 1: After Hugh Turnbull's article about the apparent incident was published

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Speaker 1: later that day, the town quickly became a center of

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Speaker 1: national attention as journalists and news cameras flocked to the area.

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Speaker 1: Few took the claim seriously, however, seeing as it was

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Speaker 1: after all, based only on the evidence of children, and

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Speaker 1: it wasn't long before the teachers and pupils began to

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Speaker 1: tire of the attention, with interview requests being increasingly declined.

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Speaker 1: The cameras soon left the incident, destined to disappear into

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Speaker 1: the mists of the strange but true. But all that

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Speaker 1: was about to change. Two weeks later, one broad Haven

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Speaker 1: school teacher, standing in the playground around ten thirty a m.

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Speaker 1: Had just become aware of a peculiar electrical hum when

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Speaker 1: she caught sight of something moving in the distance at

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Speaker 1: the far end of the playground. She would later describe

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Speaker 1: it as being shaped like a saucer, with a slight

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Speaker 1: dome and a silvery metallic surface. It wasn't so much

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Speaker 1: moving as shimmering behind the trees. Later that day, shortly

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Speaker 1: before lunch, two canteen workers, unaware of the earlier sighting,

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Speaker 1: also saw something in the exact same spot. They watched

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Speaker 1: as it moved up the slope towards the hills before

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Speaker 1: disappearing altogether. As they explained their sighting to head teacher

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Speaker 1: Llewellyn moments later, they also described a figure of what

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Speaker 1: they took to be a man climbing into the vehicle

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Speaker 1: before it moved away up the hill. Only this wasn't

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Speaker 1: a strange, unidentifiable craft, they thought, but merely an odd

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Speaker 1: looking council vehicle, possibly attacked to the local sewage works.

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Speaker 1: Convinced this was what the children must have seen, the

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Speaker 1: Cooks determined to put an end to the story once

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Speaker 1: and for all, and returned to the location the following morning,

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Speaker 1: hoping to at least find some tire marks in the mud,

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Speaker 1: but when they got there, they found nothing. The council

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Speaker 1: were contacted soon after to try and shed some light

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Speaker 1: on the mystery, only to confirm that no trucks or

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Speaker 1: any other vehicle had been anywhere near the school in

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Speaker 1: the last two weeks. Although he would not go as

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Speaker 1: far as to confirm the wildest of speculations, the school's

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Speaker 1: head teacher, Ralph Llewellyn, maintained of his young pupils that

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Speaker 1: he did not disbelieve they saw something they had never

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Speaker 1: seen before. It was certainly a novel series of events

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Speaker 1: for the ordinarily down to earth community, and they were

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Speaker 1: only just beginning. The sun had already dipped below the

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Speaker 1: horizon by the time Pauline set off for the farm house,

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Speaker 1: and with only the finest sliver of a waning moon above,

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Speaker 1: darkness would soon be upon them. Pauline and her husband Billy,

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Speaker 1: an expert dairy farmer, had moved to the area in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four to take over Ripperston Farm, located just

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Speaker 1: four kilometers to the southwest of broad Haven Village. On

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Speaker 1: that night in March nineteen seventy seven, Pauline was returning

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Speaker 1: in her car from the nearby town Saint Ishmael, with

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Speaker 1: her two twin daughters beside her in the passenger seat

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Speaker 1: and her ten year old son Kieran in the back.

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Speaker 1: They hadn't gone far when kiir Aryan first caught sight

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Speaker 1: of something in the sky moving towards them. Oval shaped

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Speaker 1: with a luminous quality, It appeared to be lit up

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Speaker 1: from below by a soft yellowish light that shone down

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Speaker 1: to the ground. Pauline watched with alarm as it drew

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Speaker 1: nearer and nearer, until finally it looked as though it

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Speaker 1: might crash right through the windscreen, turning sharply into the

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Speaker 1: next road. Pauline watched with relief as the light flew

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Speaker 1: straight over the car and off into the distance behind.

