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Between December 1984 and Spring of 1987 a\h
gentleman named Ken Webster received numerous\h\h

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messages on his BBC Micro Model B. These messages,\h
which at first seemed to be a prank or quirk of\h\h

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the computer, quickly grew into a strange time\h
defying communication with a man from the 16th\h\h

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century named Lukas. This might be dismissed as a\h
ghost story or urban legend, had the details not\h\h

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been so difficult to explain away. Thankfully\h
Ken chronicled the events in this book; The\h\h

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Vertical Plane, published in 1989; a tome that’s\h
so rare that this one cost me £165 to get hold of.\h\h

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But despite it’s relative obscurity, the events\h
were so compelling they were subject to various\h\h

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investigations by official bodies, and even\h
featured in an episode of Out of This World\h\h

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from 1996. To this day, they’ve never\h
really been explained…. Until Now….

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Now before I even attempt to unravel this\h
remarkable journey, I'd like to draw your\h\h

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That equates to just $14.99 per year.\h
12 months. That's one hell of a deal.

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Ken Webster was born in the Lake District in\h
1955. He graduated the university of Aberystwyth\h\h

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in 1976 and shortly after, in 1984, found\h
himself in the village of Dodleston in the\h\h

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United Kingdom in a small abode known as Meadow\h
Cottage. Dodleston is a small and quaint village,\h\h

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it had a pub called the Red Lion, which\h
still exists and operates to this day;\h\h

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and it’s a few metres further down the road,\h
at the corner of Kinnerton and Church Road\h\h

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that you’ll find Meadow Cottage. You can see it’s\h
an old converted farm building, divided up into a\h\h

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melody of small dwellings. The phone box which sat\h
down the end of the street has since been removed,\h\h

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but the hum of traffic passing through to Chester\h
is little different now to what it was. The image\h\h

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taken of Meadow Cottage in 1986, shows how little\h
it has changed; it still even appears to have the\h\h

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same front door. But it’s within this home, during\h
the Autumn of 1984 where Ken’s story begins.

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At the time Ken was a teacher at Hawarden High\h
School; a secondary school 17 minutes drive away,\h\h

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just over the border in Wales; and a school\h
that was firmly in the middle of the UK’s\h\h

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Computer Literacy Project. Margaret Thatcher’s\h
government were keen to push the UK forward\h\h

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as a leader in computing, and so, along with\h
the BBC, had brought Acorn Computers on board\h\h

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to create the BBC Micro. This home computer\h
would have it’s own television program,\h\h

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to ease the masses into home computing, and\h
soon after almost every school in the UK would\h\h

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be kitted out with these machines. Hawarden was\h
one of the luckier schools and had enough setups\h\h

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to loan out to teachers, so they could work\h
on and acquaint themselves with the hardware.

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Living in the cottage at this stage were\h
Ken, his girlfriend Debbie, who was notably\h\h

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some 10 years younger, and a friend passing\h
through, Nic, who slept in the upstairs studio\h\h

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whilst Ken and Debbie took the bedroom.\h
Ken had decided to hire out a BBC Micro\h\h

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so that Nic could work on some English performance\h
projects, using the word processor; Edword.

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Now this is the Edword chip; the BBC Micro was\h
an incredibly capable yet expandable machine,\h\h

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so in addition to the Operating System and\h
BASIC ROMS, you could add your own custom ones,\h\h

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giving the machine, built in capability. A lot\h
of school bound Micros would have this installed\h\h

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as standard, the rationale given in the Edword\h
teacher’s guide being; “to provide secondary\h\h

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pupils with the opportunity to experience\h
something they might expect to encounter\h\h

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in the outside world in a manner that meets\h
their needs and matches their abilities”;\h\h

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However, it would provide Meadow Cottage\h
with an experience that no one had expected.

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Edword is accessed by booting the BBC\h
normally, then typing *EDWORD RETURN,\h\h

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we’re then presented with a list of options.\h
Pressing C will start a new document,\h\h

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you then have to type in a document name.\h
When you exit out of the document Edword\h\h

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will then automatically ask if\h
you wish to save the document.

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As Christmas ebbed closer, the household decided\h
to pop out to their friend Dave Lovell’s house,\h\h

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leaving the BBC Micro on, albeit at the boot\h
screen. On return Ken decided to have a glance\h\h

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at some of Nic’s work, however, upon calling up\h
the disc contents using Edword’s “Index” command,\h\h

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had found a file called KDN which read as follows;

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Ken D eb nIc
True A re The NIGHTmares Of a pErson t hat FEArs\h\h

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Safe A re the BODIES Of tHe Silent World
Turn Pr ettY FLowER tuRn TOWARDS The SUN\h

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For Yo u S Hall Grow aNd SOW
But T he FLOWer Reaches tOo hIgh\h\h

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and witHERS in The B urning LIght
G E T OU T YO U R B R ICKs\h

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PuSsy Cat PUSSy Cat Went TO\h
LonDOn TO Seek Fame aNd FORTUNE\h

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Faith Must NOT Be LOst For\h
ThiS Shall Be youR REDEEMER.

