Between December 1984 and Spring of 1987 a\h gentleman named Ken Webster received numerous\h\h
messages on his BBC Micro Model B. These messages,\h which at first seemed to be a prank or quirk of\h\h
the computer, quickly grew into a strange time\h defying communication with a man from the 16th\h\h
century named Lukas. This might be dismissed as a\h ghost story or urban legend, had the details not\h\h
been so difficult to explain away. Thankfully\h Ken chronicled the events in this book; The\h\h
Vertical Plane, published in 1989; a tome that’s\h so rare that this one cost me £165 to get hold of.\h\h
But despite it’s relative obscurity, the events\h were so compelling they were subject to various\h\h
investigations by official bodies, and even\h featured in an episode of Out of This World\h\h
from 1996. To this day, they’ve never\h really been explained…. Until Now….
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Ken Webster was born in the Lake District in\h 1955. He graduated the university of Aberystwyth\h\h
in 1976 and shortly after, in 1984, found\h himself in the village of Dodleston in the\h\h
United Kingdom in a small abode known as Meadow\h Cottage. Dodleston is a small and quaint village,\h\h
it had a pub called the Red Lion, which\h still exists and operates to this day;\h\h
and it’s a few metres further down the road,\h at the corner of Kinnerton and Church Road\h\h
that you’ll find Meadow Cottage. You can see it’s\h an old converted farm building, divided up into a\h\h
melody of small dwellings. The phone box which sat\h down the end of the street has since been removed,\h\h
but the hum of traffic passing through to Chester\h is little different now to what it was. The image\h\h
taken of Meadow Cottage in 1986, shows how little\h it has changed; it still even appears to have the\h\h
same front door. But it’s within this home, during\h the Autumn of 1984 where Ken’s story begins.
At the time Ken was a teacher at Hawarden High\h School; a secondary school 17 minutes drive away,\h\h
just over the border in Wales; and a school\h that was firmly in the middle of the UK’s\h\h
Computer Literacy Project. Margaret Thatcher’s\h government were keen to push the UK forward\h\h
as a leader in computing, and so, along with\h the BBC, had brought Acorn Computers on board\h\h
to create the BBC Micro. This home computer\h would have it’s own television program,\h\h
to ease the masses into home computing, and\h soon after almost every school in the UK would\h\h
be kitted out with these machines. Hawarden was\h one of the luckier schools and had enough setups\h\h
to loan out to teachers, so they could work\h on and acquaint themselves with the hardware.
Living in the cottage at this stage were\h Ken, his girlfriend Debbie, who was notably\h\h
some 10 years younger, and a friend passing\h through, Nic, who slept in the upstairs studio\h\h
whilst Ken and Debbie took the bedroom.\h Ken had decided to hire out a BBC Micro\h\h
so that Nic could work on some English performance\h projects, using the word processor; Edword.
Now this is the Edword chip; the BBC Micro was\h an incredibly capable yet expandable machine,\h\h
so in addition to the Operating System and\h BASIC ROMS, you could add your own custom ones,\h\h
giving the machine, built in capability. A lot\h of school bound Micros would have this installed\h\h
as standard, the rationale given in the Edword\h teacher’s guide being; “to provide secondary\h\h
pupils with the opportunity to experience\h something they might expect to encounter\h\h
in the outside world in a manner that meets\h their needs and matches their abilities”;\h\h
However, it would provide Meadow Cottage\h with an experience that no one had expected.
Edword is accessed by booting the BBC\h normally, then typing *EDWORD RETURN,\h\h
we’re then presented with a list of options.\h Pressing C will start a new document,\h\h
you then have to type in a document name.\h When you exit out of the document Edword\h\h
will then automatically ask if\h you wish to save the document.
As Christmas ebbed closer, the household decided\h to pop out to their friend Dave Lovell’s house,\h\h
leaving the BBC Micro on, albeit at the boot\h screen. On return Ken decided to have a glance\h\h
at some of Nic’s work, however, upon calling up\h the disc contents using Edword’s “Index” command,\h\h
had found a file called KDN which read as follows;
Ken D eb nIc True A re The NIGHTmares Of a pErson t hat FEArs\h\h
Safe A re the BODIES Of tHe Silent World Turn Pr ettY FLowER tuRn TOWARDS The SUN\h
For Yo u S Hall Grow aNd SOW But T he FLOWer Reaches tOo hIgh\h\h
and witHERS in The B urning LIght G E T OU T YO U R B R ICKs\h
PuSsy Cat PUSSy Cat Went TO\h LonDOn TO Seek Fame aNd FORTUNE\h
Faith Must NOT Be LOst For\h ThiS Shall Be youR REDEEMER.
