The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
A Smell of Wet Wool at Biggin Hill
1980 Biggin Hill Invader crash, downland hill, London Borough of Bromley, London
I.Background & History
Biggin Hill stands on the North Downs in what is now the London Borough of Bromley, a chalk upland of thin turf, hawthorn and long views, once given over to sheep and to the drovers who took flocks along the ridge toward the Surrey and Kentish markets. The Society's dossier records it as a downland hill, and little else of its older history is supplied to us.
The ground is known to the public chiefly for the airfield, and for an accident on 21 September 1980, when a Douglas A-26 Invader crashed during an air show and the pilot and six passengers were killed. That event led the Civil Aviation Authority to forbid the carrying of passengers during air displays. The Society records it for the sake of completeness only. The present file concerns the hill's far older reputation, which the Society holds to be unconnected with any modern occurrence, and every sighting here was taken before 1980.
II.The Entity
The Dripping Drover
A tall figure in a heavy drover's cloak that streams with water on the driest nights, walking the chalk ridge with a crook in one hand and nothing above the collar but the dark. Its hem leaves no print in the turf, yet the grass is found flattened and sodden in a line behind it. It is always smelt before it is seen, a close, animal reek of wet wool.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
Every death in the family that has kept the record was announced by the smell, and each time the smell was stronger and lingered longer. The Society has lost one officer to it and has no reason to think the series ended with him.
III.The Account
AMOS PELLATT, shepherd, aged eighty-one, dictated this in 1871. His family had kept the down since the reign of the Second Charles. 'My grandfather's grandfather had it that in the year 1663 a drover named Tarrant went up the ridge in a drowning rain, with money sewn in his cloak, and was not seen to come down. They found the crook in a thorn-brake and the cloak spread on the turf, wet through, though the rain had stopped a day before. Of the man himself they found nothing above the shoulders, and the parson would not have it spoken of. The smell came after. My father said you knew it by the smell of a sheep-fold in March, and that it came a day before every burial in our house. I smelt it the morning before my brother Isaac was taken. That is all I will say of it.'
DANIEL PELLATT, his son, carter, aged fifty-three, added what the old man would not. 'My father leaves out that it grows. When my grandmother died it was a damp in the wool-chest, and one could pretend. When Isaac went it filled the kitchen, and the milk turned, and the dog would not cross the sill. He leaves out that Isaac was found sitting upright by the hearth, dry as a bone, with his eyes open and his collar soaked to the skin. He leaves out that Isaac had been seen the evening before on the ridge walking beside a tall man in a cloak. Isaac was not a man for company, and the other had no face to speak with. And my father has never told you that after Isaac he began to leave the door open at night, as though for someone expected.'
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A smell of wet wool and sheep-fold, arriving a day before every death in a family that has kept the record
- ✦The smell grows stronger with each death, and in recent decades has persisted for days in the house of the dying
- ✦Water running down the coat or collar of a person who has not been out of doors
- ✦A line of flattened, sodden turf on dry nights, ending at a cottage door
- ✦Dogs and sheep refusing to pass the thorn-brake on the ridge
- ✦A tall shape without a head seen walking beside one of the doomed on the evening before
Testimony of Witnesses
“I smelt a wet fleece on a night as dry as a bone, and my horse began to shake. A tall man in a cloak went by me on the ridge and he had no head on him. I have never driven that road after dusk since.”
“It is the same smell, sir, that was in my grandfather's wool-chest. It is stronger now, and I think it comes for us by name.”
“I attended a woman in her last illness and the sickroom smelt like a sheep-pen in a downpour. The windows were shut and the grate was dry. She said a man stood at the foot of the bed, and when I turned round I could not account for the damp on my own sleeve.”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A dry woollen blanket, never before washed
- ☐A crook or walking stick cut from hawthorn
- ☐A bowl of rain-water drawn at dawn
- ☐A cloth bag of rock salt
- ☐A single tallow candle in a horn lantern-shield
The Rite
- I.1. Go up to the thorn-brake at the ridge alone, an hour before the sun rises, and carry nothing of metal.