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Given it wasn’t something Nic had created, Ken\h
mostly brushed it off as a prank by John; a friend\h\h

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who occasionally popped round to record some\h
guitar tracks, with a view to possibly starting a\h\h

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band. But he couldn’t help but feel a chill run\h
down his spine. The computer went back to the\h\h

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school, and another wasn’t borrowed until February\h
1985. Again, one evening it was accidentally left\h\h

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on, and again, a new file appeared “REATE”,\h
seemingly the latter part of CREATE;

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I WRYTE ON BEHAL THE OF MANYE
WOT STRANGE WORDES THOU SPEKE, ALTHOUGH, I MUSTE\h\h

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CONFESS THAT I HATH ALSO BEENE ILL- SCHOOLED.\h
SOMETYMES METHINKS ALTERACIONS ARE SOMEWOT BARFUL,\h\h

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FOR THEY BREAKE MANYE A SLEPES IN MYNE BED.
THOU ART GOODLY MAN WHO HATH FANCIFUL WOMAN\h\h

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WHO DWEL IN MYNE HOME, I HATH NO WANT TO AFFREY,\h
FOR ONLIE SYTH MYNE HALF WYTED ANTIC HAS RIPPED\h\h

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ATTWAIN MYNE BOUND HATH I BEENE WRETHED A-NYTE.
I HATH SEENE MANYE ALTERACIONS (LASTLY CHARGE\h\h

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HOUSE AND THOU HOME), ’TIS A FITTING\h
PLACE, WITH LYTES WHICHE DEVYLL MAKETH,\h\h

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AND COSTLY THYNGS, THAT ONLIE MYNE FRIEND,\h
EDMUND GREY CAN AFFORE, OR THE KING HIMSELVE.\h

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’TWAS A GREATE CRYME TO HATH BRIBED MYNE HOUSE
L W.

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L.W? Who was this L.W.? What\h
were these strange words?\h\h

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By the sound of it, LW was under the\h
impression that someone had stolen his house.

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Back at the school, Ken decided to discuss these\h
antics in the staff room. Perhaps see if anyone\h\h

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had any ideas on these strange happenings. Most\h
dismissed it as some kind of prank by a friend,\h\h

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or even someone breaking into the house, but the\h
English teacher, Peter Trinder had a different,\h\h

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more inquisitive view, mainly sparked by the\h
words seeming to fit with 16th or 17th century\h\h

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English. Another interested party was\h
John Cummins who lived in the village,\h\h

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but worked as a solicitor out of London.\h
It was he who voiced the need to reply to\h\h

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“whatever this was”, and so, with the crisp snap\h
of winter still filling the air, and Peter’s view\h\h

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that this was possibly an entity who spoke\h
with 17th century tongue, the trio wrote.

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In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Second.
Dear LW. Thank you for your message.\h

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We are sorry for disturbing you. What would you\h
like us to do? Did you live in a house on this\h\h

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land in about 1620? Do you want us to tell\h
you more about our time? Why write a poem?\h\h

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Who is Edward Grey? Is he related to the Egerton\h
family? Do you have a family? Is the King James\h\h

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or Charles Stuart? What is the charge house?\h
Was this village called Dodleston in your life\h\h

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and how many families lived here? Thank you\h
very much for your messages. Thank you for\h\h

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not making us afraid.
Ken, Debbie and John

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The trio retreated to the Red Lion pub, thinking\h\h

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it may prompt a reply, and sure\h
enough, later that afternoon;

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‘Twas an honeste farme of oke and stone
It is helpful that you should telle me about\h

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thy time
Dost thou hath (?) horse\h

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Edmund Grey, brother of John\h
Grey lives at Kinertone Hall(?)\h

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Thy Kyng, of cors, is Henry\h
VIII who is six and fortie\h

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I ne woot of Kyng James\h

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Myne charge house is a place of loore\h
(schoolyng(?)) LW 28 March anno 1521 (?)

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The problem was, if they really were talking\h
with someone from the past, then this reply was\h\h

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littered with inconsistencies; to start with,\h
in 1521, Henry VIII was only 30 years old,\h\h

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not 46. Still, Ken didn’t want to contest\h
too much, after all, he didn’t really know\h\h

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what they were dealing with. Was this an\h
intruder? A weird program on the computer?\h\h

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A prankster? Or was this really\h
a man from the past. The strange,\h\h

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and perhaps modern grammar of question\h
marks and brackets also confused the issue.

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Ken would continue borrowing the BBC from school,\h
but ideas of using it for scripts were a distant\h\h

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memory. The intention was now purely to continue\h
this strange communication and see where it led.\h\h

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In the next message, many snippets of information\h
were given up; that the time-travellers house had\h\h

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red-stone footings, that he has to sow barely\h
early for ale and that he needed to go to\h\h

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Nantwich to visit a farming friend, Richard\h
Wishall. The traveller seemed keen to make it\h\h

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clear that Ken was trespassing in his house, and\h
on this occasion, signed off with a name; Lukas.\h\h

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A name that would be further expanded out on\h
subsequent messages to Lukas Wainman. L.W.

