Mysterious Gnomes of Wollaton Park
The group consisted of children, siblings and friends, all of primary school age. They were from Radford, which at that time was a working class suburb of Nottingham. We must not judge by today’s standards, but quite simply they were latch key kids out on an adventure just over 2 miles from home.They were certainly not strolling in the park as some accounts would have us believe. When questioned as to what they had been doing immediately before their encounter with the gnomes, Patrick, one of the older children reluctantly admits that they had been trespassing on the grounds of the secondary school on the edge of the park. This kind of trespass by children seeking an adventure they could latter brag about to fiends was relatively common given the schools long boundary with the park.
Between the children interviewed we are precented with a very detailed account of the encounter. However, there are a number of small variants, in coloring of the gnomes hats and beards for example, which might be expected of eyewitness accounts given by any group.
There is even a hint of exaggeration typical of children of their age. It is also in the fact that the encounter with with the gnomes became the talk of their school playground, rather than their trespass is indicative of some sort of collective experience having taken place.
Can we consider then, that this was a true fairy encounter in the strict sense of the meaning? If so, then we are also to except the fact that fairies in this case gnomes, have over the centuries, been able to make technical advancements in the form of vehicles.
Mark Fox is friend of mine both actual and on social media, who quite often corresponds with me over articles I publish on the Nottinghamshire Hidden History Team web page. The following communication is the result of a discussion on the WPG:
Mark Fox: Is this the little people that people have claimed to see?
My Aunt Alma was a very respectable lady who lived in a large house on the Embankment. She was very rational person and would politely laugh at any suggestion of the supernatural. However, she once recalled to us at a family gathering a memory about trip she made to Wollaton Park as a child in the 1930s with a friend.
They were enjoying a picnic by the lake when they noticed, in her words, little people no taller than a doll, that cautiously appeared from out of the bushes. All dressed in fancy clothes. She claimed to have watched them go across the lake on a tiny boat and disappear into bushes on the other side.
To be honest we joked about it after she had left but it always struck me that she had no need to lie or make up such a story as it was totally out of character for her.
20 years later my friend was visiting from university with his new girlfriend. They lived in Wales so were keen to look at the Castle, Newstead Abbey and Wollaton Park. After their trip to Wollaton Park they arrived back at my house and as we were having dinner I asked them what they thought of the Park because I hadn’t been there for a few years and was planning a visit myself.
Lovely they said, except for the weird experience we had when we some Lilliputian type people by the lake.
At this point his girlfriend actually began to look a bit embarrassed and swore blind that she’d seen these little people, all dressed in waistcoats, pretty dresses and all wearing hats.
All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I heard this because I immediately remembered my Aunt Almas story.
Were they by the lake I asked.
Both replied with a cautious nod of their heads.
Did they disappear into the bushes when you noticed them?
Again, a nodded yes.
I asked them exactly what they had seen and they told me pretty much the same story my aunt had with the exception of the boat. They said it had just been on land around the bushes near the lake.
When I told them the story my aunt Alma had told me I could see them both look physically shaken and my friend girlfriend actually cried.
They had never heard anything prior about Wollaton except that it was a beautiful old mansion with loads of deer roaming around. To think that both incidents happened nearly 60 years apart and the people who told me had never even met or heard of each other, it really does make me believe there’s a large amount of truth in there.
If we except this story as some thing more than an anecdotal tale, there is something very special about Wollaton Park as a place for seeing fairy folk.
Have We All Been Conan Doyled?
Have we academics and researchers, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Cottingley Fairies, been taken in by a child’s story?
In the weeks before writing this piece I decided to attempt to do something that no other writer on the subject has, so far, been able to do, make contact with one of the witnesses involved in the case, or at least someone who could provide a first hand account.
Using social media, I put up a post on the page of a group I am a member of, Radfordtonians, Friends Past, Friends Present.
Author’s Post:
I’m a published folklorist/historian and I know it’s a long shot, but I’m hoping that the good folk on this page will be able to help me pull off a coupe in my research. In 1979 a group of young children from Radford had a remarkable adventure on Wollaton Park.
They had an encounter with Gnomes driving little bubble cars. When it happened it had couple of write ups in the Post over the following week. However, the day after it had become the talk of the playground and the Head Master of the school took an interest.
