WEBVTT - Season 04 Episode 18: The Dark Ascending (RERUN) 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:05.519 Hello, This is Richard mc lean smith, host of Unexplained. Unexplained. 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:08.840 Season seven has now finished, but will be back on Friday, 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.000 September sixth to begin season eight. In the meantime, I'm 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:15.960 going to be replaying some of my favorite episodes from 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.200 the archives. This week, we're heading back to Sussex, in 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.479 the south of England to explore the dark mysteries of 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.159 Chanctonbury Ring, long thought to be a hot bed of 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.680 strange and peculiar activity in the nineteen seventies, One local 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.159 resident set out to dig a little deeper into the mystery, 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.239 only to find a little more than he bargained for. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.559 As some of you may guess, the title of the 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.560 episode is a reference to The Lark Ascending, a stunningly 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.320 beautiful and stirring piece of music written by the magnificent 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.559 Rape Vaughn Williams. The piece was very much inspired by 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.720 the region of Sussex where Vaughan Williams grew up, although 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:01.200 judging by the sweet nature of his composition, ours wasn't 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.960 the kind of story he had in mind when he 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:09.960 wrote it. So without further ado, here is Unexplained Season four, 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:26.920 Episode eighteen, The Dark Ascending Ambling across the South Downs, 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.440 a large stretch of chalk hills, valleys and woodland just 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.319 to the north of the south coast of England, you 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.440 might chance upon a peculiar collection of beech trees perched 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:43.320 atop a prominent spot on its northern edge. The trees, 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.080 first planted by local landowner Charles Goring in seventeen sixty, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.840 but later replaced after being destroyed by a hurricane in 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.920 nineteen eighty seven, marked the spot of an ancient circular 0:01:55.960 --> 0:02:01.040 structure believed to date back to the Bronze Age, known 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.760 to day as Changtonbury Ring. The original purpose of the 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:10.000 site remains unknown, with suggestions ranging from the mundane, such 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:12.720 as it having been first used as little more than 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.800 a livestock enclosure, to the sublime, with others believing instead 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.560 that it may well have been some kind of religious 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.160 or mystical shrine. Some, however, have claimed it to have 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.880 been used for an altogether different purpose, and that the 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.720 ring had in fact been created by the devil. A 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.120 worthy feature, you might say, for an area of England 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.239 long thought to have hosted more than its fair share 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:45.519 of unexplained phenomena. Some have put the bizarre activity that 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.800 seems to plague this quiet part of the countryside in 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.240 the County of Sussex to a curse placed on the 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.880 local village of Clapham by a disgruntled resident back in 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.360 twelve eighty eight, after losing a legal case against a 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:04.240 local part Robert Lafulconer was said to have damned the 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.360 accursed village and all its meager holdings, stating that the 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.400 priesthood of a false god would soon come to know 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.280 its fate. Others, however, argue it had begun a long 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.880 time before, with Changdonbury believed to be the site of 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.080 an otherworldly power, being thought to have once been the 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.200 location of a former Druidic temple used for ancient and 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:32.400 mysterious rituals. Back in the nineteen twenties, local resident and 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.960 famed occultist Victor Neuberg, along with his cohort and sometime 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.360 lover Alister Crowley, was said to have taken a keen 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:45.640 interest in the area. According to local law, if one 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.880 were to venture to the ring at midnight on a 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:53.120 Midsummer's Eve and walk its circumference twelve times, the midnight drew, 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:58.800 it would appear or even the devil themselves Other local 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.120 tales speak of a white bearded Saxon soldier believed to 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.280 have been killed at the Battle of Hastings in ten 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.440 sixty six, seen scrabbling about the floor looking for something, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.800 while some report the sightings of hazy lights and strange 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:18.240 apparitions seen in the area at night, with some suggesting 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.000 that they might have something to do with a nearby 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:25.479 plague pit. Perhaps the most romantic of all the ghost 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.440 stories that shroud the area is that of the ghost 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:33.640 of Prince Agasaclis cyanesis a famed astrologer from Carrier in 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.960 western Anatolia. As legend goes, it was in the early 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.320 seventeenth century that the prince began using Changdonbury Ring to 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.560 observe the stars, when one night, after writing the words 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:51.040 Sir Pelli Ubi kakidi bury me wherever I have fallen, 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.080 he fell down dead. It is said that to this 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:59.520 day the astrologer can still be seen wandering the ring 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.479 of trees at night. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:14.920 Richard mc lean smith. It was the morning of all 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.000 Hallow's Eve back in nineteen seventy eight, when Reverend Harry 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.920 Snelling made his way to the town of Goring in 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.880 West Sussex for a routine dental operation. Riding the bus 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.640 into town, the sixty five year old recently retired vicer 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.000 chatted amiably with his former parishioners before arriving at the 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:39.760 dentist just in time for his appointment later that afternoon. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.760 Having arrived in Findon, four miles from the town of Stenning, 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.360 where he lived, Snelling called his wife from a phone 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.240 box and asked if she could pick him up. However, 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.640 since their car had broken down recently and was still 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.960 in need of servicing, Snelling had no other choice but 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.919 to make the journey on foot. A short time later, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.320 with dusk descending, Snelling was seen heading off the main 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.000 road and striking out across the downs in the direction 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:15.520 of his home. As evening turned to night, Snelling's wife 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:20.320 waited anxiously for her husband's return, but Harry never made 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.440 it home. The next day, after he was reported missing, 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.839 twenty five police officers from the surrounding area were immediately 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:34.039 dispatched to search for him, focusing their attention on the 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.719 most likely route he would have taken to get home. 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.599 For the best part of a week, the police, assisted 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.440 by search dog teams, a raft of volunteers, and even 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.040 a light aircraft tried desperately to find any sign of 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:52.440 the man, but in the end found nothing. A few 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.920 days later, the search was called off, with no reason 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.960 to suspect anything otherwise. It was assumed at Snelling had 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.600 either tragically ended his own life or had collapsed and 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.839 died somewhere and was yet to be found. At the 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.880 time of the reverend's disappearance, Charles Walker worked as a 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.480 sales assistant in Worthing, just five miles south of where 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:21.480 the retired clergyman was last seen alive. In his spare time, however, 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.360 Walker had become somewhat of an expert on the peculiar 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.760 history of his local area, collecting and documenting evidence that 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.520 seemed to suggest that something very sinister had been brewing 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.679 there for quite some time. Could it be he thought 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.920 that there was a little more to the reverend's disappearance 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:54.280 than first met the eye. Having always been fascinated by 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.679 the possibility of the paranormal, it was back in April 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.080 nineteen seventy two that Charles W. Walker's interest was really piqued. 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.240 It was then that the region's numerous apparent mysterious happenings 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:12.640 were given a thoroughly modernized slant. Three friends from Walker's 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.880 hometown had ventured up toward Chantonbury Ring late one night 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.360 when they noticed a soft light flickering from within it. 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.280 Having assumed it to be nothing more than a bonfire, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.240 they were surprised to find when they arrived at the 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.800 trees moments later, that the light had gone out and 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.640 there was no sign of anyone else around. It was 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.480 only then, as one of the group later recounted, that 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.720 a sudden wish from above drew their attention to the 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.120 dim red glow of some kind of object that was 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.800 hovering just above the tree tops in front of them. 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.360 A moment later, they watched it as it shot up 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:58.440 into the sky, though its possible significance to the wider 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.719 story was not yet a pass to Walker. It was 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:06.679 around the same time that local police officer Peter Goldsmith disappeared. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.240 It was in June of that year that Goldsmith, who 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:16.079 like Harry Snelling, also lived in Stenning, left work after 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.040 completing his shift for the day, but never made it 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.680 back home. It wasn't until six months later that a 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.360 local farmer, helping to coordinate a hunting party at a 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:32.280 nearby farm just west of Stenning discovered Goldsmith's dead body 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.800 hidden under a thick growth of brambles at the edge 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.800 of the farmland. The body was found curled up on 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.920 its left side, as if Goldsmith had merely gone to sleep. 