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This raft of information was unexpected, but\h
began to provide a basis for fact checking\h\h

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and investigation. A story was being built up,\h
names like Richard Wishall could be investigated,\h\h

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a clearer vision of his time could\h
be created, and significantly,\h\h

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it now seemed like Meadow Cottage could be\h
placed on the same plot of land that Lukas\h\h

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had seemingly lived upon in the 16th century. Red\h
stone could be found under the kitchen and soil\h\h

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around Meadow Cottage which also seemed to\h
tie in with description of Lukas’s house.\h\h

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But the most compelling evidence of all came from\h
Peter Trinder, who had been tracing Lukas’s words,\h\h

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and managed to tie them back to the exact\h
time period. Not just the words either,\h\h

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but the sentence construction, and the distinct\h
combination of words, with use of Latin,\h\h

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could all be pin-pointed back to the\h
Chesire era in the mid 16th century.

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The earlier inconsistencies also appeared to\h
correct themselves; during further discourse\h\h

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Lukas reveals himself to be living during the\h
era of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine Parr,\h\h

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so sometime between 1543 and 1547, and claimed\h
to have studied at Brasenose College in Oxford.\h\h

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However, when Ken wrote back, mentioning he was\h
from 1985, this further complicated the matter.

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“YOW SAYD YOWR TYME BE 1985 METHOUGHT YOW WERE ALS\h\h

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FROM 2109 LYK YOWR FREEND WHOM\h
DIDST BRINGE LEEMS BOYSTE PREY”

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Lukas seemed to not only be speaking to Ken, but\h
also to someone from the year 2109, who he claimed\h\h

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had appeared and brought the “Leems Boyste” or\h
“Box of lights” to his time in the first place.

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Ken decided to write to 2109 with\h
a simple message “CALLING 2109–”

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….

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“KEN, DEB, PETER
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE CAN GIVE YOU ONLY TWO CHOISES\h

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00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:26,160
1) THAT YOU EITHER HAVE YOUR PREDICAMENT
EXPLAINED IN SUCH A NON-RHYME WAY\h\h

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THAT YOU MAY HAVE INSTANT UNDERSTANDING\h
BUT CAUSE WHAT SHOULD NOT BE TO HAPPEN, OR\h

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00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:37,920
2) TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU THREE HAVE A
PURPOSE THAT SHALL IN YOUR LIFE TIME CHANGES\h\h

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00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:44,000
THE FACE OF HISTORY, WE, 2109, MUST\h
NOT AFFECT YOUR THOUGHTS DIRECTLY BUT\h\h

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00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,240
GIVE YOU SOME SORT OF GUIDANCE THAT\h
WILL ALLOW ROOM FOR YOUR OWN DESTINY.\h\h

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00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:55,120
ALL WE CAN SAY IS THAT WE ARE ALL PART OF\h
THE SAME GOD, WHAT EVER HE, IT (?), IS.”

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This direct and strangely spelt response then,\h
seemed to be from the future. Two apparent\h\h

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lines of communication were now open, and this\h
‘Time Slip’ suddenly seemed to have purpose,\h\h

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although it was beyond the\h
understanding of Ken, Debbie and Peter.

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To add to the situation, there also seemed to\h
be a raft of paranormal activity happening in\h\h

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the cottage during this time. Tins would\h
stack themselves up in the Kitchen;\h\h

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00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:34,480
chalk markings appeared around\h
the house, sometimes with words;\h\h

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00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:41,680
sounds of walking could be heard and strange\h
feet impressions would appear on surfaces.

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On the 15th May Debbie noted;

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“I dropped Ken off at school after spending\h
the night at East Green then drove over to\h\h

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the cottage to feed the cats. It was 9.00 A.M.\h
It was not until I walked up the path to the\h\h

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front door that I sensed something was very wrong.\h
Perhaps it was the cats sitting on the garden wall\h\h

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watching me rather than circling my feet as\h
they usually do which prompted this unease. I\h\h

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turned the key in the lock and pushed the door\h
open. In the living room I came face to face\h\h

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with a six-foot- high pile of furniture. It\h
appeared to me in that instant to have been tossed\h\h

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by the little finger of a giant. Instantly I took a\h
step back and out of the door and slammed it shut.\h\h

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The cats still watched me in silence from\h
the wall. I didn’t know quite what to do.”

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This is an actual photo taken on that day of the\h
incident. Whatever was happening at the cottage\h\h

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was no longer an intriguing puzzle, it was now a\h
destructive and potentially dangerous situation,\h\h

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with the humble BBC still, left blinking at\h
the heart of the conundrum. Shortly after\h\h

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Debbie investigated Leylines; direct\h
alignments related to ancient landmarks;\h\h

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and found one to be running almost\h
directly through Dodleston. Following this,\h\h

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she began to receive visions of Lukas, and\h
even dreams where she interacted with him.

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With the situation becoming ever more unusual,\h
perhaps it was no coincidence that this was also\h\h

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the time that Peter had convinced Ken to get\h
the Society for Psychical Research involved.

