The Mysterious Gnomes of Wollaton Park

nivek

As Above So Below
The Mysterious Gnomes of Wollaton Park

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One of the odder cases of gnome encounters occurred in 1979 at the quiet, verdant Wollaton park, Nottingham, England, known for its expanses of tree-dotted green and the magnificent Wollaton Hall, which was used in the film The Dark Knight Rises. It was here that on October 29, 1979, a group of six schoolchildren by the names of Angie, her brother Glen, her sister Julie, as well as Andrew and Rosie who were brother and sister, and a boy named Patrick, all of whom ranged in age from 8 to 10 years old and were out wandering around in the late afternoon hours, as the sun began to dim as the day began to come to a close.

Realizing that they soon had to get on their way home, they nevertheless had their curiosity piqued when they reportedly came to a fenced off area of murky, overgrown swampland near the lake that was closed to the public. Being kids, the fence and the sign warning people to keep out might as well have been an open invitation to come on in, and the children decided to sneak in to poke around this forbidden treasure.

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Wollaton Park

Upon entering, the children would claim that they soon heard the chime of a bell, after which they had come across a group of dozens of tiny little men about half their own height, who had deeply wrinkled faces and sported lush white beards with red tips. On their heads were strange little pointed caps described as looking sort of like nightcaps with bobbles on the ends, and their clothing was composed of yellow or green tights and blue shirts.

Strangest of all is that the children claimed the curious little men drove about in miniature, bubble-like cars that had no steering wheels, bells instead of horns, and which produced no engine sounds, yet sped around at high speeds and could easily jump over and evade obstacles. According to the children, there were about 30 of these unusual mini-vehicles, with two of the gnomes riding in each, laughing joyously and gleefully whizzing about, and even on occasion playfully chasing or making passes at the startled witnesses.

One of the witnesses would describe them:

We heard this little tinkly bell. We started running and these little men came out of the bushes. There were about 60 of them in 30 cars like bubblecars. They were half my size and looked old.They had greenish faces with crinkles in them and long white beards with a bit of red on the end. They were laughing in a funny way and driving over swamps near the lake. We were frightened and ran to the gate. I don’t think they liked the lights outside because they didn’t follow us to the street.

The children claimed that they had spent around 15 minutes watching these bizarre figures cavort and drive about the swamp before they finally left for home with the coming of night. The entities were described as being quite cheerful, playful, and not threatening or aggressive in the slightest. When they told adults of what they had seen no one would believe them, yet they adamantly insisted that it had all been real. The school headmaster would go on to extensively question the kids on what they had seen, and came to the conclusion that they at least believed they were telling the truth.

He would later say of a recording he made of their conversations:

I think the tape reveals the wide measure of corroboration between the children, as well as the fluency with which they were able to describe the events. I remain skeptical as to the explanation of what they saw, but I am also convinced that the children were describing a real occurrence.
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Sketch made by one of the witnesses

Despite wide-ranging skepticism, the tale of the Wollaton Fairies made headlines in the news at the time, and oddly more people came forward with their own sightings of the same thing in the area.

One such sighting was written of in Janet Bord’s book Fairies: Real Encounters With Little People, which she writes of thus:

Over six years before the Wollaton fairies were reported in the media, I had corresponded with Marina Fry of Cornwall, who wrote to me giving details of her own fairy sighting when she was nearly four years old, around 1940. One night she and her older sisters, all sleeping in one bedroom, awoke to hear a buzzing noise (one sister said ‘music and bells’). Looking out of the window they saw a little man in a tiny red car driving around in circles’. He was about 18 inches tall and had a white beard and a ‘droopy pointed hat’…he just disappeared after a while.

Author and researcher and former Secretary of the Nottingham-based “Fairy Investigation Society,” Marjorie Johnson, also confirmed that there had been various other sightings of bubble-car driving gnomes in the Wollaton Park area, in particular near the lake, and wrote of these in her book Seeing Fairies. One sighting was made by a Mrs C George, who sighted the gnomes playing about by the park gates with their cars parked to the side.

