This episode really doesn't strike me as being terribly convincing. So some people smell a strong fishy smell in a house. A so-called medium comes in and tells John all sorts of stuff about a dead man who's leaving the smell. He uses the name James Goldsworthy and tells him a date and that he's buried in a church. He goes to the records office to find that a James Goldsworthy is actually buried at the church down the road. So why should we not assume that the medium went to the office in advance too? And anyway, how common is 'Goldsworthy' in Plymouth? James can't be very rare. Perhaps if you check 50 years of parish records you'd turn one up. Peter hasn't specified the church other than it's old, on a hill, and over looks water (which could apply to a lot of places).
The first paragraph from the narrator is utter speculation (and doesn't even sound right - the map seems to show an orchard, not scrubland).
I found it quite funny that James Goldsworthy's wife had left him (according to Peter) and there's poor John also estranged from his family, as though Peter had cynically echoed the two men's stories.
The thing is, John hasn't given the afterlife much thought. He "believes in god, obviously, I mean most people do". And now he's being chucked in with a woman who invites 'spirits' to sit down on the sofa, and Peter the medium. It's no wonder he feels his life's been turned upside down. It's no wonder he leaps to paranormal conclusions when everyone else round him is happy to accept them.
The coincidence with one of his driving school pupils being called James Goldsworthy is quite good. But it's hard to see where that might fit in.
But ultimately I think he should check the drains and under the fridge. Maybe there is a ghostly fisherman pushing his barrow through the house every night at teatime. But I would check the obvious first.
Narrator: Close to the centre of the ancient fishing port of Plymouth
lies the old church of Stoke Damerel. It stands on the crest of the hill overlooking a
narrow valley. It dates back several hundred years. It lies at the centre of a
remarkable story that links the distant past with the immediate present. The
story we tell is of an old fisherman who was attacked and robbed close to this
church, way back in the middle of the 18th century. And how that
event has touched the lives of people here and now in the 1990s. The story
revolves around two key figures. One of them is John, a driving instructor, in his
mid-30s, divorced with three children, he now lives on his own. He had no
experience of or interest in the paranormal, but he was swept up in a string of
events that started last April. Peter is quite different. He is an
extraordinary and mysterious figure. He claims not only to be able to
communicate with the dead, but to obtain from them remarkable insights into the
past and even into the future. The story that unfolded tested those claims to
the very limit, and we have to say in no way disprove them. John lives in Molesworth [?] road, an ordinary street in Plymouth, a row of typical Victorian houses. Just
down the road is Stoke Damerel Church.
Back in the 18th century this area was open scrubland, and Holmfirth
road was just a stoney track. It seems that traders and carriers with their
cartloads of fish from the harbour would take a shortcut across this scrubland.
This is where John’s house now stands. In some way the 18th century
events seem to have been reactivated within the walls of the house that now
lies across the old fishermen’s track.
John, Driving Instructor: It started in about April last
year. I – presumably I got up for a coffee or something. For some reason I got
up and walked through the door into the kitchen. And I smelt this fishy smell.
And of course I carried on, made the coffee, came back. Then the next night it
happened again, but it always happened about the same time - five to five, five past five. And erm, then
the next night and the next night, it continued. But the smell of fish was not
just smelt by myself – quite a few people had come into the flat. By my
children, who come on a Sunday. And er, if let’s say Daniel sat in the front
room, and he used to watch the wrestling which was on Sky 1, the other two didn’t
like it very much so they used to go into the bedroom and watch a video or
something on the other channels.
Daniel: My brother and sister was watching a video in Dad’s
room. So then they said ‘Daniel, Daniel, come in here!’ So I went into the
other room, and they said ‘We can smell fish’. And I could smell it to. And I
said Dad, maybe it’s your washing powder, why don’t you change your washing
powder?
John: And I changed to a really expensive powder, and of
course the smell was still there! So I went back to my cheap powder again!
Peter, Neighbour: John asked me to look after his flat while
he went away for the weekend. He gave me the keys and I went in and had a look
around. But as I went in the door, there was a very strong, overpowering smell
of fish. And it was really bad. And I looked around the flat and nothing
appeared to be out of order, everything was ok. And I came out again and I
wondered what the smell was, and when I got back I told Yvonne, that’s the
wife, about the smell.
