Speaker 1: Hello, This is Richard mc lean smith, host of Unexplained. Unexplained.
Speaker 1: Season seven has now finished, but will be back on Friday,
Speaker 1: September sixth to begin season eight. In the meantime, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be replaying some of my favorite episodes from
Speaker 1: the archives. This week, we're heading back to Sussex, in
Speaker 1: the south of England to explore the dark mysteries of
Speaker 1: Chanctonbury Ring, long thought to be a hot bed of
Speaker 1: strange and peculiar activity in the nineteen seventies, One local
Speaker 1: resident set out to dig a little deeper into the mystery,
Speaker 1: only to find a little more than he bargained for.
Speaker 1: As some of you may guess, the title of the
Speaker 1: episode is a reference to The Lark Ascending, a stunningly
Speaker 1: beautiful and stirring piece of music written by the magnificent
Speaker 1: Rape Vaughn Williams. The piece was very much inspired by
Speaker 1: the region of Sussex where Vaughan Williams grew up, although
Speaker 1: judging by the sweet nature of his composition, ours wasn't
Speaker 1: the kind of story he had in mind when he
Speaker 1: wrote it. So without further ado, here is Unexplained Season four,
Speaker 1: Episode eighteen, The Dark Ascending Ambling across the South Downs,
Speaker 1: a large stretch of chalk hills, valleys and woodland just
Speaker 1: to the north of the south coast of England, you
Speaker 1: might chance upon a peculiar collection of beech trees perched
Speaker 1: atop a prominent spot on its northern edge. The trees,
Speaker 1: first planted by local landowner Charles Goring in seventeen sixty,
Speaker 1: but later replaced after being destroyed by a hurricane in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, marked the spot of an ancient circular
Speaker 1: structure believed to date back to the Bronze Age, known
Speaker 1: to day as Changtonbury Ring. The original purpose of the
Speaker 1: site remains unknown, with suggestions ranging from the mundane, such
Speaker 1: as it having been first used as little more than
Speaker 1: a livestock enclosure, to the sublime, with others believing instead
Speaker 1: that it may well have been some kind of religious
Speaker 1: or mystical shrine. Some, however, have claimed it to have
Speaker 1: been used for an altogether different purpose, and that the
Speaker 1: ring had in fact been created by the devil. A
Speaker 1: worthy feature, you might say, for an area of England
Speaker 1: long thought to have hosted more than its fair share
Speaker 1: of unexplained phenomena. Some have put the bizarre activity that
Speaker 1: seems to plague this quiet part of the countryside in
Speaker 1: the County of Sussex to a curse placed on the
Speaker 1: local village of Clapham by a disgruntled resident back in
Speaker 1: twelve eighty eight, after losing a legal case against a
Speaker 1: local part Robert Lafulconer was said to have damned the
Speaker 1: accursed village and all its meager holdings, stating that the
Speaker 1: priesthood of a false god would soon come to know
Speaker 1: its fate. Others, however, argue it had begun a long
Speaker 1: time before, with Changdonbury believed to be the site of
Speaker 1: an otherworldly power, being thought to have once been the
Speaker 1: location of a former Druidic temple used for ancient and
Speaker 1: mysterious rituals. Back in the nineteen twenties, local resident and
Speaker 1: famed occultist Victor Neuberg, along with his cohort and sometime
Speaker 1: lover Alister Crowley, was said to have taken a keen
Speaker 1: interest in the area. According to local law, if one
Speaker 1: were to venture to the ring at midnight on a
Speaker 1: Midsummer's Eve and walk its circumference twelve times, the midnight drew,
Speaker 1: it would appear or even the devil themselves Other local
Speaker 1: tales speak of a white bearded Saxon soldier believed to
Speaker 1: have been killed at the Battle of Hastings in ten
Speaker 1: sixty six, seen scrabbling about the floor looking for something,
Speaker 1: while some report the sightings of hazy lights and strange
Speaker 1: apparitions seen in the area at night, with some suggesting
Speaker 1: that they might have something to do with a nearby
Speaker 1: plague pit. Perhaps the most romantic of all the ghost
Speaker 1: stories that shroud the area is that of the ghost
Speaker 1: of Prince Agasaclis cyanesis a famed astrologer from Carrier in
Speaker 1: western Anatolia. As legend goes, it was in the early
Speaker 1: seventeenth century that the prince began using Changdonbury Ring to
Speaker 1: observe the stars, when one night, after writing the words
Speaker 1: Sir Pelli Ubi kakidi bury me wherever I have fallen,
Speaker 1: he fell down dead. It is said that to this
Speaker 1: day the astrologer can still be seen wandering the ring
Speaker 1: of trees at night. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm
Speaker 1: Richard mc lean smith. It was the morning of all
Speaker 1: Hallow's Eve back in nineteen seventy eight, when Reverend Harry
Speaker 1: Snelling made his way to the town of Goring in
Speaker 1: West Sussex for a routine dental operation. Riding the bus
Speaker 1: into town, the sixty five year old recently retired vicer
Speaker 1: chatted amiably with his former parishioners before arriving at the
Speaker 1: dentist just in time for his appointment later that afternoon.