Given it wasn’t something Nic had created, Ken\h mostly brushed it off as a prank by John; a friend\h\h
who occasionally popped round to record some\h guitar tracks, with a view to possibly starting a\h\h
band. But he couldn’t help but feel a chill run\h down his spine. The computer went back to the\h\h
school, and another wasn’t borrowed until February\h 1985. Again, one evening it was accidentally left\h\h
on, and again, a new file appeared “REATE”,\h seemingly the latter part of CREATE;
I WRYTE ON BEHAL THE OF MANYE WOT STRANGE WORDES THOU SPEKE, ALTHOUGH, I MUSTE\h\h
CONFESS THAT I HATH ALSO BEENE ILL- SCHOOLED.\h SOMETYMES METHINKS ALTERACIONS ARE SOMEWOT BARFUL,\h\h
FOR THEY BREAKE MANYE A SLEPES IN MYNE BED. THOU ART GOODLY MAN WHO HATH FANCIFUL WOMAN\h\h
WHO DWEL IN MYNE HOME, I HATH NO WANT TO AFFREY,\h FOR ONLIE SYTH MYNE HALF WYTED ANTIC HAS RIPPED\h\h
ATTWAIN MYNE BOUND HATH I BEENE WRETHED A-NYTE. I HATH SEENE MANYE ALTERACIONS (LASTLY CHARGE\h\h
HOUSE AND THOU HOME), ’TIS A FITTING\h PLACE, WITH LYTES WHICHE DEVYLL MAKETH,\h\h
AND COSTLY THYNGS, THAT ONLIE MYNE FRIEND,\h EDMUND GREY CAN AFFORE, OR THE KING HIMSELVE.\h
’TWAS A GREATE CRYME TO HATH BRIBED MYNE HOUSE L W.
L.W? Who was this L.W.? What\h were these strange words?\h\h
By the sound of it, LW was under the\h impression that someone had stolen his house.
Back at the school, Ken decided to discuss these\h antics in the staff room. Perhaps see if anyone\h\h
had any ideas on these strange happenings. Most\h dismissed it as some kind of prank by a friend,\h\h
or even someone breaking into the house, but the\h English teacher, Peter Trinder had a different,\h\h
more inquisitive view, mainly sparked by the\h words seeming to fit with 16th or 17th century\h\h
English. Another interested party was\h John Cummins who lived in the village,\h\h
but worked as a solicitor out of London.\h It was he who voiced the need to reply to\h\h
“whatever this was”, and so, with the crisp snap\h of winter still filling the air, and Peter’s view\h\h
that this was possibly an entity who spoke\h with 17th century tongue, the trio wrote.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Second. Dear LW. Thank you for your message.\h
We are sorry for disturbing you. What would you\h like us to do? Did you live in a house on this\h\h
land in about 1620? Do you want us to tell\h you more about our time? Why write a poem?\h\h
Who is Edward Grey? Is he related to the Egerton\h family? Do you have a family? Is the King James\h\h
or Charles Stuart? What is the charge house?\h Was this village called Dodleston in your life\h\h
and how many families lived here? Thank you\h very much for your messages. Thank you for\h\h
not making us afraid. Ken, Debbie and John
The trio retreated to the Red Lion pub, thinking\h\h
it may prompt a reply, and sure\h enough, later that afternoon;
‘Twas an honeste farme of oke and stone It is helpful that you should telle me about\h
thy time Dost thou hath (?) horse\h
Edmund Grey, brother of John\h Grey lives at Kinertone Hall(?)\h
Thy Kyng, of cors, is Henry\h VIII who is six and fortie\h
I ne woot of Kyng James\h
Myne charge house is a place of loore\h (schoolyng(?)) LW 28 March anno 1521 (?)
The problem was, if they really were talking\h with someone from the past, then this reply was\h\h
littered with inconsistencies; to start with,\h in 1521, Henry VIII was only 30 years old,\h\h
not 46. Still, Ken didn’t want to contest\h too much, after all, he didn’t really know\h\h
what they were dealing with. Was this an\h intruder? A weird program on the computer?\h\h
A prankster? Or was this really\h a man from the past. The strange,\h\h
and perhaps modern grammar of question\h marks and brackets also confused the issue.