Narrator: Smells and odours might seem a totally unlikely
hint of underlying paranormal activity. In fact there is a long and detailed
record of their being linked both to some types of psychic hallucination as
well as to paranormal events. In this case it seems unlikely to be hallucination
as we have no fewer than six independent witnesses. Professor Archie Roy has no
doubts that there can be a powerful link between smells and the paranormal.
Archie Roy, Professor of Astronomy: It’s not just that people see apparitions,
and it’s not just that they sometimes hear voices. Every sense can register
seemingly… phenomena. There have been many cases of people who must be taken to
be honest, and have said that they have suddenly smelt a particular perfume, or
a noxious smell, and subsequently it has disappeared. I myself have had a case
where there was a very powerful perfume. So heavy, so old-fashioned, that I was
sure my clothes would stink of it for hours afterwards.And then the entity (if
it was an entity) said ‘I must go now, goodbye’ and the perfume was cancelled
like that!
Bernard Carr, Professor of Astrophysics: As far as I’m
concerned, smell is just one of the sense modalities, and just as some people
see apparitions, other people hear sounds, if you like, and not physical but
auditory hallucinations. Some people have tastes and some people have smells.
And in a way the smells, the sense of smell is the most primitive, in the sense
that if we go back to earlier lifeforms, the smell was one of the first ones to
be developed. And indeed when people are falling into unconsciousness or dying,
they say that smell is one of the last sense modes to go.
Narrator: But for John, the sense of something strange going
on in his house had become too much. It constantly nagged away at his mind –
this same event happening at the same time every evening. Eventually he
summoned up the courage to confide in a friend who had some interest in
paranormal events.
Mandy: John had worried, all anxious, about what had been going
on. So the only thing that I could think of doing was contact Peter Bowers, who
was some acquaintance of mine. Because he is more in tune with the spirit
world, and I thought he would be the best person to pick up on what was going
on.
John: He said, I’m actually coming to Plymouth tonight, to
Plympton. But he said I will call round and help you, I’ll get rid of whatever
it is. And he said, I will be there at seven o’clock. So fine, great. Mandy and
I sat there having a coffee, having a chat, trying to discuss what we think it
possibly could be. And at five to seven there’s a knock on te front door.
Mandy: John looked out the window, and there was nobody
there. Also remembering at this point that this spirit wasn’t in the flat with
us at that time. So anyway the knock came again. John thought it was Peter
Bowers, but as I said when he looked out the window there was nobody there. And
the knock came again and I said, well of course it could be that this spirit
has been invited here by Peter Bowers, so we must let him in.
John: I said, ah, right, well you can answer the door then!
So she brushed past me, opened the front door. And as she opened the door she
said “Come in.” There was nobody there. It was spooky if you as me.
Mandy: As he walked past me, I could smell the fishy odour
that had been associated with him. And he actually went right past me and right
past John, who was like stood nearer to the flat door. Um, and er, we then,
John and I went into the flat door, closed the door, and I said to this spirit,
well have a seat, make yourself comfortable at home. Because my belief is that
you treat them – they still think that they’re alive, so you have to talk to
them as though they are alive.
John: By this time the hairs on the back of my neck were
standing up like you wouldn’t believe, you know. And she said ‘sit down’ in
this chair next to me. And the smell of fish was actually surrounding this
chair.
Narrator: A few moments later Peter arrived. Remember he had
had no warning, no previous connection to John and his story. All he knew about
was the strange smell. He claims to have sensed the presence of some alien
entity immediately. He went on to describe his contact in extraordinary detail.
His age, physical appearance, the robbery, even most unlikely of all – a name.
Peter Bowers, Psychic Medium: Now the feeling was that it
was a man about sixty, sixty five. A small man who would only come up to here
on me, up to my shoulder. With rather thick set, greying hair. But with a very
unhappy and miserable expression on his face. He gave me a date of 1759 and he
gave me a name of John Goldsworthy. And he told me that he’d been if you like
an itinerant fish merchant of some description, or pedlar, something like that.