Speaker 1: Having arrived in Findon, four miles from the town of Stenning,
Speaker 1: where he lived, Snelling called his wife from a phone
Speaker 1: box and asked if she could pick him up. However,
Speaker 1: since their car had broken down recently and was still
Speaker 1: in need of servicing, Snelling had no other choice but
Speaker 1: to make the journey on foot. A short time later,
Speaker 1: with dusk descending, Snelling was seen heading off the main
Speaker 1: road and striking out across the downs in the direction
Speaker 1: of his home. As evening turned to night, Snelling's wife
Speaker 1: waited anxiously for her husband's return, but Harry never made
Speaker 1: it home. The next day, after he was reported missing,
Speaker 1: twenty five police officers from the surrounding area were immediately
Speaker 1: dispatched to search for him, focusing their attention on the
Speaker 1: most likely route he would have taken to get home.
Speaker 1: For the best part of a week, the police, assisted
Speaker 1: by search dog teams, a raft of volunteers, and even
Speaker 1: a light aircraft tried desperately to find any sign of
Speaker 1: the man, but in the end found nothing. A few
Speaker 1: days later, the search was called off, with no reason
Speaker 1: to suspect anything otherwise. It was assumed at Snelling had
Speaker 1: either tragically ended his own life or had collapsed and
Speaker 1: died somewhere and was yet to be found. At the
Speaker 1: time of the reverend's disappearance, Charles Walker worked as a
Speaker 1: sales assistant in Worthing, just five miles south of where
Speaker 1: the retired clergyman was last seen alive. In his spare time, however,
Speaker 1: Walker had become somewhat of an expert on the peculiar
Speaker 1: history of his local area, collecting and documenting evidence that
Speaker 1: seemed to suggest that something very sinister had been brewing
Speaker 1: there for quite some time. Could it be he thought
Speaker 1: that there was a little more to the reverend's disappearance
Speaker 1: than first met the eye. Having always been fascinated by
Speaker 1: the possibility of the paranormal, it was back in April
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two that Charles W. Walker's interest was really piqued.
Speaker 1: It was then that the region's numerous apparent mysterious happenings
Speaker 1: were given a thoroughly modernized slant. Three friends from Walker's
Speaker 1: hometown had ventured up toward Chantonbury Ring late one night
Speaker 1: when they noticed a soft light flickering from within it.
Speaker 1: Having assumed it to be nothing more than a bonfire,
Speaker 1: they were surprised to find when they arrived at the
Speaker 1: trees moments later, that the light had gone out and
Speaker 1: there was no sign of anyone else around. It was
Speaker 1: only then, as one of the group later recounted, that
Speaker 1: a sudden wish from above drew their attention to the
Speaker 1: dim red glow of some kind of object that was
Speaker 1: hovering just above the tree tops in front of them.
Speaker 1: A moment later, they watched it as it shot up
Speaker 1: into the sky, though its possible significance to the wider
Speaker 1: story was not yet a pass to Walker. It was
Speaker 1: around the same time that local police officer Peter Goldsmith disappeared.
Speaker 1: It was in June of that year that Goldsmith, who
Speaker 1: like Harry Snelling, also lived in Stenning, left work after
Speaker 1: completing his shift for the day, but never made it
Speaker 1: back home. It wasn't until six months later that a
Speaker 1: local farmer, helping to coordinate a hunting party at a
Speaker 1: nearby farm just west of Stenning discovered Goldsmith's dead body
Speaker 1: hidden under a thick growth of brambles at the edge
Speaker 1: of the farmland. The body was found curled up on
Speaker 1: its left side, as if Goldsmith had merely gone to sleep.
