James Willis - Mysterious Milton Keynes

[dem bones]

Princely haul from this morning's market.

James Willis - Mysterious Milton Keynes (JMD Media, 2013)

Introduction - Milton Keynes, more than meets the eye

1. Earth Mysteries. Geography and Features
2. The Illuminati and Milton Keynes
3. Cryptozoology and Alien Invaders
4. Strange Religion
5. Haunting and the Supernatural
6. The Unexplained and the Bizarre

Conclusion
Acknowledgements

Blurb:
The dark side of Milton Keynes is finally revealed… Discover the hidden symbolism behind the layout, buildings and street installations; explore local conspiracy theories and see how they are subtly revealed in road names, incidents and stories throughout the city’s contemporary history. From the Devil’s Olney residence, to the fairies of Bow Brickhill, the lid is lifted upon the city’s witchcraft, relics, miracles and extensive supernatural lore. Take a walk on the wild side with the unnatural creatures of the alien zoo which prowl the parks, suburbs and waterways. There are strange deaths, mysteries, curses, urban legends and unsettling folklore which cannot easily be ignored. Welcome to Mysterious Milton Keynes.


Won't Monsieur Lapin X be thrilled.

Peter Haining [ed.] - Everyman's Book of Classic Horror Stories (J. M. Dent, 1976; originally 1974)

Chris Yates

Peter Haining - Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe - Ligeia
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Young Goodman Brown
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Schalken the Painter
Guy de Maupassant - The Drowned Man
E.T.A. Hoffman - The Sandman
Ambrose Bierce - The Middle Toe of The Right Foot
Bram Stoker - The Squaw
M.R. James - "Oh, Whistle, and I´ll Come to you, my Lad'
Algernon Blackwood - The old Man of Visions
H.P. Lovecraft - The Nameless City
Robert Bloch - The Hell-Bound Train
Ray Bradbury - The Emissary
Edogawa Rampo - The Hell of Mirrors
Mervyn Peake - Dance Macabre
Arthur Porges - The Fanatic

Blurb:

Here in one unique collection are some of the classics horror stories of the last 200 years. Stories that have become accepted by critics among the very finest examples of the terror-maker's craft. Stories that leave an indelible mark on the mind ...
They are culled from Britain, America, France, Germany and Japan. The authors include Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Guy de Maupassant, E.T.A. Hofffmann, Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Block, Ray Bradbury, Edogawa Rampo and Mervyn Peake.
This book is a collectors item for all who enjoy their horror at its most rare and terrifying, edited by that master of macabre ceremonies, Peter Haining.

Plus a replacement copy of Alan Clayson's superlative history of the Grim Reaper's greatest hits, Death Discs.

[Dr Strange]

There's definitely something odd about the cows around MK - I've seen the pictures. Whether that's down to alien experiments or the Illuminati is an open question.

[dem bones]

Oct 18, 2020 14:10:14 GMT Dr Strange said:

There's definitely something odd about the cows around MK - I've seen the pictures. Whether that's down to alien experiments or the Illuminati is an open question.

Unquestionably the latter, though it will have long been covered up. I don't know much about the #Illuminati but someone said on twitter that they are to blame for everything so that's good enough for me. Are they the same as young people? Is "the lady GaGa" in it? Whoever they are, I wish they'd stop it.

#NewWorldOrder #Them #WhyLovecraftHadToBeSilenced #ItsAllYoungPeoplesFault #ExceptMyGrandkids #BletchleyCircle #TheyGotGilbertOSullivanButTheyWon'tGetMe #EyesWideShut #BermudaTriangle

[helrunar]

Great photo, Kev! Lady GaGa has her fingers inserted in some surprising and uncanny places... be sure of that.

Again as a non-Brit, Milton Keynes and "death discs" are two of those topics that, whenever they recur, lead one to raise an eyebrow. The secret horror of Milton Keynes... I think we need a lurid tale for the annual Winter Solstice horror parade on that theme... but no pressure!

cheers, Steve

[Dr Strange]

Milton Keynes Illuminati = MK-Ultra

#BirdsAren'tReal

[peedeel]

Life is full of imponderables. For instance, how many roundabouts are there really in Milton Keynes? I hear of individuals going out with pen and paper to create a definitive list of them, but each day (or so it seems) the number of roundabouts changes?



Same too with the Hanger Lane Gyratory System (designed it's said by an old resident of Milton Keynes): 10,000 vehicles an hour pass through this complex London junction – some never to be seen again! Is it possible, as has been suggested, that the planners in designing this, Britain’s “scariest” junction, had inadvertently created a portal to other dimensions?



And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, what the hell were they thinking when they put an Underground station slap in the feckin’ middle of it? Pedestrians trying to cross eight lanes of accelerating traffic have two options – die horribly, or dematerialise and reappear elsewhere…hopefully in the Underground station?



In another time Hieronymous Bosch would have cheerfully included the Hanger Lane Gyratory System and Milton Keynes with its cows in one of his visionary paintings of hell.

[andydecker]

Oct 20, 2020 7:08:23 GMT peedeel said:

Same too with the Hanger Lane Gyratory System (designed it's said by an old resident of Milton Keynes): 10,000 vehicles an hour pass through this complex London junction – some never to be seen again! Is it possible, as has been suggested, that the planners in designing this, Britain’s “scariest” junction, had inadvertently created a portal to other dimensions?