Ken would continue borrowing the BBC from school,\h but ideas of using it for scripts were a distant\h\h
memory. The intention was now purely to continue\h this strange communication and see where it led.\h\h
In the next message, many snippets of information\h were given up; that the time-travellers house had\h\h
red-stone footings, that he has to sow barely\h early for ale and that he needed to go to\h\h
Nantwich to visit a farming friend, Richard\h Wishall. The traveller seemed keen to make it\h\h
clear that Ken was trespassing in his house, and\h on this occasion, signed off with a name; Lukas.\h\h
A name that would be further expanded out on\h subsequent messages to Lukas Wainman. L.W.
This raft of information was unexpected, but\h began to provide a basis for fact checking\h\h
and investigation. A story was being built up,\h names like Richard Wishall could be investigated,\h\h
a clearer vision of his time could\h be created, and significantly,\h\h
it now seemed like Meadow Cottage could be\h placed on the same plot of land that Lukas\h\h
had seemingly lived upon in the 16th century. Red\h stone could be found under the kitchen and soil\h\h
around Meadow Cottage which also seemed to\h tie in with description of Lukas’s house.\h\h
But the most compelling evidence of all came from\h Peter Trinder, who had been tracing Lukas’s words,\h\h
and managed to tie them back to the exact\h time period. Not just the words either,\h\h
but the sentence construction, and the distinct\h combination of words, with use of Latin,\h\h
could all be pin-pointed back to the\h Chesire era in the mid 16th century.
The earlier inconsistencies also appeared to\h correct themselves; during further discourse\h\h
Lukas reveals himself to be living during the\h era of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine Parr,\h\h
so sometime between 1543 and 1547, and claimed\h to have studied at Brasenose College in Oxford.\h\h
However, when Ken wrote back, mentioning he was\h from 1985, this further complicated the matter.
“YOW SAYD YOWR TYME BE 1985 METHOUGHT YOW WERE ALS\h\h
FROM 2109 LYK YOWR FREEND WHOM\h DIDST BRINGE LEEMS BOYSTE PREY”
Lukas seemed to not only be speaking to Ken, but\h also to someone from the year 2109, who he claimed\h\h
had appeared and brought the “Leems Boyste” or\h “Box of lights” to his time in the first place.
Ken decided to write to 2109 with\h a simple message “CALLING 2109–”
….
“KEN, DEB, PETER WE ARE SORRY THAT WE CAN GIVE YOU ONLY TWO CHOISES\h
1) THAT YOU EITHER HAVE YOUR PREDICAMENT EXPLAINED IN SUCH A NON-RHYME WAY\h\h
THAT YOU MAY HAVE INSTANT UNDERSTANDING\h BUT CAUSE WHAT SHOULD NOT BE TO HAPPEN, OR\h
2) TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU THREE HAVE A PURPOSE THAT SHALL IN YOUR LIFE TIME CHANGES\h\h
THE FACE OF HISTORY, WE, 2109, MUST\h NOT AFFECT YOUR THOUGHTS DIRECTLY BUT\h\h
GIVE YOU SOME SORT OF GUIDANCE THAT\h WILL ALLOW ROOM FOR YOUR OWN DESTINY.\h\h
ALL WE CAN SAY IS THAT WE ARE ALL PART OF\h THE SAME GOD, WHAT EVER HE, IT (?), IS.”
This direct and strangely spelt response then,\h seemed to be from the future. Two apparent\h\h
lines of communication were now open, and this\h ‘Time Slip’ suddenly seemed to have purpose,\h\h
although it was beyond the\h understanding of Ken, Debbie and Peter.
To add to the situation, there also seemed to\h be a raft of paranormal activity happening in\h\h
the cottage during this time. Tins would\h stack themselves up in the Kitchen;\h\h
chalk markings appeared around\h the house, sometimes with words;\h\h
sounds of walking could be heard and strange\h feet impressions would appear on surfaces.