And he’d had a route of going from the back of the barbican where he lived, collecting
fish and other commodities from various places where they’d been landed, and bringing
them up round to the villages at the back of Plymouth. Then he’d go round the
circuit and back home by the evening. And at some point in time he’d been
robbed in the vicinity of this place and this house. And as a result of that it
had caused a lot of hurt in his life. He’d been injured and his arm had been
broken. His wife had left him at some stage. And all his misfortune if you like
flowed from this one incident here. When a soul comes like this to be released,
it’s necessary for them to make a connection through to the other side where
they need to go. Because they’re trapped in a lower vibration down here on the
earth, and they haven’t got the ability themselves to raise themselves into
this new situation where they want to be. The reason they’re trapped is their
sadness or fear or whatever of the condition they’ve got around them. So in
this case what I did standing on the spot that I’m standing on now, I opened a vortex
of energy into which he stepped, and it has the same effect as an elevator. And
when the energy is right and he is in the right energy field, it’s literally
just a case of him passing up and going. Now we always say a little prayer, the
same as we would for anybody else that is hurt. And this is what happened on
this occasion. And he was just lifted from this room where I’m standing now in
the hall, and the whole thing would only take three or four minutes, it doesn’t
take an enormous amount of time.
Narrator: This account, for all its graphic detail, leaves
us with the eternal problem of what to believe. We have no way of sorting fact
from fiction. Peter’s story could all be pure fabrication. But in this case the
strange events at John’s house that evening were only the starting point. They
opened up a remarkable trail and enabled James Goldsworthy of 1759 to make
contact with James Goldsworthy 1996.
Narrator: immediately after Peter’s visit to the house in
Moorsworth road, the strange events stopped. But for John it was an unexpected reaction.
Instead of a sense of release he felt a deep sense of loss as though a member
of the family had passed away.
John: The night after all this had happened I was sat in
here by myself and it was about nine ten o’clock at night. I was watching
something like the news at ten on the television. And I felt really, as though
I‘d lost something or somebody. Like when you lose a member of the family and
you get that horrible gut feeling. I had tears running down my face for some
reason, and I was crying, I was sat here crying and I didn’t know the reason
why. And obviously I knew it had something to do with what had happened. So I rang up Peter and asked him what he thought
it was. And he said, of course you’re going to feel like this for a couple of
days afterwards. Because what he got rid of has been around for 2, 250 years.
And at that point I decided I wanted to find out a little bit more about who he
was, what he was. I started by asking Pete some questions, and he just started
rattling it off. It was like he was talking to somebody up there.
Peter: The owner asked me if I could give him any more
information to trace the man. Which I must admit was the furthest thing from my
mind at that time. I told him that within the next few days something would
happen which would make the whole situation much clearer. I wasn’t sure what
that would be, only that something was going to happen which would tie in with
the name of the man which we’d been given – James Goldsworthy.
Narrator: Only a few days later, the first part of Peter’s
extraordinary prediction fell into place. John was giving a driving lesson to a
complete stranger: a young man whose name was Jimmy, Jimmy Taylor.
John: We’d just finished the driving lesson and we sat down
and I did a debrief with him. And he was talking about his stepfather who was
taking driving lessons. And I said, send him to me, I’ll teach him how to
drive, just jokingly. And I said, well if he’s your stepdad, where’s your real
dad? And he said, oh he died. And what was he called? James Goldsworthy.
Jimmy: And that’s when John freaked out and started telling
me about another person called James Goldsworthy that’s supposed to be haunting
his house.
John: If your dad is James
Goldsworthy then HE is james Goldsworthy, and I’m sat in this car next to James
Goldsworthy. And I just couldn’t believe it.
Narrator: Both John and James were
stunned by this event, and decided then and there to dig into the records of 18th
century Plymouth and find out if there’d ever been a James Goldsworthy. And if
so, where he’d lived and died and where he’d been buried. They started with
three mysterious clues Peter had claimed to get from the old fisherman. They
were looking for an ancient church on a hill overlooking water.
John: He was sixty-ish, around
that age, and he died in the middle to late 1700s. He said actually he’s buried
in a church in the fold of the hill near water. But, it’s not any church, it
was built before the 1500s. So I decided to go to the library and get a book
out on churches and historic houses and such like. I went right through the
whole lot until I actually found three churches it could possibly be. One was
Saint B., one was Stoke Damerel and the other one was on the river but it was
quite a long way off so we counted that one out really.