Very sympathetically he managed to do a tape recorded interview with the children. Since then, certainly over the last few years, the case of The Wollaton Park Gnomes has become world famous among folklorist, No one so far has manage to track down anyone involved to get an updated interview. Does anyone have memories of the incident or know of any one involved.
A.M.: One of the lads that was there, his name was Patrick, can’t remember his last name, told me it was all made up.
M.P. To A.M.:
That’s right hence the people don’t want interviewing, they were just kids having a laugh.
Messages Between Author & A.M:
Author To A.M:
Is there anything more that you can tell me about Patrick please? Can you remember when he told you that it was all made up.
A.M. To Author:
Patrick was one of the lads l knew in Radford, he was a few years younger than me. I worked with him in the mid 80s. I remembered the story about the gnomes so asked him about it. He told me it was all Angela’s, a friend of his, idea & that they made it all up.
I’ve just googled gnomes of wollaton park & one of the items actually gives the childrens names. I distinctly remember them being on central TV talking about it. Hope this helps with your research.
Author To A.M:
That helps me very much Thank You. Can I use this in my piece. I won’t mention your name, just your initials.
A.M. To Author:
Yeah that’s fine. The last I heard of Patrick was that he was in prison. but that was about 25 years ago.
The finally the question we must ask ourselves is:
Is Patrick’s confession the real truth, or are we to cling to the hope that it was made in an attempt, out of embarrassment, to disassociate himself from the whole affair?
Another version of the Gnomes:
To many it may seem as though things such as fairies and gnomes must surely stand firmly entrenched in the realm of fairy tales and fiction.
After all, how could such odd beings ever possibly be real? To think so would be absurd, wouldn’t it?
Yet, there are countless reports from all over the world from people who describe seeing what can only be described as the typical storybook version of these beings, complete with leggings, beards, and pointy hats, and one of the more widely known such modern day accounts was made at a quaint little park in England.
Truly one of the odder cases of gnome encounters occurred in 1979 at the quiet, verdant Wollaton park, Nottingham, England, known for its expanses of tree dotted green and the magnificent Wollaton Hall, which was used in the film The Dark Knight Rises.
It was here that on October 29, 1979, a group of 6 schoolchildren by the names of Angie, her brother Glen, her sister Julie, as well as Andrew and Rosie who were brother and sister, and a boy named Patrick, all of whom ranged in age from 8 to 10 years old and were out wandering around in the late afternoon hours, as the sun began to dim as the day began to come to a close.
Realizing that they soon had to get on their way home, they nevertheless had their curiosity piqued when they reportedly came to a fenced off area of murky, overgrown swampland near the lake that was closed to the public.
Being kids, the fence and the sign warning people to keep out might as well have been an open invitation to come on in, and the children decided to sneak in to poke around this forbidden treasure.
Upon entering, the children would claim that they soon heard the chime of a bell, after which they had come across a group of dozens of tiny little men about half their own height, who had deeply wrinkled faces and sported lush white beards with red tips.
On their heads were strange little pointed caps described as looking sort of like nightcaps with bobbles on the ends, and their clothing was composed of yellow or green tights and blue shirts.
Strangest of all is that the children claimed the curious little men drove about in miniature, bubble like cars that had no steering wheels, bells instead of horns, and which produced no engine sounds, yet sped around at high speeds and could easily jump over and evade obstacles.
According to the children, there were about 30 of these unusual mini vehicles, with 2 of the gnomes riding in each, laughing joyously and gleefully whizzing about, and even on occasion playfully chasing or making passes at the startled witnesses.
One of the witnesses would describe them:
We heard this little tinkly bell. We started running and these little men came out of the bushes.
There were about 60 of them in 30 cars like bubblecars. They were half my size and looked old. They had greenish faces with crinkles in them and long white beards with a bit of red on the end.
They were laughing in a funny way and driving over swamps near the lake. We were frightened and ran to the gate. I don’t think they liked the lights outside because they didn’t follow us to the street.
The children claimed that they had spent around 15 minutes watching these bizarre figures cavort and drive about the swamp before they finally left for home with the coming of night.
The entities were described as being quite cheerful, playful, and not threatening or aggressive in the slightest.
When they told adults of what they had seen no one would believe them, yet they adamantly insisted that it had all been real.