On the 15th May Debbie noted;
“I dropped Ken oﬀ at school after spending\h the night at East Green then drove over to\h\h
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
front door that I sensed something was very wrong.\h Perhaps it was the cats sitting on the garden wall\h\h
watching me rather than circling my feet as\h they usually do which prompted this unease. I\h\h
turned the key in the lock and pushed the door\h open. In the living room I came face to face\h\h
with a six-foot- high pile of furniture. It\h appeared to me in that instant to have been tossed\h\h
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
The cats still watched me in silence from\h the wall. I didn’t know quite what to do.”
This is an actual photo taken on that day of the\h incident. Whatever was happening at the cottage\h\h
was no longer an intriguing puzzle, it was now a\h destructive and potentially dangerous situation,\h\h
with the humble BBC still, left blinking at\h the heart of the conundrum. Shortly after\h\h
Debbie investigated Leylines; direct\h alignments related to ancient landmarks;\h\h
and found one to be running almost\h directly through Dodleston. Following this,\h\h
she began to receive visions of Lukas, and\h even dreams where she interacted with him.
With the situation becoming ever more unusual,\h perhaps it was no coincidence that this was also\h\h
the time that Peter had convinced Ken to get\h the Society for Psychical Research involved.
It was John Bucknall and Dave Welch who\h had arrived from the SPR, and after a few\h\h
initial unsuccessful sittings, they proposed\h a test where they would write 10 questions\h\h
on the BBC to the entity, or entities,\h known as 2109, in isolation from Ken and\h\h
the rest of the household, then delete\h them. If a reply to the questions came,\h\h
then Ken’s group should alert them immediately.\h Several days past, and a response came back;
“DAVID, JOHN. DAVID. YOU INTERFERE WITH COMUNICATION.\h\h
NEXT TIME YOU DECIDE TO PERFORM YOUR LITTLE\h EXPERIMENT YOU MUST BE CLEAR FROM HERE.\h\h
WE SUGGEST YOU TRY SOMEONE\h ELES TO SIT WITH DEBBIE.\h
YES WE ARE WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A TACHYON\h UNIVERSE BUT YOUR UNDERSTANDING IS INCORRECT.\h\h
WE ASK NOTHING MORE OF YOU THAN TO CARRY ON AS YOU\h WOULD PREFER. WE WILL HAVE JOHN PRESENT IF GIVEN\h\h
CHOISE OR YOU MAY BRING ANOTHER AS MENCIONED. NO,\h IT IS NO CONCERN TO US THAT THIS IS NOT PROVED.\h\h
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
YOUR TIME AND UNIVERSE. WE HAVE NO FORM WE FEED OF\h A NEET ENERGY THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE HERD OF 2109″
On hearing this Dave Welch responded\h “2109 had not answered the questions\h\h
but it seemed they had picked up all the\h questions left for them in the same order”.
Finally, it appeared that Ken, Debbie and Peter\h had proof. They had been categorically denied\h\h
access to these questions, and given\h 2109 seemed to know what they were,\h\h
they could now be excluded as possible hoaxers\h themselves. At least, that’s what they hoped.
In reality, the SPR went quiet. They began to\h speculate that perhaps sensitive microphones could\h\h
have been carefully placed to pick up the sounds\h of typing, which could then be used to deduce what\h\h
had been written on the BBC. They also suggested\h that perhaps, someone one using the “earth wire”\h\h
of the computer to send and receive data through.\h Whatever their view, John shortly after left the\h\h
SPR, Dave Welch disappeared without a trace, and\h an official report was curiously, never filed.
Here I’ve got a copy of the (eughh) Mail\h on Sunday, dated 29th December 1985;\h\h
a period of significant snowfall across the\h UK, among the Duty Free Terror of course.\h\h
But this paper is significant, because shortly\h after this debacle, Ken, Debbie & Peter reached\h\h
out to the Chester Observer about their ordeal.\h Now, I couldn’t source a copy of that particular\h\h
publication, but various other newspapers\h reported on Ken’s story, including this one;
“Oxford-educated Thomas Harden has been dead\h for more than 400 years. But that does not\h\h
stop him enjoying a good session on a BBC\h Micro after a hard day’s toil on the farm…\h\h
for a 16th century gentleman who should not\h really know a floppy disc from a codpiece,\h\h
his mastery of 20th century scientific skills\h is rather impressive. Mr Harden calls Bristol\h\h
‘Brightow’ – an obscure but genuine form – and\h refers to a minor author called Mr Mutianus by his\h\h
then-fashionable Oxford nickname of Rufus. Ken,\h a doubting soul, originally thought that someone\h\h
was playing a prank. Now, more than 150 messages\h later, he is not so sure. There definitely was a\h\h
Thomas Harden who was the dean of Brasenose\h College chapel at Oxford in the late 1530s.\h\h
He was expelled for refusing to remove the Pope’s\h name from prayer books during Henry VIII’s purge\h\h
on Roman Catholicism and appears to have settled\h for a quiet farming life in Cheshire. The Society\h\h
for Psychical Research has investigated the case\h no fewer than eight times but remains sceptical.\h\h
Investigator [John] Bucknall is convinced\h some 1985 computer hacker in Ken’s village\h\h
is responsible. And Mr Harden? He told the Mail on\h Sunday: ‘Myne cooke saithe I shall repent for myne\h\h
adventure and that it will come to foul issue,\h but methinks she be yelowe and tolde her soe.'”