In still another, a Mrs. Brown claimed to have been guided around the park by the gnomes in a sort of game, wherein they would reward her with a feather at each checkpoint they reached. In yet another encounter a Jean Dixon claimed that she had witnessed gnomes roaming around the park, who seemed eager to show her around their abode. Interestingly, Johnson had her own sighting of gnomes in the early 1900s, when she claims that she spied several tiny men about 3 feet in height frolicking about dressed as policemen.

As recently as 2016 there have been gnome phenomena in the park, such as news reports in the Park Herald that railways in the area were being haunted by the miniature humanoids to the point that interrupted services on trains running from Nottingham station to London St Pancras was being blamed on the little menaces.

On witness named Daniel Sedgwick saw a gnome lurking around a train embankment, and said of it:

All of a sudden I caught a glimpse of 5 small hat wearing creatures tearing down the side of the embankment just after passing through Attenborough.
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As to whether these creatures pose any threat to people in the area, a professor of gnomic studies named Professor Gregory Landau put people’s minds at ease, telling the Park Herald:

Gnomes are traditionally benign in attitude and general behavior, to be honest they consider courtesy and discretion to be amongst the highest attributes of their social code. There are handful of unconfirmed writings pertaining to a certain sub-order, castigated from gnomic society, who have a renown for mischief and borderline thuggery. As for gnomes attacking people, there have never been any documented occurrences.

In recent times there has been a resurgence in interest in the case, when writer and historian Dr. Simon Young expressed interest in reinvigorating the case by bringing together the witnesses again. Young believes that this is a singularly unique case in that so many witnesses saw so many of the creatures, all while their reports remain remarkably consistent across the board.

Young has said of this:

The experience was interesting in several respects. There are many instances of children coming face-to-face with fairies, but I know of none where six saw the fey together. So many Fortean experiences depend on a single shaky witness or poor chain of custody for the evidence: this is not the case with Wollaton.
What is it these people were seeing in Wollaton Park?

Is this just overactive imaginations or is there some high strangeness going on here?

If they are indeed real, then what are they, and what is it that draws these entities to this particular place?

Whatever the case may be, the Wollaton gnomes case, with their odd little vehicles, is certainly one of the weirder mass sightings of gnomes out there.

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Ron67

Ignorance isn’t bliss!
When I see reports like these my first reaction is bullshit.I think someone made this up and people have jumped on the bandwagon and made up their own nonsense.Then I think of some of the things I’ve seen or experienced and I wonder if there is a fungus,a plant,a tree or something in the environment that produces hallucinations.
 

coubob

Celestial
My mom has a bunch of Tom Clark gnome statues scattered around her back yard.I have always treated them with the respect. Just in case.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
My daughter katlin often tells us she sees fairies and gnomes.
My wife shares the belief that fairies and gnomes are very real.
Perhaps my non beilef prevents me from seeing them.
 

Rikki

High Priestess
My husband gave a poor explanation.
They exist in a reality like ours close yet far. The Fey realm is like a mist. but if one wishes to see, hear and understand all one has to do is put away all what is learned. The moment a child is told that fairies do not exist their eyes close forever.
We do not see because we are told not to see. We close our eyes to them. But the moment we shake off that teaching we can indeed see them.
My daughter followed her heart. she is my initiate. She has begun to see that world. The teaching of the modern age make it hard to perceive that hidden world. So why can they be seen by those without training? Because they want to be seen. So that wonder is not lost.
So go out into the wood where it is quiet. Close your eyes and listen forget the modern world. And soon you will hear their voices. if your heart is open to them they will come to you. It happened to me. It happened to Kate. It can happen to you.
Blessed Be
 

Wade

Stare..... They are always staring
Josh Cutchin is saying on his Facebook page that he's shooting for a July release date for his new book "Thieves in the Night" his entry on Faeries Gnomes and Changelings.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Josh Cutchin is saying on his Facebook page that he's shooting for a July release date for his new book "Thieves in the Night" his entry on Faeries Gnomes and Changelings.

Hello and Welcome to AE...q37

...
 