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It was John Bucknall and Dave Welch who\h
had arrived from the SPR, and after a few\h\h

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initial unsuccessful sittings, they proposed\h
a test where they would write 10 questions\h\h

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on the BBC to the entity, or entities,\h
known as 2109, in isolation from Ken and\h\h

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the rest of the household, then delete\h
them. If a reply to the questions came,\h\h

169
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:59,840
then Ken’s group should alert them immediately.\h
Several days past, and a response came back;

170
00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:05,360
“DAVID, JOHN.
DAVID. YOU INTERFERE WITH COMUNICATION.\h\h

171
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:11,200
NEXT TIME YOU DECIDE TO PERFORM YOUR LITTLE\h
EXPERIMENT YOU MUST BE CLEAR FROM HERE.\h\h

172
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,320
WE SUGGEST YOU TRY SOMEONE\h
ELES TO SIT WITH DEBBIE.\h

173
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:20,720
YES WE ARE WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A TACHYON\h
UNIVERSE BUT YOUR UNDERSTANDING IS INCORRECT.\h\h

174
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:29,120
WE ASK NOTHING MORE OF YOU THAN TO CARRY ON AS YOU\h
WOULD PREFER. WE WILL HAVE JOHN PRESENT IF GIVEN\h\h

175
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:35,920
CHOISE OR YOU MAY BRING ANOTHER AS MENCIONED. NO,\h
IT IS NO CONCERN TO US THAT THIS IS NOT PROVED.\h\h

176
00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:45,040
WE WILL GIVE YOU A PLOTTING OF A STAR NEXT TIME.\h
WE MOVE AT A SPEED SO THAT WE COVER EVERY POINT IN\h\h

177
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YOUR TIME AND UNIVERSE. WE HAVE NO FORM WE FEED OF\h
A NEET ENERGY THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE HERD OF 2109″

178
00:18:55,440 --> 00:19:00,960
On hearing this Dave Welch responded\h
“2109 had not answered the questions\h\h

179
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:06,000
but it seemed they had picked up all the\h
questions left for them in the same order”.

180
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:13,120
Finally, it appeared that Ken, Debbie and Peter\h
had proof. They had been categorically denied\h\h

181
00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:19,120
access to these questions, and given\h
2109 seemed to know what they were,\h\h

182
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:25,040
they could now be excluded as possible hoaxers\h
themselves. At least, that’s what they hoped.

183
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:32,640
In reality, the SPR went quiet. They began to\h
speculate that perhaps sensitive microphones could\h\h

184
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:38,160
have been carefully placed to pick up the sounds\h
of typing, which could then be used to deduce what\h\h

185
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:44,400
had been written on the BBC. They also suggested\h
that perhaps, someone one using the “earth wire”\h\h

186
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:53,120
of the computer to send and receive data through.\h
Whatever their view, John shortly after left the\h\h

187
00:19:53,120 --> 00:20:00,560
SPR, Dave Welch disappeared without a trace, and\h
an official report was curiously, never filed.

188
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:14,080
Here I’ve got a copy of the (eughh) Mail\h
on Sunday, dated 29th December 1985;\h\h

189
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:19,840
a period of significant snowfall across the\h
UK, among the Duty Free Terror of course.\h\h

190
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:26,880
But this paper is significant, because shortly\h
after this debacle, Ken, Debbie & Peter reached\h\h

191
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:34,240
out to the Chester Observer about their ordeal.\h
Now, I couldn’t source a copy of that particular\h\h

192
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:40,720
publication, but various other newspapers\h
reported on Ken’s story, including this one;

193
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:01,120
“Oxford-educated Thomas Harden has been dead\h
for more than 400 years. But that does not\h\h

194
00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:07,040
stop him enjoying a good session on a BBC\h
Micro after a hard day’s toil on the farm…\h\h

195
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:13,040
for a 16th century gentleman who should not\h
really know a floppy disc from a codpiece,\h\h

196
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:17,218
his mastery of 20th century scientific skills\h
is rather impressive. Mr Harden calls Bristol\h\h

197
00:21:17,218 --> 00:21:24,000
‘Brightow’ – an obscure but genuine form – and\h
refers to a minor author called Mr Mutianus by his\h\h

198
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:29,120
then-fashionable Oxford nickname of Rufus. Ken,\h
a doubting soul, originally thought that someone\h\h

199
00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:35,840
was playing a prank. Now, more than 150 messages\h
later, he is not so sure. There definitely was a\h\h

200
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:41,760
Thomas Harden who was the dean of Brasenose\h
College chapel at Oxford in the late 1530s.\h\h

201
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:47,440
He was expelled for refusing to remove the Pope’s\h
name from prayer books during Henry VIII’s purge\h\h

202
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:53,600
on Roman Catholicism and appears to have settled\h
for a quiet farming life in Cheshire. The Society\h\h

203
00:21:53,600 --> 00:22:00,240
for Psychical Research has investigated the case\h
no fewer than eight times but remains sceptical.\h\h

204
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:06,960
Investigator [John] Bucknall is convinced\h
some 1985 computer hacker in Ken’s village\h\h

205
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:16,080
is responsible. And Mr Harden? He told the Mail on\h
Sunday: ‘Myne cooke saithe I shall repent for myne\h\h

206
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:23,120
adventure and that it will come to foul issue,\h
but methinks she be yelowe and tolde her soe.'”

207
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:33,280
It’s clear that the Mail took a\h
tongue in cheek view of the story,\h\h

208
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:39,360
indeed, putting it on page 3, underneath a\h
fashion segment about wellington boots for\h\h

209
00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:45,680
dogs. But the story covers some interesting\h
points that I haven’t delved into thus far.