It’s clear that the Mail took a\h tongue in cheek view of the story,\h\h
indeed, putting it on page 3, underneath a\h fashion segment about wellington boots for\h\h
dogs. But the story covers some interesting\h points that I haven’t delved into thus far.
You see, in an earlier message, Lukas had actually\h revealed he had been too scared to give his real\h\h
name and details for fear of reprisal – the same\h reason he had given some false earlier details\h\h
also -, but through communication with Ken, had\h opened up to reveal his true name to be Tomas\h\h
Harden. Details of whom, can actually be\h traced to this day to being a fellow of\h\h
Brasenose college in same time as specified in\h the messages. The name seems to vary between\h\h
Tomas Harden and Thomas Hawarden both in Ken’s\h book and through external sources. Of course,\h\h
today, with access to the\h internet and archived records,\h\h
this information is easier to research.\h But in 1985, there was no internet,\h\h
with the only investigation made through Peter\h travelling to Oxford and researching on site.
Shortly after, 2109 rather strangely suggested\h finding a gentleman by the name of Gary Rowe;
“YOU MAY PHONE HIM AT THE NO BELOW AND INVITE\h HIM TO TALK WITH YOU, WHEN HE COMES SHOW HIM\h\h
THIS AND ASK HIM WHAT HE MAKES OF IT … PETER\h MUST DO THE TELEPHONING RHYL *REDACTED NUMBER*\h\h
TELL HIM THAT YOU GOT THE TELEPHONE\h NO FROM A UFO ENTHUSIAST. 2109.”
Gary was a UFO investigator, who came armed\h with an array of investigative equipment\h\h
and apparently, “computer linked sensors”.\h\h
Ken described him as “a sharp intelligent\h man, obsessed with his ideas”.
What followed was then a strange communication\h between Gary and 2109 directly. 2109 were asking\h\h
Ken to print off messages, without reading them,\h and pass them to Gary in a sealed envelope.\h\h
This strange toing and throwing, ended up\h with Gary writing a message to 2109 stating;
“GREETINGS I AM INSTRUCTED TO\h\h
APOLOGISE BUT IN ANY EVENT I WOULD HAVE DONE\h SO OF MY OWN VOLITION. THERE WILL BE A LETTER\h\h
HOPEFULLY THIS WEEKEND. I AM ALSO INSTRUCTED\h TO APOLOGISE TO KEN AND DEBBIE. I MUST TRY AND\h\h
ANSWER YOUR LAST LETTER. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT\h YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN I HAD REALISED IN\h\h
THE SCHEME OF THINGS. GARY”
Shortly after, Gary became almost\h evasive about their discussions\h\h
and seemingly disappeared into the night. Ken\h describes this situation as strange & frustrating,\h\h
as it didn’t put them any further\h forward in being able to prove\h\h
the phenomena. 2109 had in fact, seemingly\h used Ken to communicate with Gary about\h\h
the future and now Gary’s only concern was\h keeping these details close to his chest.
The final messages to come through from Tomas\h provided the detail we were perhaps all most\h\h
intrigued about; how the ‘leem’s had appeared to\h him shining, apparently, as a green light from\h\h
the walls of his chimney. As translated into a\h more modern tongue by Peter Tinder, he writes;
“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
from this strange messenger. He said, ‘Fear not,\h good Tomas, you are starred to be a great man, if\h\h
you do not have fear but keep your faith strong.’\h Then after other words which I do confess were not\h\h
like devil talk he was gone leaving the ‘leems’\h which appeared to be the same as your computer.”