The school headmaster would go on to extensively question the kids on what they had seen, and came to the conclusion that they at least believed they were telling the truth. He would later say of a recording he made of their conversations:
I think the tape reveals the wide measure of corroboration between the children, as well as the fluency with which they were able to describe the events. I remain skeptical as to the explanation of what they saw, but I am also convinced that the children were describing a real occurrence.
Despite wide ranging skepticism, the tale of the Wollaton Fairies made headlines in the news at the time, and oddly more people came forward with their own sightings of the same thing in the area.
Over 6 years before the Wollaton fairies were reported in the media, I had corresponded with Marina Fry of Cornwall, who wrote to me giving details of her own fairy sighting when she was nearly 4 years old, around 1940.
One night she and her older sisters, all sleeping in one bedroom, awoke to hear a buzzing noise, one sister said music and bells. Looking out of the window they saw a little man in a tiny red car driving around in circles. He was about 18" tall and had a white beard and a droopy pointed hat…he just disappeared after a while.
Author and researcher and former Secretary of the Nottingham -based Fairy Investigation Society, Marjorie Johnson, also confirmed that there had been various other sightings of bubble car driving gnomes in the Wollaton Park area, in particular near the lake, and wrote of these in her book Seeing Fairies.
One sighting was made by a Mrs. C. George, who sighted the gnomes playing about by the park gates with their cars parked to the side. In still another, a Mrs. Brown claimed to have been guided around the park by the gnomes in a sort of game, wherein they would reward her with a feather at each checkpoint they reached. In yet another encounter a Jean Dixon claimed that she had witnessed gnomes roaming around the park, who seemed eager to show her around their abode.
Interestingly, Johnson had her own sighting of gnomes in the early 1900s, when she claims that she spied several tiny men about 3' in height frolicking about dressed as policemen.
As recently as 2016 there have been gnome phenomena in the park, such as news reports in the Park Herald that railways in the area were being haunted by the miniature humanoids to the point that interrupted services on trains running from Nottingham station to London St. Pancras was being blamed on the little menaces. On witness named Daniel Sedgwick saw a gnome lurking around a train embankment, and said of it:
Just then I caught a glimpse of 5 small hat wearing creatures tearing down the side of the embankment just after passing through Attenborough.
As to whether these creatures pose any threat to people in the area, a professor of gnomic studies named Professor Gregory Landau put people’s minds at ease, telling the Park Herald:
Gnomes are traditionally benign in attitude and general behavior, to be honest they consider courtesy and discretion to be amongst the highest attributes of their social code. There are handful of unconfirmed writings pertaining to a certain sub order, castigated from gnomic society, who have a renown for mischief and borderline thuggery.
As for gnomes attacking people, there have never been any documented occurrences.
In recent times there has been a resurgence in interest in the case, when writer and historian Dr. Simon Young expressed interest in reinvigorating the case by bringing together the witnesses again.
Young believes that this is a singularly unique case in that so many witnesses saw so many of the creatures, all while their reports remain remarkably consistent across the board. Young has said of this:
The experience was interesting in several respects.
There are many instances of children coming face to face with fairies, but I know of none where 6 saw the fey together. So many Fortean experiences depend on a single shaky witness or poor chain of custody for the evidence:
This is not the case with Wollaton.
What is it these people were seeing in Wollaton Park? Is this just overactive imaginations or is there some high strangeness going on here?
If they are real, then what are they, and what is it that draws these entities to this particular place? Whatever the case may be, the Wollaton gnomes case, with their odd little vehicles, is certainly one of the weirder mass sightings of gnomes out there.
This odd incident occurred on October 29, 1979 in a swampy area of Wollaton Park, Nottingham. There's not much information to go on, all the evidence is anecdotal, but it is an interesting mass sighting of gnome/fairy creatures:
The witnesses were a small group of children aged 8 to 10, and the events took place in September 1979 in Wollaton Park, Nottingham. They were in the park grounds at 8.30 p.m., when it was getting dark but there was still some light to see by.
In a swampy area with trees, fenced off to stop the public from entering, the children saw about 60 little men, about ½ as tall as themselves. They had long white beards with red tips and wrinkled faces. They wore caps on their heads, described as being like old fashioned nightcaps, Noddy style, with a bobble on the end, they also wore blue tops and yellow tights.