210
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:52,240
You see, in an earlier message, Lukas had actually\h
revealed he had been too scared to give his real\h\h

211
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:59,040
name and details for fear of reprisal – the same\h
reason he had given some false earlier details\h\h

212
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:08,640
also -, but through communication with Ken, had\h
opened up to reveal his true name to be Tomas\h\h

213
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:14,080
Harden. Details of whom, can actually be\h
traced to this day to being a fellow of\h\h

214
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:24,800
Brasenose college in same time as specified in\h
the messages. The name seems to vary between\h\h

215
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:27,520
Tomas Harden and Thomas Hawarden both in Ken’s\h
book and through external sources. Of course,\h\h

216
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,040
today, with access to the\h
internet and archived records,\h\h

217
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:37,360
this information is easier to research.\h
But in 1985, there was no internet,\h\h

218
00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:42,640
with the only investigation made through Peter\h
travelling to Oxford and researching on site.

219
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:51,760
Shortly after, 2109 rather strangely suggested\h
finding a gentleman by the name of Gary Rowe;

220
00:23:53,200 --> 00:24:00,240
“YOU MAY PHONE HIM AT THE NO BELOW AND INVITE\h
HIM TO TALK WITH YOU, WHEN HE COMES SHOW HIM\h\h

221
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:07,760
THIS AND ASK HIM WHAT HE MAKES OF IT … PETER\h
MUST DO THE TELEPHONING RHYL *REDACTED NUMBER*\h\h

222
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:13,440
TELL HIM THAT YOU GOT THE TELEPHONE\h
NO FROM A UFO ENTHUSIAST. 2109.”

223
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:20,880
Gary was a UFO investigator, who came armed\h
with an array of investigative equipment\h\h

224
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,000
and apparently, “computer linked sensors”.\h\h

225
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:29,120
Ken described him as “a sharp intelligent\h
man, obsessed with his ideas”.

226
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:37,040
What followed was then a strange communication\h
between Gary and 2109 directly. 2109 were asking\h\h

227
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:42,640
Ken to print off messages, without reading them,\h
and pass them to Gary in a sealed envelope.\h\h

228
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:49,760
This strange toing and throwing, ended up\h
with Gary writing a message to 2109 stating;

229
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:51,680
“GREETINGS
I AM INSTRUCTED TO\h\h

230
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:57,200
APOLOGISE BUT IN ANY EVENT I WOULD HAVE DONE\h
SO OF MY OWN VOLITION. THERE WILL BE A LETTER\h\h

231
00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:02,960
HOPEFULLY THIS WEEKEND. I AM ALSO INSTRUCTED\h
TO APOLOGISE TO KEN AND DEBBIE. I MUST TRY AND\h\h

232
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,760
ANSWER YOUR LAST LETTER. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT\h
YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN I HAD REALISED IN\h\h

233
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:09,680
THE SCHEME OF THINGS.
GARY”

234
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,160
Shortly after, Gary became almost\h
evasive about their discussions\h\h

235
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:23,440
and seemingly disappeared into the night. Ken\h
describes this situation as strange & frustrating,\h\h

236
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:27,120
as it didn’t put them any further\h
forward in being able to prove\h\h

237
00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:33,200
the phenomena. 2109 had in fact, seemingly\h
used Ken to communicate with Gary about\h\h

238
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:39,120
the future and now Gary’s only concern was\h
keeping these details close to his chest.

239
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:47,280
The final messages to come through from Tomas\h
provided the detail we were perhaps all most\h\h

240
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:53,280
intrigued about; how the ‘leem’s had appeared to\h
him shining, apparently, as a green light from\h\h

241
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:59,680
the walls of his chimney. As translated into a\h
more modern tongue by Peter Tinder, he writes;

242
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:06,240
“I never feared for my soul so much in my life\h
but so afraid was I that I couldn’t move away\h\h

243
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:12,080
from this strange messenger. He said, ‘Fear not,\h
good Tomas, you are starred to be a great man, if\h\h

244
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:18,160
you do not have fear but keep your faith strong.’\h
Then after other words which I do confess were not\h\h

245
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:23,840
like devil talk he was gone leaving the ‘leems’\h
which appeared to be the same as your computer.”

246
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:32,080
Tomas detailed that by speaking towards the\h
“leems”, words would appear automatically.\h\h

247
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:38,080
Suggesting that, on his part, there was no typing\h
as such involved, and presumably the contents\h\h

248
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:44,880
would save automatically. Whether he witnessed\h
a floppy disk drive grinding away is unknown,\h\h

249
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:51,040
but clearly it’s a good job they weren’t using a\h
cassette deck for storage. How Tomas received the\h\h

250
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:56,960
messages is less clear, and any logical answer\h
would come with its own set of challenges.\h\h

251
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:04,720
Regardless, it was strange perhaps, that this\h
information would come so late in this journey.