Tomas detailed that by speaking towards the\h “leems”, words would appear automatically.\h\h
Suggesting that, on his part, there was no typing\h as such involved, and presumably the contents\h\h
would save automatically. Whether he witnessed\h a floppy disk drive grinding away is unknown,\h\h
but clearly it’s a good job they weren’t using a\h cassette deck for storage. How Tomas received the\h\h
messages is less clear, and any logical answer\h would come with its own set of challenges.\h\h
Regardless, it was strange perhaps, that this\h information would come so late in this journey.
Tomas signed off with a promise that he\h would write a book about the whole matter\h\h
for future generations to find and read;
“One day you will all sit down at my table for\h wine and meat by the river in Oxford where we\h\h
shall read each other’s books and laugh\h and we shall speak of truth and good men,\h\h
watching Oxford change together for evermore. In your time my book is old but I shall not go\h\h
to my God until it is written then we will\h all be truly embraced. My love to you all.\h\h
I shall await you in Oxford. Tomas Harden”
With 2109 also finishing their\h communication shortly after;
“THERE IS ANOTHER PERSON TO COME, THEY WILL BE THE\h HELP WE NEED. YOU WILL KNOW THEM WHEN THEY COME.\h\h
THOMAS DID EVENTUALLY WRITE HIS\h BOOK AND SOON DIED, SHORTLEY AFTER,\h\h
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
LATIN WITH THE HELP OF A FREIND THAT HE MET IN\h OXFORD, THE INSCRIPTION READS “ME WRYTS THIS\h\h
IN THE HOPE THAT MYNE FELAWS WILL ONE DAY FIND\h THIS BOKE, THEN MAY OWER LANDS BE NOT SOE DISTANT”
Putting an end to this rather strange\h affair. But also dangling a carrot; that\h\h
if anyone should find Tomas’s original book; his\h original account of this adventure from his 16th\h\h
century perspective, then it would once and for\h all prove that everything suggested here was,\h\h
in fact, the truth. Who knows… maybe one day,\h someone will find his book, tucked away under an\h\h
Oxford college floorboard. Maybe I’ll go on\h the quest myself, it would certainly make\h\h
for a compelling follow up, but until then,\h it’s very much a single sided ghost story,\h\h
albeit with various witnesses, with\h a BBC Micro at the heart of it.
Now, I’ve carved out what\h I feel to be the main part\h\h
of the story for this video, but this is a\h 350 page book, and Ken’s whole account of\h\h
it is a very strange read indeed. Not just\h in the story, but also how it’s written.\h\h
It’s pretty hard to make sense of what’s going\h on. The story feels disparate, disjointed,\h\h
and in a way, I guess that actually gives credence\h to it being a real set of events. Recorded vaguely\h\h
from memory, using the communications that\h Ken had printed, and kept stored in a wallet.\h\h
Indeed, this book wouldn’t be written until 1989,\h some 3 years after events finished. So if you were\h\h
to suggest that the whole thing was just a money\h making venture, it seems odd that they’d wait\h\h
so long to publish their account of it; years\h after the stories in the press had faded away.
The last section of the book is\h occupied with Peter Trinder’s analysis\h\h
of the messages, and it’s perhaps\h that which is the most compelling;\h\h
here, he goes to great lengths explaining how he\h had to dig deep into past iterations of the Oxford\h\h
English Dictionary and other references\h to ascertain exactly what the words from\h\h
Tomas meant, and how this would\h be impossible to work backwards.\h\h
He goes on to explain how this research, and 15th\h century documents such as the Paston Lettters\h\h
from East Anglia and Cely Letters from London,\h helped to date the text to the mid 16th century,\h\h
and of South Western origin. There are also a\h list of words he couldn’t place, but through\h\h
the power of the internet, can now be traced, and\h actually make sense in the 16th century context.
His view was very much that\h this couldn’t have been a hoax,\h\h
and in that 1996 episode of Out of This\h World, went on camera to declare so;
“If someone was doing this as a hoax, they\h would have to have done a hell of a lot of\h\h
research. I can honestly say it wasn’t me,\h but you either believe or you don’t. I knew\h\h
it wasn’t me. I did not believe that it could\h be Ken. Of course, always from the start, that\h\h
was the assumption I started with when\h he gave me this strange bit of paper,\h\h
over the school dinner table one day, and\h said, do you understand this? And I said,\h\h
well let me take it home and have a look at\h it, knowing I’ve got the dictionary. I thought\h\h
this dictionary will soon prove this was a bit\h of silly nonsense. But of course, it didn’t.”