Wade

Stare..... They are always staring
Hello, and thanks. I'll stop by a little later this evening and more properly introduce myself
 

Ron67

Ignorance isn’t bliss!
Can I assume this is the same Ron that also haunts the Paracast?:dry8:

PS Nice selection of dingbats(?) here, I think I'll enjoy it here.
We are the dingbat elite!,;).Yes I'm Ron from the paracast.Good to see you here.
 

humanoidlord

ce3 researcher
My husband gave a poor explanation.
They exist in a reality like ours close yet far. The Fey realm is like a mist. but if one wishes to see, hear and understand all one has to do is put away all what is learned. The moment a child is told that fairies do not exist their eyes close forever.
We do not see because we are told not to see. We close our eyes to them. But the moment we shake off that teaching we can indeed see them.
My daughter followed her heart. she is my initiate. She has begun to see that world. The teaching of the modern age make it hard to perceive that hidden world. So why can they be seen by those without training? Because they want to be seen. So that wonder is not lost.
So go out into the wood where it is quiet. Close your eyes and listen forget the modern world. And soon you will hear their voices. if your heart is open to them they will come to you. It happened to me. It happened to Kate. It can happen to you.
Blessed Be
oh... if you know all the amazing invisible things that we have around us daily that we cant see
 

Rikki

High Priestess
oh... if you know all the amazing invisible things that we have around us daily that we cant see
I do not claim to see all of what is around us. Beings of light and shadow. Angels and demons. I do not wish to see a demon. the karma of such a visit would be great. Some entities seek to trick us. They look like "grey" aliens. But if one opens their hearts to the fey they will come and bless them.
upon encountering an entity speak these words
Those who would harm you.
Those who maim.
If you proceed ye face the same.
with cloth and cord.
of darkest night.
I bind your deeds with shining light.
You can not harm me.
So stay away.
I am protected
night and day!
Thus Mote it Be!
Blessed Be
"Rikki"
 

humanoidlord

ce3 researcher
I do not claim to see all of what is around us. Beings of light and shadow. Angels and demons. I do not wish to see a demon. the karma of such a visit would be great. Some entities seek to trick us. They look like "grey" aliens. But if one opens their hearts to the fey they will come and bless them.
upon encountering an entity speak these words
Those who would harm you.
Those who maim.
If you proceed ye face the same.
with cloth and cord.
of darkest night.
I bind your deeds with shining light.
You can not harm me.
So stay away.
I am protected
night and day!
Thus Mote it Be!
Blessed Be
"Rikki"
surprisingly there is no distinction, they are all interdimensional
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Here's a couple reports of gnomes sighted in Argentina a few years back...

In 2008, the Argentine town of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina, was stalked by a strange miniature humanoid that allegedly wore a tall, pointed hat and moved about in an odd, sideways gait. Many of the locals reported seeing the thing lurking about at night and in the early morning hours, to the point that residents were in rather a state of panic, and indeed the police chief of the town, Police Commisionaire Jose Luis Nunez, claimed that he himself had seen such a creature when he was a child.

Out of all of the reports, perhaps the most dramatic was that of a man who claimed to have even captured the being on film. A young man named Jose Alverez reported to the Argentine newspaper El Tribuno that he and his friends had encountered the little beast one night while out chatting about a fishing trip they had just been on. The video shows the men standing around talking before they sight a strange, pointy capped humanoid move across the street in a sideways manner before the scene devolves into cries of panic and terror. You can see the footage here.

Alvarez would say of the incident:

We were chatting about our last fishing trip. It was one in the morning. I began to film a bit with my mobile phone while the others were chatting and joking. Suddenly we heard something — a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones. We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid….This is no joke. We are still afraid to go out — just like everyone else in the neighborhood now. One of my friends was so scared after seeing that thing that we had to take him to the hospital.

In 2011, another town in Argentina by the name of Santiago del Estero experienced a series of rather violent incidents involving a tiny, imp-like creature described as having large pointed ears and wearing an oversized hat. Witnesses said that it was often seen to move about in an awkward, side-ways gait, very much like the creature described from Guemes. This “gnome” was reported by numerous citizens to stalk people at night and in the pre-dawn hours, and to rush in to savagely punch them, knock them off their bikes, or chase them down the street, to the point that police were issuing warnings for people not to wander alone at night. Indeed, there were even several sightings of the bizarre entity made by startled police officers as well. A priest, Father Juan Cruz Fariña of the San Miguel Arcangel church, believed that the creature could be “a product of magic,” and suggested that an exorcism might solve the problem.


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