Speaker 1: A bottle of brown liquid was also found next to
Speaker 1: the body. While curiously clutched in the hand, police found
Speaker 1: what was described as some kind of metal disk like
Speaker 1: a token, With many assuming the liquid had been some
Speaker 1: of poison, the coroner was stumped when it was in
Speaker 1: fact found not to have been poisonous at all. With
Speaker 1: no definitive cause of death, there was no choice but
Speaker 1: to record an open verdict, with some form of suicide
Speaker 1: thought to be most likely. However, many were left wondering
Speaker 1: not only how search teams had failed to spot Goldsmith's
Speaker 1: body despite investigating that area extensively, but also how on
Speaker 1: earth he managed to place himself under such a thick,
Speaker 1: impenetrable mesh of brambles, which had to be cut away
Speaker 1: in order to extract the body. Though brambles can grow
Speaker 1: up to three inches in a day, the extent to
Speaker 1: which the body had been hidden was something of a surprise.
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, Walker, having joined a local
Speaker 1: paranormal research group, continued to keep an ear out for
Speaker 1: any peculiar activity, but what he craved most was to
Speaker 1: experience something himself, and he wouldn't have long to wait.
Speaker 1: It was in August nineteen seventy four that Walker, then
Speaker 1: in his early twenties, along with three others, made a
Speaker 1: late night research trip to Chantonbury Ring. Walker would later
Speaker 1: claim that it was sometime around eleven PM when one
Speaker 1: of the group, William Lincoln, stepped into the center of
Speaker 1: the ring, only to be suddenly snatched up by an
Speaker 1: invisible force and thrust five feet into the air, and
Speaker 1: there he would stay for the best part of a minute,
Speaker 1: seemingly levitating in mid air as he screamed to be released,
Speaker 1: before finally being sent sprawling to the ground. It wasn't
Speaker 1: long after that that the dogs started to go missing.
Speaker 1: The reports began appearing in local papers in spring of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, though many believe it had been happening for
Speaker 1: some time. The first to be reported was a three
Speaker 1: year old and well trained chowdog that was walking with
Speaker 1: its family in Clapham Wood, just to the north of
Speaker 1: Clapham village in an area known as the Chestnuts, when
Speaker 1: it suddenly bolted off into the trees, never to return.
Speaker 1: Only a week later, a two year old Collie, an
Speaker 1: intelligent working farm dock, was being walked near the same
Speaker 1: spot when it too shot off into the undergrowth, never
Speaker 1: to be seen again. Not long after, a golden labrador,
Speaker 1: while walking in the same woods, became distracted by something
Speaker 1: unseen in the trees, before darting off in search of it.
Speaker 1: The dog's companions, alerted to its location by the sound
Speaker 1: of its desperate whimpers, were devastated to find it in
Speaker 1: some distress and unable to walk, which it was later
Speaker 1: found to have somehow been paralyzed. The dog was unfortunately
Speaker 1: put down, and soon more people came forward to report
Speaker 1: their own experiences walking with their dogs at the same location,
Speaker 1: describing how they or their dog had clearly felt an uneasy,
Speaker 1: ominous atmosphere in those woods. Back at his home in Worthing,
Speaker 1: Charles Walker, as ever, followed the stories with the keen interest,
Speaker 1: keeping copies of the articles for future reference. A few
Speaker 1: months later, a body was found in the woods. Sixty
Speaker 1: six year old Leon Foster had been missing for three
Speaker 1: weeks when a couple out looking for a horse that
Speaker 1: had escaped a nearby paddock, noticed a pair of boots
Speaker 1: sticking out from the undergrowth. When police arrive soon after,
Speaker 1: they found it to be the body of Leon Foster Straw.
Speaker 1: Discovered under and around his body and the remains of
Speaker 1: a makeshift shelter tied around the trunk of a nearby tree,
Speaker 1: suggested that he'd been living in the woods for some time,
Speaker 1: with most assuming that he'd simply died of hunger or
Speaker 1: exposure while living outside. However, with the coroner once again
Speaker 1: unable to ascertain a precise cause of death, an open
Speaker 1: verdict was recorded. It was around this time that Walker
Speaker 1: began to wonder if all these mysterious incidences, from the
Speaker 1: disappearances to the UFO sightings, not to mention the area's
Speaker 1: apparent supernatural history stretching back centuries, might somehow be linked.
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, drawing on the various reports
Speaker 1: of peculiar activity and the litany of local folklore, claimed
Speaker 1: that Shanktonbury Ring and the surrounding area was somehow a
Speaker 1: focal point of a cult activity. He wondered if it
Speaker 1: might be possible that perhaps an occult organization was using
Speaker 1: the area for nefarious purposes. In October nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Walker wrote to the local paper asking its readers for
Speaker 1: any information they might have on such a group. Within days,
Speaker 1: he was inundated with replies from the mundane to the outlandish.
Speaker 1: None of it, however, warranted following up to flate it.