For most of the 15 minutes that the children spent with them, the little men were in little cars. There were 30 cars with 2 men in each. The cars didn’t have steering wheels, but a round thing with a handle to turn. There was no sound of engines, but they traveled fast, and could jump over obstructions like logs.
They were also seen up in trees, coming out of and returning to holes. The children felt they could only come out after dark.
Despite the disbelief of their parents when told about the little men, the children were adamant that they were not making up stories. They also claimed to have seen the little people before, during the long summer holiday.
Their headmaster interviewed and recorded them separately soon after, and despite a few discrepancies in their accounts, and differences of emphasis, the children do sound truthful.
Furthermore, the author Janet Bord adds this seemingly innocuous footnote, based on its similarities to the sighting:
Over 6 years before the Wollaton fairies were reported in the media, I had corresponded with Marina Fry of Cornwall, who wrote to me giving details of her own fairy sighting when she was nearly 4 years old, around 1940.
One night she and her older sisters, all sleeping in one bedroom, awoke to hear a buzzing noise, one sister said music and bells.
Looking out of the window they saw a little man in a tiny red car driving around in circles. He was about 18" tall and had a white beard and a droopy pointed hat, he just disappeared after a while.
Fortean Times has another reference to the sighting:
Several children returning home after playing, heard a sound like a bell and saw coming out of the wooded area about 60 little gnome like men with wrinkled faces and long white beards, they were about 2' tall and were riding small bubble like vehicles. The beings rode over the swamps near the lake and some chased the children towards the gate of the park. Some of the humanoids wore red hats and green pants and seemed to be laughing in a peculiar way. The children ran from the area.
There was a later reference in the Fortean Times:
Wollaton Park in Nottingham, Notts, is the setting for one of the most bizarre modern day encounters with the Little People ever recorded.
A small group of 8 to 10 year old children were walking home from the park at around 8:30 p.m. one evening in late September 1979 when, they claim, a vertiable cavalcade of gnomes, approximately 60 in total drove out of the bushes around the park's lake in 30 tiny red and white bubble cars.
According to their amazed eyewitnesses, these extraordinary entities had greenish wrinkled faces with white beards tipped in red, wore brightly colored tunics and leggings, and were only half as tall of the children. The Gnomes drove around for about 15 minutes, even playfully chasing the children, but were not frightening or aggressive.
Not suprisingly, when they attended school the next day and spoke of what they had seen, the children were interviewed separately and rigourously by their headmaster, but their testimonies were predominately consistent and they insisted that their story was true.
Furthermore, once it became public, other local people came forward to claim that they too had spied these mini motorists in the park, especially near the lake, and Marjorie Johnson, a former secretary of the Nottingham based Fairy Investigation Society, confirmed that she had recieved a number of previous reports of Little People frequenting this locality.
Gnomes are said to be the spiritual beings who inhabit the spirit realm of the Earth element. As spirits of energy they are commonly invisible to the average person, only those that possess second sight can see them clearly.
However being on the first level of the spirit realm, they are close enough to the physical realm in order to easily inter react with it. By tradition Gnomes were the protectors of secret treasures hidden in caves beneath the Earth. Legends have it that they were reluctant to help and aid humans, but if you were to gain the trust of one, they could prove to be powerful friends. On the other hand, if you were to lose their trust, deceive them or misuse their aid, then all Hell could be let lose.
In Wicca/Witchcraft, Gnomes are called to instill confidence, steadfastness and endurance, but can also be used to bring about gloom, melancholy and despair should that be required.
The Earth Spirits or Gnomes absorb from the ethers, a plain of existence beyond the upper and lower worlds of shamanism, and beyond the astral plane, but lower than the level of the Gods, and release the energy into matter to give it life. They are formless, but take the form of whatever they interact with. Thus, when they meet a human, they take a human form, though short, stocky and thick set, due to their Earthy nature.
Interesting enough, there was a Disney film produced in 1967 titled The Gnome Mobile.
In the film, an eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes. He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him.
The film was based on a 1936 Upton Sinclair novel The Gnome Mobile that tells the tale of a brother and sister who befriend distraught forest gnomes in order to save a ring of ancient redwoods from a greedy logging company.