252
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:10,720
Tomas signed off with a promise that he\h
would write a book about the whole matter\h\h

253
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,360
for future generations to find and read;

254
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:19,440
“One day you will all sit down at my table for\h
wine and meat by the river in Oxford where we\h\h

255
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,920
shall read each other’s books and laugh\h
and we shall speak of truth and good men,\h\h

256
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:30,560
watching Oxford change together for evermore.
In your time my book is old but I shall not go\h\h

257
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:36,800
to my God until it is written then we will\h
all be truly embraced. My love to you all.\h\h

258
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,680
I shall await you in Oxford.
Tomas Harden”

259
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:47,760
With 2109 also finishing their\h
communication shortly after;

260
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:54,000
“THERE IS ANOTHER PERSON TO COME, THEY WILL BE THE\h
HELP WE NEED. YOU WILL KNOW THEM WHEN THEY COME.\h\h

261
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:59,280
THOMAS DID EVENTUALLY WRITE HIS\h
BOOK AND SOON DIED, SHORTLEY AFTER,\h\h

262
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:05,440
HE PLACED IT IN A SECURE PLACE, IT SHOULDN’T TAKE\h
TOO MANY YEARS TO FIND IT, THOUGH HE WROTE IT IN\h\h

263
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:12,640
LATIN WITH THE HELP OF A FREIND THAT HE MET IN\h
OXFORD, THE INSCRIPTION READS “ME WRYTS THIS\h\h

264
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:20,080
IN THE HOPE THAT MYNE FELAWS WILL ONE DAY FIND\h
THIS BOKE, THEN MAY OWER LANDS BE NOT SOE DISTANT”

265
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:31,840
Putting an end to this rather strange\h
affair. But also dangling a carrot; that\h\h

266
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:38,720
if anyone should find Tomas’s original book; his\h
original account of this adventure from his 16th\h\h

267
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:44,160
century perspective, then it would once and for\h
all prove that everything suggested here was,\h\h

268
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:51,120
in fact, the truth. Who knows… maybe one day,\h
someone will find his book, tucked away under an\h\h

269
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:56,720
Oxford college floorboard. Maybe I’ll go on\h
the quest myself, it would certainly make\h\h

270
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:03,280
for a compelling follow up, but until then,\h
it’s very much a single sided ghost story,\h\h

271
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:11,840
albeit with various witnesses, with\h
a BBC Micro at the heart of it.

272
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:20,080
Now, I’ve carved out what\h
I feel to be the main part\h\h

273
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:27,040
of the story for this video, but this is a\h
350 page book, and Ken’s whole account of\h\h

274
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:33,280
it is a very strange read indeed. Not just\h
in the story, but also how it’s written.\h\h

275
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:40,000
It’s pretty hard to make sense of what’s going\h
on. The story feels disparate, disjointed,\h\h

276
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:47,760
and in a way, I guess that actually gives credence\h
to it being a real set of events. Recorded vaguely\h\h

277
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:54,640
from memory, using the communications that\h
Ken had printed, and kept stored in a wallet.\h\h

278
00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:05,920
Indeed, this book wouldn’t be written until 1989,\h
some 3 years after events finished. So if you were\h\h

279
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:12,160
to suggest that the whole thing was just a money\h
making venture, it seems odd that they’d wait\h\h

280
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:17,760
so long to publish their account of it; years\h
after the stories in the press had faded away.

281
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:24,320
The last section of the book is\h
occupied with Peter Trinder’s analysis\h\h

282
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:28,400
of the messages, and it’s perhaps\h
that which is the most compelling;\h\h

283
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:40,000
here, he goes to great lengths explaining how he\h
had to dig deep into past iterations of the Oxford\h\h

284
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:44,720
English Dictionary and other references\h
to ascertain exactly what the words from\h\h

285
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:48,880
Tomas meant, and how this would\h
be impossible to work backwards.\h\h

286
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:54,800
He goes on to explain how this research, and 15th\h
century documents such as the Paston Lettters\h\h

287
00:30:54,800 --> 00:31:01,280
from East Anglia and Cely Letters from London,\h
helped to date the text to the mid 16th century,\h\h

288
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:07,360
and of South Western origin. There are also a\h
list of words he couldn’t place, but through\h\h

289
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:14,080
the power of the internet, can now be traced, and\h
actually make sense in the 16th century context.

290
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,320
His view was very much that\h
this couldn’t have been a hoax,\h\h

291
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:24,400
and in that 1996 episode of Out of This\h
World, went on camera to declare so;

292
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:28,240
“If someone was doing this as a hoax, they\h
would have to have done a hell of a lot of\h\h

293
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:33,280
research. I can honestly say it wasn’t me,\h
but you either believe or you don’t. I knew\h\h

294
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,400
it wasn’t me. I did not believe that it could\h
be Ken. Of course, always from the start, that\h\h

295
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,920
was the assumption I started with when\h
he gave me this strange bit of paper,\h\h

296
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:44,880
over the school dinner table one day, and\h
said, do you understand this? And I said,\h\h

297
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,600
well let me take it home and have a look at\h
it, knowing I’ve got the dictionary. I thought\h\h

298
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:53,280
this dictionary will soon prove this was a bit\h
of silly nonsense. But of course, it didn’t.”