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Speaker 1: Moments later, Kieran, who had been watching it out the

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Speaker 1: back window, gave a sudden cry. The light had turned

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Speaker 1: around and headed straight back in the direction of their car. Hurry, mummy,

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Speaker 1: it's getting closer, he shouted, as Pauline switched the lights

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Speaker 1: to full beam and pressed down on the accelerator pedal,

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Speaker 1: trying to keep the car steady as they sped down

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Speaker 1: the narrow country roads. After finally pulling into the entrance

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Speaker 1: to the farm, Pauline was convinced she had lost it

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Speaker 1: until scanning the line of trees flanking the road to

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Speaker 1: the right, she saw it again, just above the treetops,

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Speaker 1: as if it were deliberately keeping pace with the car. Suddenly,

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Speaker 1: the headlights began to flicker and the car's engine sputtered.

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Speaker 1: Pauline banged on the dashboard, but it was to no avail.

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Speaker 1: Moments later, the children screamed as the lights cut out,

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Speaker 1: plunging them into total darkness, followed by the engine completely

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Speaker 1: shutting down. When the car eventually rolled to a stop

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Speaker 1: just short at the farmhouse, Pauline wrenched the crying and

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Speaker 1: terrified children from inside and raced them into the house.

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Speaker 1: Another son, Clinton, having heard the commotion, arrived just in

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Speaker 1: time to see the strange light flying off toward the coast.

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Speaker 1: Husband Billy, who arrived a few seconds later, had seen nothing.

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Speaker 1: While Pauline recounted what had happened, Billy jumped into the

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Speaker 1: car and turned the key. Headlights flooded the yard as

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Speaker 1: the engine growled into life. Pauline could only look on

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Speaker 1: with confusion. Just five minutes drive from Ripperston Farm lies

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Speaker 1: the neighboring farm of Lower Broadmoor. Both properties were in

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Speaker 1: fact owned by Josephine and Richard Hewson, who lived and

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Speaker 1: worked at Lower Broadmoor. It was only ten days after

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Speaker 1: the incident with Pauline's car that Josephine awoke one Saturday

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Speaker 1: morning to find something peculiar parked up in a paddock

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Speaker 1: at the back of her house. Staring at it through

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Speaker 1: the bedroom window, Josephine struggled to process the incongruous, bulbous

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Speaker 1: structure with its smooth, metallic surface, Guessing it to be

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Speaker 1: roughly five meters high and twelve meters wide. She watched

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Speaker 1: it for a few minutes before running off to wake

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Speaker 1: up her sons, but by the time she returned to

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Speaker 1: the window, it had gone wandering into the paddock. Shortly afterwards,

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Speaker 1: it was hard not to feel a little stupid as

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Speaker 1: her sons asked her to explain what she had seen.

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Speaker 1: It was only then that one of them noticed that

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Speaker 1: their pony was missing. The pony was normally kept fenced

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Speaker 1: off in a small field bordering the paddock and a

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Speaker 1: nearby greenhouse, rarely straying from this side of the field.

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Speaker 1: They found it later that day, wandering about at the

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00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:18,720
Speaker 1: edge of the adjoining field half a kilometer away. Three

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Speaker 1: weeks later, shortly before six a m at Ripperston Farm,

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Speaker 1: Billy and Clinton herded sixteen heifers into an outside pen

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Speaker 1: in preparation for their first milking of the day. Leaving

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Speaker 1: them for a moment, Billy and Clinton headed off to

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Speaker 1: switch on the milking machines, returning only a few minutes

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Speaker 1: later to find that each one of them had vanished.

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00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 1: Hurriedly checking the gates, they found them all locked, bolted shut,

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Speaker 1: with even the twine that Billy used to keep them

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Speaker 1: secure still wrapped around them. Hearing the phone ring in

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Speaker 1: the house a few minutes later, Billy was a mazed

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00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,159
Speaker 1: to find a worker from Lower Broadmoor Farm on the

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00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 1: other end, inquiring as to what Billy's cows were doing there.

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Speaker 1: Almost two kilometers away. The quiet coastal hamlet of Little

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Speaker 1: Haven is situated just another few kilometers north of Lower Broadmoor.

