In June 2010 I heard from Paul Blackmore.....and here is his account of his brother's disturbing experience on Chanctonbury Ring that are enough to spook anyone..... here are the facts.....of another spine tingling tale of the unknown...
"Morning Valerie, the story is
from when we were young teenagers and we are all now in our thirties and some
have just entered into their forties!
We had told our Mum that we were going to go out camping (you could just go off
and do those things in those days). She obviously enquired as to where we
were going. Sheepishly we told her that we were going to camp up on the Downs.
Mum instantly replied that we were NOT to camp in Chanctonbury Ring. As
enquiring young teenagers, we asked Mum why? She stated that she didn't want us
camping in the ring as she knew of it to be haunted and steeped in myth &
legend!
So off we all set on our BMX bikes, knowing all too well that now Mum had
forbidden us to stay in the Ring, we were going to challenge her authority and
dispel any myths and
legends and be awarded with the medal of honour as having defied her belief and
come out unscathed!?
We hid our bikes in the field and with all of our camping gear on our backs we
made the ascent to the Ring via the long path to the top past the big rope
swing, to which we
played on for a while before setting off again.
So we got to the Ring and we tried to pitch our tents. I say tried, as the pegs
were so hard to penetrate into the ground. Was this the first sign that we
should consider
camping outside of the Ring?
Eventually we pitched the canvas and set about venturing down to the dew pond
and the immediate vicinity to just wile away the time.
So night time fell and we were all joking about the devil and ghost stories. One
of our friends had a panic attack in one of the tents and this spooked us all,
he was desperate
for air and became very claustrophobic inside the small area. His shrills were
very frightening and having been woken by his screaming, we were all very on
edge.
The night passed and I think we all lightly slept with one eye open, just in
case anything was lurking!?
Morning rose and we all exited the tents jubilantly that nothing had happened
and that we had succeeded in dispelling the myths.
So we packed up and got ourselves ready to depart. I can't remember who, but
someone suggested we descend to the bottom via the steep path!!
We were all in a line and my brother was distinctly at the back of the orderly
line, hanging onto the barbed wire fence as the drop was so steep.
Then we just saw thus blur come past us on the right... It was my brother and he
was falling and bouncing down the slope at an ever incresing velocity. He was
bouncing as he
was building up speed and bouncing higher and higher as if he were a rubber
ball!
With dread and trepidation we got down as quickly as we could expecting the
worst when we arrived at the bottom. The girls in the group were screaming
and you could sense
everyone's fear. We came to his aid and his face was covered in blood. We sought
help and we found a travelling hippy camp, we think there had been some sort of
festival close by?
They saw my brother pouring with blood and falling in and out of consciousness.
They were so calm and sat him in chair like a throne. They got him to smoke some
belladonna
from a big indian style pipe. The image was so funny but he was suddenly
becoming very relaxed and pain free. Then they started picking a vast array of
leaves, grasses and flowers as if they knew exactly what they were doing?? It
was mystical and magical and as if we were all dreaming this. Then they used a
pestle and mortar to pulverize the
concoction of wild plants etc in with a spirit (smelt like petrol) of some sort
which was fetched from their bowtop wagon. They plastered his face with this
green mush and it
amazingly stemmed the blood flow and they instructed us to
take him to hospital.
We peddled back and then sought medical attention at Worthing Hospital. When we
got there the doctors could not believe what they saw on his face! They were so
impressed
with the mixture and how it had stopped the bleeding. My brother had sustained
fractured cheeks, jaw, nose and serious cuts and lacerations.
Astonishingly he had no
serious damage to his person.
What came out when he was fully conscious was that he said he was pushed from
behind!!!! He said he felt a hand on his shoulder and that he was definitely
pushed!!! But he was
the last in the line and and so when we told Mum she when crazy!!! She said it
was the spirits for camping in the Ring and that we should not have done so!! To
this day my
brother has not returned to the Ring and when I have revisited the site I feel a
certain presence and eerie feeling. I have never seen a bird inside the Ring, do
they know something we don't???
Hope you like the account?
Kind regards, Paul".
Now, dear surfers.... have you decided if this was the work of the paranormal..... or the Devil?