299
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,520
You can’t fault his enthusiasm,\h\h

300
00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:00,720
but the show’s own investigation into the\h
topic, yielded quite a different response;

301
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:07,280
“Looking at the verb structure, there\h
are things that wouldn’t have been said\h\h

302
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:14,160
in 1546. It’s true that individuals can make\h
up individual words, but we don’t make up\h\h

303
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:22,080
our verbs. It was possible in England\h
in 1546 to say, I do, thou dust,\h\h

304
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:28,480
he she or it duth, he she or it does, but\h
it wasn’t possible to say I duth, or he she\h\h

305
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:36,080
or it dust. Now all through Lukas’ messages, he\h
mixes up these suffixes with the wrong subjects.\h\h

306
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:41,200
If it’s meant to look like early Modern\h
English writing. It doesn’t even look close”

307
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:45,200
Ken and Debbie’s appearance on\h
the same show was very different,\h\h

308
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:49,280
and although they were interviewed,\h
declined to be shown on camera;

309
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,720
Do you think there will be a normal\h
explanation for what happened?\h\h

310
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:57,200
-I’m sure there will be a normal explanation.\h
I’m as puzzled as the next person.\h\h

311
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,480
All I managed to do was record what was happening.

312
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:10,640
We’ve had Lukas’s messages analysed by two\h
experts, they have said that these are definitely\h\h

313
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:15,600
not from the 16th century. They are like 20th\h
century hoaxes. What would you say to that? -I\h\h

314
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,800
don’t suppose there’s an academic in\h
the land who would say this is real.\h\h

315
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:21,200
Not those who wanted to keep their position.

316
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:34,000
I actually tracked down who I\h
believe to be Ken Webster myself,\h\h

317
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,560
however, he assured me that I had the wrong\h
person, telling me that he gets messages\h\h

318
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:44,560
like this from time to time, and detailing all\h
the other Ken Websters that exist. So maybe I\h\h

319
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:51,920
did have the wrong person, or may Ken just wants\h
to wash his hands of this debacle completely.

320
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:58,960
As for the man named Gary Rowe. Well he has\h
made several ‘apparent’ appearances on forums\h\h

321
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:03,360
and message boards, still apparently\h
a believer in the whole debarcle;

322
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:08,400
“I had the opportunity to investigate\h
these happenings first hand. No,\h\h

323
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,920
I am not some away with the\h
fairies wishful believer.I\h\h

324
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:17,920
investigated with professional detachment\h
not bothered what I would find. Fake or fact.\h

325
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:23,920
I left no stone unturned and used cutting\h
edge science to get to the truth.In fact I\h\h

326
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:29,200
believe it was the first computer controlled\h
psychic investigation recorded in the world.\h

327
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:35,760
I don’t care two hoots if nobody ever believes\h
it. I KNOW It really happened. It changed my life\h\h

328
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:42,320
forever.It is going to change yours. The book\h
should/will one day be ISBN recoded under the\h\h

329
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:47,840
“history” section. It is a monumental\h
historical marker in the ribbon of time”

330
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:57,040
Whether this is actually Gary Rowe is a\h
pertinent question. It may well be, but\h\h

331
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:02,480
even if it is, we don’t really know his original\h
involvement. We only know what we’ve been told.

332
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,600
Ken’s musical friend John, has\h
also popped up in the odd forum.\h\h

333
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:12,480
Back in 2007 he wrote on\h
unexplained-mysteries.com;

334
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,320
“I actually lived in the house with Ken Webster\h
a few years prior to the occurrences he wrote\h\h

335
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:21,200
about in the book. I have to say that I never\h
experienced any of the phenomenon that Ken did,\h\h

336
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,400
and I would have to say that the\h
cottage never had any ‘bad or odd\h\h

337
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,240
vibes’, in fact it was one of the most\h
peaceful places you could imagine.”

338
00:35:28,240 --> 00:35:33,760
But also… “Ken was a pretty serious type of person\h
– he had a great sense of humour but was a fairly\h\h

339
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:38,160
solitary and sensitive kind of guy, certainly not\h
the type of person to leave himself open to public\h\h

340
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:42,080
ridicule, especially not by writing a book that\h
would make him out to be a a bit of a ‘loon’.”

341
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:49,920
Really, like many of these stories, we’re led to\h
our own investigation, imagination and intuition\h\h

342
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:58,000
to unravel what was going on here. Do I believe it\h
myself? No. I consider myself pretty open minded,\h\h

343
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,920
but there are too many loose ends, inconsistencies\h
and areas which are just left hanging in the air.

344
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:10,240
The SPR for example, never really seemed to\h
grasp the technology they were dealing with.\h\h

345
00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:14,240
Data being sent down the earth\h
wire just sounds ridiculous,\h\h

346
00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:20,400
and yet they never seemed to ponder more realistic\h
ideas such as perhaps a dummy version of EdWord\h\h

347
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,320
could have been programmed into the BBC\h
Micro. Collecting keystrokes as it went.\h\h

348
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:29,840
It’s perhaps far fetched in itself,\h
but not so far fetched as the reality.

349
00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:37,840
Then there’s the mysterious tachyon entities from\h
2109, who seemed to enter at just the right moment\h\h

350
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:44,400
to act as a scapegoat for many of the historical\h
inaccuracies given by Lukas. They’re the ones that\h\h

351
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:51,120
coin time as being held in a Vertical Plane, and\h
in later sections of the book, they make claims of\h\h

352
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:56,000
interfering with and altering Lukas’s messages, in\h
order to make them easier to understand for Ken.\h\h

353
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:03,120
This is also the explanation given for the\h
bizarre use of gramma in earlier messages.