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Speaker 1: Its pebbled shores and coal seams still visible in the

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Speaker 1: cliff faces, a testament to its previous life as a

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00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:36,920
Speaker 1: vibrant hub for local fishing and coal mining industries that

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Speaker 1: had been steadily declining in recent years. When Rosa Granville

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Speaker 1: and her husband took over the running of the local

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Speaker 1: Havenfort hotel in the early nineteen seventies, they were well

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Speaker 1: aware of its associated history, the talk of a mournful

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00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,800
Speaker 1: woman in white who was said to haunt the building

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00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:02,879
Speaker 1: and near by shoreline. But not being one for superstition,

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Speaker 1: Rosa hadn't given it a second thought until the strange

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Speaker 1: events of that spring in nineteen seventy seven. It was

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Speaker 1: in the early hours of Tuesday, April nineteenth that Rosa

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00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 1: finally made her way to bed after a long night

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Speaker 1: of cleaning up after her guests at night. It was

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Speaker 1: Rosa's habit to listen to Spanish music stations on the

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Speaker 1: radio as she drifted off to sleep. That night, however,

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00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 1: her usual station was playing up As she lay in

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00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: the dark with her husband fast asleep beside her, waiting

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00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,439
Speaker 1: for the signal to strengthen. A crackle of interference was

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Speaker 1: followed by a sudden burst of static, before the radio

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00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:54,919
Speaker 1: finally cut out altogether. It was only then that she

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00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:59,640
Speaker 1: became aware of a gentle humming sound. Thinking she must

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00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 1: have left the central heating on, she made her way

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00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: out of the bedroom down the long hallway towards the

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Speaker 1: fire escape that led out to the boiler house. But

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00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: as she listened again, it soon became clear that not

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Speaker 1: only was the strange noise nothing like the sound of

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Speaker 1: the boiler but also it wasn't coming from the boiler room.

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00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 1: Unable to pinpoint it, she gazed out towards the light

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00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 1: bobbing up and down in the distant darkness, assuming it

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00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: to be coming from one of the ships moored up

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00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: in the bay. Returning to the bedroom, she was surprised

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00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: to see a soft blue light leaking through the gap

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Speaker 1: in her curtains. She quietly made her way to the

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00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 1: window and pulled the curtains open. There in the field

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00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:55,240
Speaker 1: opposite was a peculiar light, like the cold blue flame

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00:23:55,320 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 1: of a blowtorch, pulsing on and off. Concerned that someone

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00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: was breaking into their outhouse, Rosa grabbed a pair of

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00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: binoculars from the window sill, and stared out into the night.

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00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 1: Picking up the light, she saw that it was coming

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00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: out of an object about two meters wide and oval

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00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,560
Speaker 1: in shape. Moving the binoculars to inspect the space beyond,

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00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 1: she gasped. Standing between the object and the far side

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00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: of the field, she could clearly see the outline of

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00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: what looked like two humanoid figures, but there was something

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00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 1: deeply uncanny about their appearance. Not only were they unusually tall,

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00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: but their limbs seemed oddly distended. Looking closer, she saw

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00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: they were dressed in what looked like white plastic boilersuits.

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00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 1: She watched as they bent down to inspect something on

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00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 1: the ground, before turning to look in her direction, as

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00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 1: if having sensed her presence, and where their faces should

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00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: have been, she saw nothing but a blank and empty space.

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00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 1: Rosa continued to watch as they made their way up

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Speaker 1: a short bank that bordered the field before disappearing from view.

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00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 1: After hurriedly switching on the lights and waking her husband

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00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: with a start, she ushered him over to the window,

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00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: but when she looked out again, there was nothing but

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00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: the darkness of the field, with no sign of the

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00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: figures or the light anywhere. Back at Ripeston, farm, Pauline

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00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,240
Speaker 1: had barely left the house since her encounter with the

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00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: strange light. Though she couldn't quite put her finger on

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00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,400
Speaker 1: what it was that worried her exactly, she couldn't shake

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00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 1: the unnerving sense that somebody or something was watching them.

