Yes – they’re back again, those intrepid ghost hunters! The first time they joined me I was regaled by eerie sounds, the second time some of the furniture apparently moved on it’s own so what I wondered would happen today?
Well in the event I couldn’t blame them for the various technical problems we encountered which were largely self inflicted.
The team is planning another visit to Cash’s Well in Langdon Hills at the beginning of next month. If you don’t know what Cash’s Well is, it was built as a “get rich quick scheme” in the 1920’s by a farmer named Edwin Cash who sold the water as “Farmer Cash’s Famous Medicinal Vange Water”. Due to it being highly sulphated it was considered to be good for ailments such as stomach troubles and nervous disorders, however it was shut down around the mid 1920′s due to water contamination perhaps because of a tuberculosis sanatorium that opened in 1927 which was on higher ground to the well. Cash died in 1931 and the well was sold. The haunted history is less clear and seemingly has little to do with the well itself. Anyway listen to what happened on their last visit and then decide whether you want to take one of the available places on any of their forthcoming trips : – Ghost Hunters 6th July
If you know of any haunted locations that you’d like the Essex Ghost Hunters to investigate, they’d love to hear from you. You can contact them via their website at www.essexghosthunters.co.uk.
Next up Frances Clamp returned with the story of one of “the few” – Squadron Leader Desmond Fopp, who had been forced to bail out of his aircraft over Brentwood at the height of the Battle of Britain. Squadron Leader Fopp was actually Australian by birth although his mother was English whilst his father was a first-generation Australian of Prussian extraction.
Squadron Leader Fopp had joined up shortly after the outbreak of war and had been involved in providing air support for the evacuation of the BEF at Dunkirk and was subsequently heavily involved in the Battle of Britain. On the 3rd September 1940 his section of 4 Hurricanes was scrambled to intercept a force of 200 enemy aircraft approaching East London. He led his pilots into a head-on attack to disperse the bombers and after his ammunition was exhausted, he was attacked by three of the escorting German fighters and his aircraft was set on fire. He was badly burned during his attempts to bale out, landing in a field near Brentwood, spending several months in hospital recovering from his injuries.
In spite of his injuries Sq Ldr Fopp returned to operational flying within a year. Listen again here to what Frances told me: –Bygones 2nd July
Right well I don’t know about you, but I’m off now to get some sunshine. Have a good week til we meet up again next time.
All the best,
Scott