And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, what the hell were they thinking when they put an Underground station slap in the feckin’ middle of it? Pedestrians trying to cross eight lanes of accelerating traffic have two options – die horribly, or dematerialise and reappear elsewhere…hopefully in the Underground station?



In another time Hieronymous Bosch would have cheerfully included the Hanger Lane Gyratory System and Milton Keynes with its cows in one of his visionary paintings of hell.

I looked it up. This is scary with big S. How can people live with that let alone use it? How do you go from left to right without an accident and in time to reach your exit?

My first thought was how would I fare if it is raining and becoming dark? If I would survive the experience I guess I wouldn't dare it again.

Long ago I have seen an old Warner Brothers Cartoon about some guy trying to find the right exit on such a nightmare roundabout and never finding it. Can't remember if it was a Tex Avery, I guess it must have been a 50s cartoon, when the future was concrete. For a kid's show they could do people who loose their mind pretty well.

But this Hanger Lane is just crazy. Like something out of MegaCity One. There is just Judge Dredd missing.

[samdawson]

I used to live just down the road from Hanger Lane and so, unfortunately, had to use it about once every three weeks. It was horrible; unless you're deeply familiar with it you have to glue yourselves to the road markings, which seem to drop you off one lane adrift, meaning a sudden lane change that results in lots of beeping from regular users who apparently ignore the markings and follow a magical lane or lanes that get you through it quickly. Like the Elephant and Castle junction it's full of angry drivers as well, which makes it more intimidating. When the station was built it made sense. It originally sat atop a normal road junction - there's a photo of the Western Avenue in the 1930s taken by the Hoover Factory that shows one Austin Seven on the eastbound side, and children playing in the road. In the 60s the four underpasses were built, but from memory it was still sane in the 1970s when everyone took it to get to the M1. The gyratory arrived in the 1980s, stranding the station and ushering in the present awfulness.

[helrunar]

I love this thread so much.

So, what you're telling me is the Caribbean has the Bermuda Triangle, and southern England has the horrifying Hellmouth that is Milton Keynes. All is now explained.

cheers!

Hel

[helrunar]

The TV documentary will be promoted with the tag line "Move over, Scarfolk--you ain't got nothing on Milton Keynes."

[samdawson]

Wouldn't it be nice if all cities were like Milton Keynes?

We can't say they didn't warn us. This advert used to be shown seemingly endlessly in the 1980s: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOC8wtkzcrk

[dem bones]

To the uninitiated, the very mention of Milton Keynes conjures up images of roundabouts, concrete cows. centralized planning and 1960's urban architecture; a vast, bland network of housing estates, a city with no history, and one which - in the popular imagination — cannot hope to compete with the likes of Edinburgh, London, Oxford or any of the other historical British stalwarts when it comes to mystery and intrigue.

But scratch below the surface .....

From the introduction, Milton Keynes — more than meets the eye

And scratch below the surface he has! Author is clearly a man who knows not the meaning of the word 'fear.' Alien Big Terrapins in Wolvedon? Takes them in his stride. The Minced man of the Benis food factory? Grist to the mill. The Illuminati (MK-Ultra Nazi War Scientist chapter)? Come back when you're hard enough. Same goes for the deluge of "star jelly" (or is it maggot spunk?) across Newport Pagnell; The Willen Maze Manchurian Candidate; Exploding snail phenomena; The Pitz Nighclub - hot-bed of Satan-worship, Deicide fans and Dick Turpin's ghost (the Wandering Jew of pub-crawlers). All in a days paranormal-busting for the redoubtable Mr. Willis!

Have only passed through MK but briefly on trips to the late Bletchley Town FC's Manor Fields ground deep in cowshit country. Glimpsed through a window, the new city didn't look up to much - a Dunstable stripped of its glamour, perhaps, or, if we're going to be horrible, Telford on a really really hideous day.

But Football is played on grass, not paper, and appearances can be deceptive.

Anyway, this is a super book. It takes Willis all of one page to convince you that Milton Keynes is where its at, a paragraph less to prove beyond doubt that it is also among the most paranormal places in Britain, and, probably, on the planet. The ghosts are a bit so-so, but no shortage of witches, stone circles, obelisks, menhirs, pyramids, ley lines etc. Also - now Bow Brickhill woods has been absorbed into the metropolis proper - fairies. True, proximity to Luton must, as ever, be taken into consideration, but only real downside I can think of is getting used to that herd of inscrutable concrete cows watching every move. And what are the creepy couple outside the library perpetually gossiping about?

#SaturdayNightBeneathThePlasticPalmTrees #SweetStevenage #IndustrialEstate #Illuminati #99 Red Balloons #MKR #MK-Ultra #ThatRomfordVibe #MakeItStop

[helrunar]

I inexplicably felt a dreadful shudder at these premonitory words: proximity to Luton must, as ever, be taken into consideration...

Scratching blindly at the yellow wallpaper,

Steve

[andydecker]

Some day soon the bronze will peel off and reveal the rotten corpses underneath. What then?

[Jojo Lapin X]

Oct 22, 2020 18:59:04 GMT andydecker said:

Some day soon the bronze will peel off and reveal the rotten corpses underneath. What then?

The gates of Hell will open?