Speaker 1: Walker had resigned himself to having found nothing useful when
Speaker 1: one night in early November, having just settled down to
Speaker 1: watch TV, his phone rang. Answering the call, Walker was
Speaker 1: greeted by an assertive sounding man with a low voice
Speaker 1: and an RP accent. Though the man wouldn't identify himself,
Speaker 1: he claimed to have the information that Walker was looking for,
Speaker 1: and suggested the pair of them meet up to discuss
Speaker 1: it further. Though Walker couldn't say exactly why, it was,
Speaker 1: unlike all of the other responders to his request, something
Speaker 1: about this caller seemed genuine. Walker duly agreed to meet
Speaker 1: up with him, assuming they would set a date to meet,
Speaker 1: either at his home or somewhere neutral. But the man
Speaker 1: had something else in mind. Tonight, he said At nine pm.
Speaker 1: Walker looked at the clock on his wall, the hands
Speaker 1: now pointing to eight thirty. I'll be waiting for you
Speaker 1: in Clapham Woods, by the crossroads and the chestnuts, he said,
Speaker 1: and then he hung up. It was pitch black when
Speaker 1: Walker arrived twenty minutes later at the top of Titnaw Lane,
Speaker 1: a small rise overlooking the forest beyond. Making his way
Speaker 1: toward the entrance road, he noticed the car park to
Speaker 1: the woods was completely empty, with only the sound of
Speaker 1: an occasional car passing along the road behind him. Walker
Speaker 1: pushed on through a gate and into the trees behind.
Speaker 1: With the gentle roar of distant traffic having disappeared altogether
Speaker 1: and only the sound of his own footsteps for company,
Speaker 1: Walker pressed on toward the cross roads, anxiously listening out
Speaker 1: for any hint of some one else approaching. Arriving at
Speaker 1: the meeting point at nine on the dot, Walker called
Speaker 1: out for a response, but heard nothing in return. The
Speaker 1: place was deserted. Only then did Walker realize his hands
Speaker 1: were shaking, but not from the cold night air. Lighting
Speaker 1: a cigarette to calm his nerves, Walker began to pace
Speaker 1: up and down, trying to keep warm as he waited.
Speaker 1: By the end of a second cigarette, Walker was beginning
Speaker 1: to suspect that it had been nothing but a practical joke,
Speaker 1: But just as he started to make his way back out,
Speaker 1: he heard some one whisper out from behind some nearby trees.
Speaker 1: Don't attempt to look for me, the voide said, for
Speaker 1: your safety and mine, it is imperative you do not
Speaker 1: see who I am. Walker froze, immediately recognizing it as
Speaker 1: the man he had spoken to earlier. After Walker agreed
Speaker 1: to keep looking the way he was facing, the man
Speaker 1: began to talk. I am an initiate of the Friends
Speaker 1: of her CARTI, named after the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft,
Speaker 1: and the Night. We are the group you've been looking for,
Speaker 1: he said, and it would be in your best interests
Speaker 1: to stop looking. Unperturbed, Walker asked the man if the
Speaker 1: group had anything to do with the recent disappearances, without
Speaker 1: going into too much detail, the man replied that their
Speaker 1: rituals occasionally required a blood sacrifice, if that was the
Speaker 1: answer he was looking for. And so it continued as
Speaker 1: the increasingly nervous Walker listened carefully as the man explained
Speaker 1: how the group had been operating in that area for
Speaker 1: at least ten years because the atmosphere of the woods,
Speaker 1: as he described it, was perfect for their purposes, but
Speaker 1: when Walker inquired as to what that purpose was exactly,
Speaker 1: the man fell silent. He then explained to Walker that
Speaker 1: they had friends in very high places, before warning him
Speaker 1: again to buy cough and that they would stop at
Speaker 1: nothing to ensure the safety of their cult. Then there
Speaker 1: was another silence. When Walker called out moments later, it
Speaker 1: was clear he was once again alone. Hurrying out of
Speaker 1: the forest, Walker was relieved to finally make it back home.
