Friday, November 03, 2017

Did the Jacobites reach Anstey? and other strange matters


How far south did Bonnie Prince Charlie get?

The history books will telly that he turned back at Derby, and the really good books will mention that he sent men to sieze the bridge over the Trent at Swarkestone before he made that decision.

But did some of his troops venture further south?

Maybe. There is a tradition at Anstey that a Jacobite foraging party reached the village. (I am sure there used to be more about this on the web - its disappearance is surely suspicious.)

Then there is the story that the last wolf in England was killed near the village.

Finally, there is this strange incident mentioned in the Fortean Times forums:
Man with No Face ... 
Location: Anstey (Leicestershire) - Fields along Anstey Road, leading to Leicester 
Type: UFO 
Date / Time: Late 1920s 
Further Comments: Thought to be an early alien encounter (though it can also be interpreted as ghostly in nature), a woman playing in the fields came across a figure without a face dressed in black. Behind him, she could see a circular 'hut'. By the time she had awoken her father, who was sleeping in a nearby field, both hut and man had gone.
I know from experience that the best way of finding traces of such strange occurences is to print your photographs in black-and-white and study them closely.

Call it pareidolia if that comforts you.






2 comments:

  1. I am sure that I once read Charles Stewart had met Jacobite sympathisers in north Leicestershire, I forget where.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And I am sure there used to be more on the net about the legend that Jacobite soldiers had reached Anstey.

    Makes you think.

    ReplyDelete