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00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: Three nights after the events at the haven Fort Hotel,

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00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: at some time around six twenty pm, Pauline and the

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00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 1: family had gathered around the kitchen table to eat when

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00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:22,360
Speaker 1: all the lights simultaneously cut out. As the children nervously

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00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: huddled together, Pauline and Billy found a torch and lit

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00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:31,160
Speaker 1: some candles until power was inexplicably restored twenty minutes later.

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00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: Thinking little more of it. With the children having gone

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00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 1: to bed, Pauline and Billy retired to the living room

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00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: to watch television. It was past one a m. When Pauline,

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00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 1: struggling to stay awake in the armchair, noticed through the

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00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: window a silvery light flickering from a distant part of

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00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:57,399
Speaker 1: the adjacent field. Not wanting to bother her husband lying

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00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: on the sofa opposite, conscious of skepticism about the incident

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00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 1: with the car, she did her best to ignore it.

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00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, a sudden burst of interference on the

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00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: television was followed by a cry from Billy. Pauline turned

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00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,959
Speaker 1: to find him sitting straight up staring at the window.

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00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:26,640
Speaker 1: What the hell is that, he asked, Pauline cried out

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00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: in terror when she saw it too. Pushed up against

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00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: the glass was the figure of what she assumed to

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00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: be a man, standing at least seven feet tall. He

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00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 1: was dressed in a silver all in one suit which

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00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: covered the entirety of the head, including what seemed like

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00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: a large square shaped helmet underneath, and in place of

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00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: a face, a jet black visor. The figure appeared to

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00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: be lit up from behind, and though it remained stationary,

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00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: Pauline noticed that the window was rattling. She rushed to

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00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: grab the children from their beds, leaving Billy to keep

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00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:15,479
Speaker 1: watch on the figure that remained staring back into the room.

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00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: After securing the children in the living room, Pauline ran

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00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: to the phone and called the police when she returned

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00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: shortly after the figure had gone. Terrified by what was happening,

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00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: Pauline kept the children together while Billy made his way

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00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 1: outside to investigate. However, after an extensive search outside the building,

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00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: Billy found no sign of the intruder. In the weeks

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00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: and months that followed, a host of similar sightings were

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00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: reported up and down the south coast of Wales, including

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00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: one made by Pauline and Billy's twin daughters a few

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00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: weeks later. They had been out playing by the cliff

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00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: tops one morning when they claimed to have sighted the

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00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: peculiar figure once again walking about the fields, before vanishing

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00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:22,479
Speaker 1: in the long grass. The collective incidents have since become

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00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: known as the West Wales UFO flap of nineteen seventy seven.

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00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: Haven Fought Hotel proprietor Rosa Granville was so sufficiently shocked

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00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: and moved by what she had experienced that she even

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00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: wrote to her local MP, Nicholas Edwards, demanding that the

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Speaker 1: British Ministry of Defense make an investigation of the area.

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00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:52,040
Speaker 1: Squadron Leader J. A. Cohen of nearby Broady Royal Air

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00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: Force Base was able only to confirm that whatever had

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00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 1: occurred had no connection with operations at the base, though

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00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: it has been speculated that a number of the sightings

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00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: of men in silver suits may have been the work

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00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: of local practical jokers. Any such sightings were recorded some

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00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:20,719
Speaker 1: time after the initial event at broad Haven School of

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00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: the fourteen children who claim to have witnessed the mysterious

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00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: craft on that wet and stormy afternoon of February fourth.

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Speaker 1: Not one has changed their story or admitted to perpetrating

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00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: a hoax of any kind. As David Davies recounted many

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00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 1: years after the event, I did see something unexplained that day,

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00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: and I will stick to that story for the rest

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Speaker 1: of my life. This episode was written by Richard McClean smith.

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00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard

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00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music,

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00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 1: are also produced by me Richard McClean smith Unexplained. The

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00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show,

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00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:16,600
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,

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00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to

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00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,959
Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and

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00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or

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00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps

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00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

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00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com

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00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and

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00:31:41,720 --> 00:32:01,160
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