Speaker 1: A few days later, while cycling home from work, Walker
Speaker 1: heard a car pull up close behind him. He barely
Speaker 1: felt the bump before finding himself sprawled on his back
Speaker 1: in the middle of the road, watching aghast as the
Speaker 1: car sped off into the distance before he could make
Speaker 1: note of its details. After lying low for the next
Speaker 1: six months, in the spring of the following year, Walker
Speaker 1: renewed his search for evidence of the Friends of her
Speaker 1: Cart's activities. One morning, whilst walking through the grounds of
Speaker 1: the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, just south of
Speaker 1: Clapham Woods, Walker was distracted by the site of the
Speaker 1: town's manor house next door, but more specifically by the
Speaker 1: medieval barn that still stood on its grounds. The house
Speaker 1: had been occupied for some time, but seeing that the
Speaker 1: barn door was open, Walker began to wander. Quickly checking
Speaker 1: that no one was around, Walker leaped over the church wall,
Speaker 1: scooted up the driveway and ducked into the barn. Looking up,
Speaker 1: he gasped at the sight of a bizarre mural on
Speaker 1: the wall, about three foot high in size. It was
Speaker 1: apparently composed primarily of a demonic looking entity with a
Speaker 1: huge horned head, scaly body, and forked tail. In its hands,
Speaker 1: it held a sword and chalice, ancient symbols of fertility,
Speaker 1: and behind it a bank of flames licked up from
Speaker 1: the ground. Hearing a sound outside, Walker looked out to
Speaker 1: see a man running toward him. In panic, he bolted
Speaker 1: away as the man gave chase, before managing to lose
Speaker 1: him in the woods. Over the next few years, Charles
Speaker 1: Walker continued hunting for evidence not only of the apparent
Speaker 1: occult group's existence, but also of their connection to the
Speaker 1: many strange events that had taken place in the area
Speaker 1: over the last few years, but the group and its
Speaker 1: members remained elusive. In August nineteen eighty one, officers at
Speaker 1: Worthing Police station received a package with a battered and
Speaker 1: disheveled wallet inside, along with a crudely drawn map of
Speaker 1: some woods located on the Sussex Downs, about a mile
Speaker 1: to the northwest of Stenning. Examining the bank cards in
Speaker 1: the wallet, police found the name Harry Snelling embossed on
Speaker 1: the front of them, as an accompanying letter explained the
Speaker 1: center of the package. A tourist from Canada named Michael
Speaker 1: Rain had found a human skeleton while walking across the
Speaker 1: Downs the previous week, which he believed to be the
Speaker 1: remains of Reverend Snelling. Since he had an important flight
Speaker 1: to catch, Worried that he would be dragged into a
Speaker 1: lengthy police investigation, Rain decided instead to send the wallet
Speaker 1: as evidence of his find and a map to explain
Speaker 1: where the remains could be located. Following the instructions, later
Speaker 1: that day, police found the skeleton at the north edge
Speaker 1: of some woodland close to a property known as Whiston House.
Speaker 1: Not only were they surprised to find that the bones,
Speaker 1: despite having supposedly been there for almost three years, had
Speaker 1: not been much obscured by surrounding vegetation, but also that
Speaker 1: the area in which they were found had been thoroughly
Speaker 1: searched numerous times before. It wasn't long after the discovery
Speaker 1: of Snelling's remains that others began to notice the suspicious
Speaker 1: number of unexplained deaths and other events that seemed to
Speaker 1: be plaguing this quiet, unassuming area of the English countryside.
Speaker 1: Writing in the paranormal magazine unexplained that year, Toy Newton,
Speaker 1: without any reference to the Friends of Herkati, made his
Speaker 1: own effort to document the bizarre collection of events. A
Speaker 1: few months later, he received a curious letter from a reader.
Speaker 1: Dear Sirs, it began in your article on Clapham Woods.
Speaker 1: You ask of the mysterious events a link to a
Speaker 1: black coven. I can tell you they are, but it's
Speaker 1: much more than that. They are called the Friends of Hakati,
Speaker 1: and they meet in the woods and the barn up
Speaker 1: by the church and make ritual sacrifices. At the time
Speaker 1: of Orion. The Archer people get headaches and strange feelings
Speaker 1: at Clapham because the place is building up vibrations so
Speaker 1: they can get the force that they want. Sometimes this
Speaker 1: strange force has even started fires, but everything is hushed up.
Speaker 1: They can make people do what they want. I can't
Speaker 1: sign my name, but be warned they are much more
Speaker 1: powerful than a black coven. If you enjoy Unexplained and
Speaker 1: would like to help supporters, you can now do so
Speaker 1: via Patreon. To receive access to add free episodes, discount
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Speaker 1: like to make a one time donation, you can go
Speaker 1: to Unexplained podcast dot com forward Slash Support. All donations,
Speaker 1: no matter how large or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained,
Speaker 1: the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard mclin smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
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 Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com Orward Slash Unexplained Podcast. This episode was
Speaker 1: written by Richard McLain smith Unexplained as an AV Club
Speaker 1: Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements
Speaker 1: of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by
Speaker 1: me Richard McClain smith Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with
Speaker 1: stories never before featured on the show, is now available
Speaker 1: to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones,
Speaker 1: and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can find
Speaker 1: out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches of
Speaker 1: line through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast, assass