- II.2. Spread the dry blanket on the turf and set the bowl of rain-water on it.
- III.3. Strew the salt in a line from the blanket to the foot of the thorn, and do not step over it.
- IV.4. Light the candle and say aloud the name Tarrant three times, without hurry.
- V.5. When the smell of wet wool comes, do not look up, and do not turn your head to either side.
- VI.6. Pour the water onto the blanket, and say, 'Your cloak is dry, your road is done.' Hold the crook before you until the smell has quite gone.
- VII.7. Walk down the ridge without looking back, and burn the blanket within the day.
Caution. The Society's Mr. Harcourt looked at it, and was found kneeling on the ridge with his coat wrung out. If you smell wool in your own house after the rite, you have done it wrong, and it is no longer a matter for the hill.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Kings Arms · Old Inn · 1.2 miles
The Cooper's Rapper, poltergeist. Barrels are heard being rolled across the taproom floor after closing, and anyone who looks for them finds the boards wet and the cellar door unbolted from within.
St Mary's Church · Church · 1.9 miles
The Veiled Almswoman, white lady. A woman in grey widow's linen stands by the lychgate, and those she faces find their own names missing from the register the next day.
Saltbox Hill · Downland Hill · 0.7 miles
Chalk-Pit Cur, phantom hound. A pale, long-flanked dog runs beside carts on the hill at dusk, and the horse it runs beside is always lame by morning.
Old Jail · Old Inn · 1.5 miles
The Turnkey's Bootsteps, revenant. A heavy tread climbs the stair at midnight and halts outside whichever room holds a sleeper in debt.
2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes · Downland Hill · 1.0 miles
The Silent Hangar-Choir, phantom procession. A line of figures in ill-fitting coats files across the hilltop in perfect silence, and those who count them find there is always one more than before.
Holwood House · Manor House · 2.2 miles
The Statesman's Draught, spectre. A tall man in a study-gown stands at the long windows, and the candles lean toward him as though in a draught that is not there.
Down House · Downland Hill · 1.6 miles
The Pigeon-Room Tapping, unclassified entity. Something taps the glass from the garden at dusk in the rhythm of a naturalist's careful notation, and the tapping answers any question put to it, always wrongly.
Titsey Place · Manor House · 2.9 miles
The Library Stag, spectral animal. A great-antlered stag with milk-white eyes crosses the long gallery at dawn, and the books on the lowest shelf are found damp and bitten.
Keston Windmill · Old Mill · 2.7 miles
The Miller's Spark, will-o'-the-wisp. A pale flame drifts across the common in the shape of a lamp carried at waist height, and it leads the incautious to the sails' turning-circle.
Wickham Court · Manor House · 3.4 miles
The Steward's Hand, possession. A tenant of the court wakes with the writing-hand moving of its own will, setting down accounts that balance a year not yet come.
St Mary's Church · Church · 3.6 miles
The Bell-Rope Dean, headless apparition. A robed figure without a head is seen hauling at the tower rope, and the bell it rings tolls for a household that has yet to learn of its loss.
Coney Hall · Manor House · 3.6 miles
The Gardener of Hollow Lane, revenant. A stooped man in a sacking apron trims the hedge each dusk with shears that make no sound, and his clippings are found next morning as human hair.
St Katharine's Church · Church · 3.7 miles
The Pew-Opener, spectre. A thin figure shows worshippers to seats no one has occupied for a century, and those it seats are never again quite able to rise.
Forestdale · Ancient Wood · 3.1 miles
The Charcoal-Burner's Whelp, phantom hound. A smoke-grey dog pads between the trees after dark, leaving the smell of scorched bark, and leads walkers in slow circles until dawn.
Addington Palace · Manor House · 3.8 miles
The Archbishop's Sedan, phantom procession. A closed chair carried by four faceless men crosses the terrace at midnight, and the curtains part to show whoever watches an empty seat that is still warm.