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.600 A bottle of brown liquid was also found next to 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.640 the body. While curiously clutched in the hand, police found 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.080 what was described as some kind of metal disk like 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.760 a token, With many assuming the liquid had been some 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.439 of poison, the coroner was stumped when it was in 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.559 fact found not to have been poisonous at all. With 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.720 no definitive cause of death, there was no choice but 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.280 to record an open verdict, with some form of suicide 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:19.160 thought to be most likely. However, many were left wondering 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.880 not only how search teams had failed to spot Goldsmith's 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:28.440 body despite investigating that area extensively, but also how on 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.319 earth he managed to place himself under such a thick, 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.000 impenetrable mesh of brambles, which had to be cut away 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:39.240 in order to extract the body. Though brambles can grow 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.240 up to three inches in a day, the extent to 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.600 which the body had been hidden was something of a surprise. 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.160 Over the next few years, Walker, having joined a local 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.720 paranormal research group, continued to keep an ear out for 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.760 any peculiar activity, but what he craved most was to 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.520 experience something himself, and he wouldn't have long to wait. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.920 It was in August nineteen seventy four that Walker, then 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.400 in his early twenties, along with three others, made a 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:21.520 late night research trip to Chantonbury Ring. Walker would later 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.199 claim that it was sometime around eleven PM when one 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.839 of the group, William Lincoln, stepped into the center of 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:32.080 the ring, only to be suddenly snatched up by an 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:37.160 invisible force and thrust five feet into the air, and 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.880 there he would stay for the best part of a minute, 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.800 seemingly levitating in mid air as he screamed to be released, 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:50.000 before finally being sent sprawling to the ground. It wasn't 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.600 long after that that the dogs started to go missing. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.200 The reports began appearing in local papers in spring of 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.440 nineteen seventy, though many believe it had been happening for 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:08.200 some time. The first to be reported was a three 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.440 year old and well trained chowdog that was walking with 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.560 its family in Clapham Wood, just to the north of 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.839 Clapham village in an area known as the Chestnuts, when 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.200 it suddenly bolted off into the trees, never to return. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.120 Only a week later, a two year old Collie, an 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.600 intelligent working farm dock, was being walked near the same 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.920 spot when it too shot off into the undergrowth, never 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:39.920 to be seen again. Not long after, a golden labrador, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.880 while walking in the same woods, became distracted by something 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.400 unseen in the trees, before darting off in search of it. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.600 The dog's companions, alerted to its location by the sound 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.120 of its desperate whimpers, were devastated to find it in 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.680 some distress and unable to walk, which it was later 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.760 found to have somehow been paralyzed. The dog was unfortunately 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.960 put down, and soon more people came forward to report 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.160 their own experiences walking with their dogs at the same location, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.200 describing how they or their dog had clearly felt an uneasy, 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:23.920 ominous atmosphere in those woods. Back at his home in Worthing, 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.320 Charles Walker, as ever, followed the stories with the keen interest, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.600 keeping copies of the articles for future reference. A few 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:45.080 months later, a body was found in the woods. Sixty 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.640 six year old Leon Foster had been missing for three 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.040 weeks when a couple out looking for a horse that 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:56.120 had escaped a nearby paddock, noticed a pair of boots 0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:00.880 sticking out from the undergrowth. When police arrive soon after, 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.959 they found it to be the body of Leon Foster Straw. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.559 Discovered under and around his body and the remains of 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.559 a makeshift shelter tied around the trunk of a nearby tree, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.760 suggested that he'd been living in the woods for some time, 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.160 with most assuming that he'd simply died of hunger or 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:27.280 exposure while living outside. However, with the coroner once again 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:31.040 unable to ascertain a precise cause of death, an open 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:36.120 verdict was recorded. It was around this time that Walker 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.400 began to wonder if all these mysterious incidences, from the 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.560 disappearances to the UFO sightings, not to mention the area's 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:51.480 apparent supernatural history stretching back centuries, might somehow be linked. 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.680 Over the next few years, drawing on the various reports 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.960 of peculiar activity and the litany of local folklore, claimed 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.080 that Shanktonbury Ring and the surrounding area was somehow a 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.480 focal point of a cult activity. He wondered if it 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.800 might be possible that perhaps an occult organization was using 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:17.200 the area for nefarious purposes. In October nineteen seventy eight, 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.960 Walker wrote to the local paper asking its readers for 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.720 any information they might have on such a group. Within days, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:30.720 he was inundated with replies from the mundane to the outlandish. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:36.120 None of it, however, warranted following up to flate it. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.560 Walker had resigned himself to having found nothing useful when 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.480 one night in early November, having just settled down to 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:50.880 watch TV, his phone rang. Answering the call, Walker was 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.280 greeted by an assertive sounding man with a low voice 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.200 and an RP accent. Though the man wouldn't identify himself, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.200 he claimed to have the information that Walker was looking for, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.560 and suggested the pair of them meet up to discuss 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.800 it further. Though Walker couldn't say exactly why, it was, 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.000 unlike all of the other responders to his request, something 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:20.440 about this caller seemed genuine. Walker duly agreed to meet 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.520 up with him, assuming they would set a date to meet, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.720 either at his home or somewhere neutral. But the man 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:35.360 had something else in mind. Tonight, he said At nine pm. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.400 Walker looked at the clock on his wall, the hands 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.800 now pointing to eight thirty. I'll be waiting for you 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:47.240 in Clapham Woods, by the crossroads and the chestnuts, he said, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:17:01.840 and then he hung up. It was pitch black when 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.960 Walker arrived twenty minutes later at the top of Titnaw Lane, 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:11.280 a small rise overlooking the forest beyond. Making his way 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.560 toward the entrance road, he noticed the car park to 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:19.680 the woods was completely empty, with only the sound of 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.680 an occasional car passing along the road behind him. Walker 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:28.320 pushed on through a gate and into the trees behind. 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.600 With the gentle roar of distant traffic having disappeared altogether 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.040 and only the sound of his own footsteps for company, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.720 Walker pressed on toward the cross roads, anxiously listening out 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.040 for any hint of some one else approaching. Arriving at 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.520 the meeting point at nine on the dot, Walker called 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:53.439 out for a response, but heard nothing in return. The 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:59.760 place was deserted. Only then did Walker realize his hands 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:04.720 were shaking, but not from the cold night air. Lighting 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.920 a cigarette to calm his nerves, Walker began to pace 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.760 up and down, trying to keep warm as he waited. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.040 By the end of a second cigarette, Walker was beginning 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.000 to suspect that it had been nothing but a practical joke, 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.439 But just as he started to make his way back out, 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.840 he heard some one whisper out from behind some nearby trees. 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:31.080 Don't attempt to look for me, the voide said, for 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.240 your safety and mine, it is imperative you do not 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:40.600 see who I am. Walker froze, immediately recognizing it as 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:45.040 the man he had spoken to earlier. After Walker agreed 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.960 to keep looking the way he was facing, the man 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:53.040 began to talk. I am an initiate of the Friends 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:58.440 of her CARTI, named after the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.600 and the Night. We are the group you've been looking for, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.840 he said, and it would be in your best interests 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:12.159 to stop looking. Unperturbed, Walker asked the man if the 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:16.399 group had anything to do with the recent disappearances, without 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:20.040 going into too much detail, the man replied that their 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.679 rituals occasionally required a blood sacrifice, if that was the 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:30.480 answer he was looking for. And so it continued as 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.720 the increasingly nervous Walker listened carefully as the man explained 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.840 how the group had been operating in that area for 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.240 at least ten years because the atmosphere of the woods, 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.000 as he described it, was perfect for their purposes, but 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.760 when Walker inquired as to what that purpose was exactly, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:55.399 the man fell silent. He then explained to Walker that 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.120 they had friends in very high places, before warning him 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.120 again to buy cough and that they would stop at 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:06.800 nothing to ensure the safety of their cult. Then there 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:12.560 was another silence. When Walker called out moments later, it 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.800 was clear he was once again alone. Hurrying out of 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.640 the forest, Walker was relieved to finally make it back home. 