You can’t fault his enthusiasm,\h\h
but the show’s own investigation into the\h topic, yielded quite a different response;
“Looking at the verb structure, there\h are things that wouldn’t have been said\h\h
in 1546. It’s true that individuals can make\h up individual words, but we don’t make up\h\h
our verbs. It was possible in England\h in 1546 to say, I do, thou dust,\h\h
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
or it dust. Now all through Lukas’ messages, he\h mixes up these suffixes with the wrong subjects.\h\h
If it’s meant to look like early Modern\h English writing. It doesn’t even look close”
Ken and Debbie’s appearance on\h the same show was very different,\h\h
and although they were interviewed,\h declined to be shown on camera;
Do you think there will be a normal\h explanation for what happened?\h\h
-I’m sure there will be a normal explanation.\h I’m as puzzled as the next person.\h\h
All I managed to do was record what was happening.
We’ve had Lukas’s messages analysed by two\h experts, they have said that these are definitely\h\h
not from the 16th century. They are like 20th\h century hoaxes. What would you say to that? -I\h\h
don’t suppose there’s an academic in\h the land who would say this is real.\h\h
Not those who wanted to keep their position.
I actually tracked down who I\h believe to be Ken Webster myself,\h\h
however, he assured me that I had the wrong\h person, telling me that he gets messages\h\h
like this from time to time, and detailing all\h the other Ken Websters that exist. So maybe I\h\h
did have the wrong person, or may Ken just wants\h to wash his hands of this debacle completely.
As for the man named Gary Rowe. Well he has\h made several ‘apparent’ appearances on forums\h\h
and message boards, still apparently\h a believer in the whole debarcle;
“I had the opportunity to investigate\h these happenings first hand. No,\h\h
I am not some away with the\h fairies wishful believer.I\h\h
investigated with professional detachment\h not bothered what I would find. Fake or fact.\h
I left no stone unturned and used cutting\h edge science to get to the truth.In fact I\h\h
believe it was the first computer controlled\h psychic investigation recorded in the world.\h
I don’t care two hoots if nobody ever believes\h it. I KNOW It really happened. It changed my life\h\h
forever.It is going to change yours. The book\h should/will one day be ISBN recoded under the\h\h
“history” section. It is a monumental\h historical marker in the ribbon of time”
Whether this is actually Gary Rowe is a\h pertinent question. It may well be, but\h\h
even if it is, we don’t really know his original\h involvement. We only know what we’ve been told.
Ken’s musical friend John, has\h also popped up in the odd forum.\h\h
Back in 2007 he wrote on\h unexplained-mysteries.com;
“I actually lived in the house with Ken Webster\h a few years prior to the occurrences he wrote\h\h
about in the book. I have to say that I never\h experienced any of the phenomenon that Ken did,\h\h
and I would have to say that the\h cottage never had any ‘bad or odd\h\h
vibes’, in fact it was one of the most\h peaceful places you could imagine.”
But also… “Ken was a pretty serious type of person\h – he had a great sense of humour but was a fairly\h\h
solitary and sensitive kind of guy, certainly not\h the type of person to leave himself open to public\h\h
ridicule, especially not by writing a book that\h would make him out to be a a bit of a ‘loon’.”
Really, like many of these stories, we’re led to\h our own investigation, imagination and intuition\h\h
to unravel what was going on here. Do I believe it\h myself? No. I consider myself pretty open minded,\h\h
but there are too many loose ends, inconsistencies\h and areas which are just left hanging in the air.
The SPR for example, never really seemed to\h grasp the technology they were dealing with.\h\h
Data being sent down the earth\h wire just sounds ridiculous,\h\h
and yet they never seemed to ponder more realistic\h ideas such as perhaps a dummy version of EdWord\h\h
could have been programmed into the BBC\h Micro. Collecting keystrokes as it went.\h\h
It’s perhaps far fetched in itself,\h but not so far fetched as the reality.