354
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:09,600
Then there’s the fact that 2109 use weird\h
spelling themselves. You could argue this\h\h

355
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:17,280
is due to language continuing to evolve up to\h
2109. But the spelling is wildly inconsistent,\h\h

356
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:24,320
with some words being spelt with 3 or 4 different\h
variations. A quirk of the phenomena perhaps.\h\h

357
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:30,400
But the reality is, it makes it feel like a poorly\h
thought out hoax. In fact, from the point they\h\h

358
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:37,920
enter, the vibe given off is that the orchestrator\h
of this becomes overwhelmed with the task,\h\h

359
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:42,400
leaving too many loose threads. It’s\h
like watching LOST all over again.

360
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:48,480
Then there’s the strong correlation between\h
the number of times that Debbie was left alone,\h\h

361
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:55,360
and messages appearing on the computer. It’s\h
strange that during the SPR investigations,\h\h

362
00:37:55,360 --> 00:38:01,520
and when other people were in the house, nothing\h
seemed to happen. This is, of course, by Ken’s\h\h

363
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:07,680
own account, which, along with the fact he\h
intentionally seems to imply how sceptical he was\h\h

364
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:13,280
of the whole endeavour, and that he didn’t really\h
care makes it feel like a forced double bluff.

365
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:20,720
But there are also various intriguing\h
details which although might appear\h\h

366
00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:25,760
as a fabrication from the human mind,\h
could actually be argued as a supernatural\h\h

367
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:32,400
coincidence. The fact that Lukas, becomes\h
Tomas Harden, with two spelling variations,\h\h

368
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:39,120
but coincidentally sharing the same name\h
as the school that Ken and Peter taught at,\h\h

369
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:45,360
almost feels too serendipitous. But then, in\h
medieval times, people were often referred to\h\h

370
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:52,720
as Tomas from Harden, before family surnames\h
were adopted. So, given his location, maybe this\h\h

371
00:38:52,720 --> 00:38:58,000
actually does fit well with the story, and his\h
subsequent discovery on the Brasenose register.

372
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:07,120
The whole thing is weird. It’s weird in\h
its nature, its weird in its portrayal,\h\h

373
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,920
and its also weird from a technical standpoint.

374
00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:15,680
Some have suggested that the whole debacle\h
may have been more convincing had the BBC\h\h

375
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:22,160
been networked up, rather than sitting as a closed\h
system. But really, would that make a difference?\h\h

376
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:29,440
If it were networked, it still infers the\h
existence of a time traversing box connected to it\h\h

377
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:34,800
that the messages were passed through. A network\h
might fit with our conventional modern day view\h\h

378
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:40,240
of sending and receiving messages, but it still\h
doesn’t explain away the supernatural element.\h\h

379
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:45,600
Besides the econet functionality of\h
the Beeb was really rather limited,\h\h

380
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:51,680
and so, even if it were connected to a network,\h
anything like this was outside of its scope.

381
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:58,560
And it’s that premise which really structures\h
my view. This is a vintage technology channel,\h\h

382
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:05,200
not a ghost channel. My view is naturally going\h
to be sceptical and weighted towards the confines\h\h

383
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:09,600
of how a BBC Micro can operate in the real world.\h\h

384
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:14,800
Which, apart from the workings of\h
Edword, this tale is securely outside of.

385
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:20,400
Whatever your view, you can’t deny that\h
it’s an intriguing and compelling story,\h\h

386
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:25,360
even if you extract all the time\h
travelling elements, and ghost scenarios.\h\h

387
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:30,480
But in my view, that’s mainly because it\h
makes use of that mighty piece of engineering,\h\h

388
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:34,960
the BBC Micro; after all,\h
that’s why I’ve covered it.

389
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:40,480
If you want to delve deeper into the story and\h
get some other perspectives, then I thoroughly\h\h

390
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:47,120
recommend these sources. There you’ll find deeper\h
and darker insights than I can go into here.\h\h

391
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:52,640
As I started researching into this, I just found\h
myself going deeper and deeper down so many holes\h\h

392
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:58,720
of research. I could spend my life here, and who\h
knows, if I did, I might actually be convinced\h\h

393
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:05,120
that all this really did happen, after all, there\h
are plenty of people who are completely convinced\h\h

394
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:16,160
of its reality, and plenty of similar cases of the\h
electronic voice phenomenon to explore. But the\h\h

395
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:22,160
Dark Histories podcast I found to be particularly\h
fascinating, and it’s a good place to start.

396
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,400
As I was saying earlier, if there’s\h
enough interest in this video,\h\h

397
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:32,640
I may delve deeper. So if you’d like to see an\h
episode where I head down to Brasenose college and\h\h

398
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:39,040
seek a book written in the 16th century, or you’d\h
like me to head over to Dodleston and setup camp\h\h

399
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:45,840
inside Meadow Cottage with a BBC Micro,\h
then please let me know in the comments.\h\h

400
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:52,720
I feel 2022 could definitely be a good\h
year for excursions and investigations.

401
00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:57,040
But until next time, I’ve been Nostalgia Nerd.

402
00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:01,840
Toodleoo.