Narrator: The most appropriate
church seemed to be the one at Stoke Damerel. It was near where the attack had
taken place, and near where as it happened John and James both lived. But there
was one major omission, it certainly didn’t overlook water. When we began to
dig into the records however, we uncovered an extraordinary and hitherto
unknown fact. That back in 1759 it had overlooked water – a tidal creek that
ran at the bottom of the hill and was only filled in about a hundred years ago.
Sally, Records Researcher: This is
Molesworth Road. As you can see at the bottom it meets the water of Stonehouse
Creek. It was perfectly possible for small fishing boats to make their way up
to this area at the bottom of Molesworth road. There were small cottages there
that may well have been used as fishing cottages. Nowadays Victoria Park takes
the place of Stonehouse Creek, it has been infilled and obviously can no longer
be used for fishing.
Narrator: In Victorian times when
the creek was filled in to become Victoria Park, the road across the park was
clearly built on the lines of an older bridge. The fishing cottages are still
there, now overlooking the park. So, Stoke Damerel church fitted Peter’s
description in every respect. But what would the burial records reveal? this
was the key test of Peter’s claim. If he was right and it should prove the
death of a man called James Goldsworthy, some time after the year of the
robbery, 1759. They did.
I am Paul Bradford the senior
archivist at West Devon Records Office. The County Council’s archives for
Plymouth. And we’re responsible for the records of the parish of Stoke Damerel,
which is the parish of Devonport. And amongst the burial records that we have,
I have a register which includes an entry for the 7th of November
1774 which refers to a burial of one James Goldsworthy.
Narrator: Even with all this
historical verification, at first hearing this story seems unbelievable,
incredible – how is it possible? How does it fit into our view of reality. Can
a man buried here in 1774 should be able to communicate with a living human
being over 200 years later. It’s an idea that shatters our everyday frame of
reference. But more and more scientists have come to believe that some psychic
mediums are tuning in to a communiciations channel that science doesn’t yet
understand.
Archie Roy: We have a real and
important mystery here. There is no doubt that some mediums are seemingly
acting as channels between people on this side and what one might call the
communicating intelligence, whatever it may be. Information is got through
these mediums that they simply could not have obtained in any normal way. What
this also means is that the reductionist materialist model of a human being, as
simply the animal that grew the big brain,a nd that you only get information
through the five senses and that is all, is embarrassingly inadequate. There
are faculties that the human being has that seem to be demonstrated most
strongly by the phenomena of mediumship.
Peter: Mr Goldsworthy was trying
to make some sort of contact with the James Goldsworhty who is alive now. The
reason I’m not sure of. But no doubt the family will be. It’s an unusual
occurrence in an instance like this, to get an entity that is actually able to
identify itself and give so much information. It isn’t n ormal. But so many
strange things happen, and people who I meet often tell me how strange things
happen, how coincidences happen – that this is not really abnormal. There are
lots of things happening like this all of the time. But it doesn’t sell
newspapers and it’s only known by those people who happen to be aware of it at
that time.
Narrator: We can only speculate.
Can it be that the ancient James Goldsworthy’s purpose in making his presence
felt when he did was to ensure the continuation of his name. He needed to
contact James Taylor who had abandoned his father’s name. Either way the
message from the past has had a profound effect on two people in the present.
Jimmy : I’ve now changed my name
to James Goldsworthy to carry on my father’s name. with going through what has
happened, the other James Goldsworthy could be a past relative, it’s encouraged
me to change my name.
James: Before this experience
happened to me I wasn’t very spiritual. I believed in god, obviously, I think
most people do. I didn’t go to church. I wasn’t into talking to dead people! If
you want to put it that way. Until after the event and now that this has all
happened, things have actually been proven to me, where somebody can come into
my house and say ‘There’s somebody in your house called James Goldsworthy and
he’s buried in the church down the road’. From 250 years ago. Or as close as. I
mean how does that guy know this James Goldsworthy? Where did he pick him up
from. And the proof is it’s all in the records that this James Goldsworthy has
been found. Now to me that is just fantastic. I mean I’m not here on television
to try to prove to people that there is something on the other side. I’m just
here to tell you that it’s been proven to me. And now my faith is being made so
much stronger about the possibility that there is life after death.