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.199 A few days later, while cycling home from work, Walker 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.320 heard a car pull up close behind him. He barely 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.640 felt the bump before finding himself sprawled on his back 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.239 in the middle of the road, watching aghast as the 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.440 car sped off into the distance before he could make 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:51.400 note of its details. After lying low for the next 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:55.040 six months, in the spring of the following year, Walker 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.639 renewed his search for evidence of the Friends of her 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:03.159 Cart's activities. One morning, whilst walking through the grounds of 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.040 the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, just south of 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.800 Clapham Woods, Walker was distracted by the site of the 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:14.239 town's manor house next door, but more specifically by the 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.639 medieval barn that still stood on its grounds. The house 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.760 had been occupied for some time, but seeing that the 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:27.680 barn door was open, Walker began to wander. Quickly checking 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.680 that no one was around, Walker leaped over the church wall, 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.360 scooted up the driveway and ducked into the barn. Looking up, 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.359 he gasped at the sight of a bizarre mural on 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:45.440 the wall, about three foot high in size. It was 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:50.119 apparently composed primarily of a demonic looking entity with a 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:56.640 huge horned head, scaly body, and forked tail. In its hands, 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.840 it held a sword and chalice, ancient symbols of fertility, 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:04.680 and behind it a bank of flames licked up from 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:10.399 the ground. Hearing a sound outside, Walker looked out to 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.480 see a man running toward him. In panic, he bolted 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.880 away as the man gave chase, before managing to lose 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:22.760 him in the woods. Over the next few years, Charles 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:26.360 Walker continued hunting for evidence not only of the apparent 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.159 occult group's existence, but also of their connection to the 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.879 many strange events that had taken place in the area 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:37.280 over the last few years, but the group and its 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:45.200 members remained elusive. In August nineteen eighty one, officers at 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.879 Worthing Police station received a package with a battered and 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:53.600 disheveled wallet inside, along with a crudely drawn map of 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.440 some woods located on the Sussex Downs, about a mile 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.840 to the northwest of Stenning. Examining the bank cards in 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.560 the wallet, police found the name Harry Snelling embossed on 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:10.960 the front of them, as an accompanying letter explained the 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.679 center of the package. A tourist from Canada named Michael 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.280 Rain had found a human skeleton while walking across the 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.320 Downs the previous week, which he believed to be the 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.800 remains of Reverend Snelling. Since he had an important flight 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.399 to catch, Worried that he would be dragged into a 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:33.240 lengthy police investigation, Rain decided instead to send the wallet 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:36.600 as evidence of his find and a map to explain 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:41.800 where the remains could be located. Following the instructions, later 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.400 that day, police found the skeleton at the north edge 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:49.240 of some woodland close to a property known as Whiston House. 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.520 Not only were they surprised to find that the bones, 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:58.120 despite having supposedly been there for almost three years, had 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:02.959 not been much obscured by surrounding vegetation, but also that 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:06.080 the area in which they were found had been thoroughly 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:17.639 searched numerous times before. It wasn't long after the discovery 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.840 of Snelling's remains that others began to notice the suspicious 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.399 number of unexplained deaths and other events that seemed to 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.440 be plaguing this quiet, unassuming area of the English countryside. 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:36.479 Writing in the paranormal magazine unexplained that year, Toy Newton, 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:41.040 without any reference to the Friends of Herkati, made his 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:45.960 own effort to document the bizarre collection of events. A 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:49.840 few months later, he received a curious letter from a reader. 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:56.280 Dear Sirs, it began in your article on Clapham Woods. 0:24:56.920 --> 0:24:59.600 You ask of the mysterious events a link to a 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.080 black coven. I can tell you they are, but it's 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:09.119 much more than that. They are called the Friends of Hakati, 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:12.720 and they meet in the woods and the barn up 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:17.120 by the church and make ritual sacrifices. At the time 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:22.400 of Orion. The Archer people get headaches and strange feelings 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:26.439 at Clapham because the place is building up vibrations so 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:30.520 they can get the force that they want. Sometimes this 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:35.240 strange force has even started fires, but everything is hushed up. 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:40.800 They can make people do what they want. I can't 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:44.680 sign my name, but be warned they are much more 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:55.040 powerful than a black coven. If you enjoy Unexplained and 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:57.439 would like to help supporters, you can now do so 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:01.840 via Patreon. 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