Then there’s the mysterious tachyon entities from\h 2109, who seemed to enter at just the right moment\h\h
to act as a scapegoat for many of the historical\h inaccuracies given by Lukas. They’re the ones that\h\h
coin time as being held in a Vertical Plane, and\h in later sections of the book, they make claims of\h\h
interfering with and altering Lukas’s messages, in\h order to make them easier to understand for Ken.\h\h
This is also the explanation given for the\h bizarre use of gramma in earlier messages.
Then there’s the fact that 2109 use weird\h spelling themselves. You could argue this\h\h
is due to language continuing to evolve up to\h 2109. But the spelling is wildly inconsistent,\h\h
with some words being spelt with 3 or 4 different\h variations. A quirk of the phenomena perhaps.\h\h
But the reality is, it makes it feel like a poorly\h thought out hoax. In fact, from the point they\h\h
enter, the vibe given off is that the orchestrator\h of this becomes overwhelmed with the task,\h\h
leaving too many loose threads. It’s\h like watching LOST all over again.
Then there’s the strong correlation between\h the number of times that Debbie was left alone,\h\h
and messages appearing on the computer. It’s\h strange that during the SPR investigations,\h\h
and when other people were in the house, nothing\h seemed to happen. This is, of course, by Ken’s\h\h
own account, which, along with the fact he\h intentionally seems to imply how sceptical he was\h\h
of the whole endeavour, and that he didn’t really\h care makes it feel like a forced double bluff.
But there are also various intriguing\h details which although might appear\h\h
as a fabrication from the human mind,\h could actually be argued as a supernatural\h\h
coincidence. The fact that Lukas, becomes\h Tomas Harden, with two spelling variations,\h\h
but coincidentally sharing the same name\h as the school that Ken and Peter taught at,\h\h
almost feels too serendipitous. But then, in\h medieval times, people were often referred to\h\h
as Tomas from Harden, before family surnames\h were adopted. So, given his location, maybe this\h\h
actually does fit well with the story, and his\h subsequent discovery on the Brasenose register.
The whole thing is weird. It’s weird in\h its nature, its weird in its portrayal,\h\h
and its also weird from a technical standpoint.
Some have suggested that the whole debacle\h may have been more convincing had the BBC\h\h
been networked up, rather than sitting as a closed\h system. But really, would that make a difference?\h\h
If it were networked, it still infers the\h existence of a time traversing box connected to it\h\h
that the messages were passed through. A network\h might fit with our conventional modern day view\h\h
of sending and receiving messages, but it still\h doesn’t explain away the supernatural element.\h\h
Besides the econet functionality of\h the Beeb was really rather limited,\h\h
and so, even if it were connected to a network,\h anything like this was outside of its scope.
And it’s that premise which really structures\h my view. This is a vintage technology channel,\h\h
not a ghost channel. My view is naturally going\h to be sceptical and weighted towards the confines\h\h
of how a BBC Micro can operate in the real world.\h\h
Which, apart from the workings of\h Edword, this tale is securely outside of.
Whatever your view, you can’t deny that\h it’s an intriguing and compelling story,\h\h
even if you extract all the time\h travelling elements, and ghost scenarios.\h\h
But in my view, that’s mainly because it\h makes use of that mighty piece of engineering,\h\h
the BBC Micro; after all,\h that’s why I’ve covered it.
If you want to delve deeper into the story and\h get some other perspectives, then I thoroughly\h\h
recommend these sources. There you’ll find deeper\h and darker insights than I can go into here.\h\h
As I started researching into this, I just found\h myself going deeper and deeper down so many holes\h\h
of research. I could spend my life here, and who\h knows, if I did, I might actually be convinced\h\h
that all this really did happen, after all, there\h are plenty of people who are completely convinced\h\h
of its reality, and plenty of similar cases of the\h electronic voice phenomenon to explore. But the\h\h
Dark Histories podcast I found to be particularly\h fascinating, and it’s a good place to start.
As I was saying earlier, if there’s\h enough interest in this video,\h\h
I may delve deeper. So if you’d like to see an\h episode where I head down to Brasenose college and\h\h
seek a book written in the 16th century, or you’d\h like me to head over to Dodleston and setup camp\h\h
inside Meadow Cottage with a BBC Micro,\h then please let me know in the comments.\h\h
I feel 2022 could definitely be a good\h year for excursions and investigations.
But until next time, I’ve been Nostalgia Nerd.
Toodleoo.