The Bridgemont Gnome Race
By Cole Herrold
Faeries as a concept are perhaps one of
the most difficult phenomena for people (and this includes Forteans) to wrap
their heads around. Almost anyone who you ask about the existence of faeries
will say that they are the figments of the Brothers Grimm's and Hans Christian
Anderson's imagination and that such entities simply do not exist. Even amongst
Forteans, fae encounters are treated almost as a kind of joke or at best
second, third, fourth, or fifth fiddle to other more "acceptable"
phenomena such as UFOs, Cryptids, Ghosts, and psychic phenomenon. The Forteans
who do take these accounts as authentic tend to point towards these creatures
being something akin to cryptids, usually hypothesizing that they are
diminutive hominids that have remained undiscovered. I myself was in this camp
of belief and still am for some encounters; however, there are some encounters
that are so bizarre that the traditional cryptozoological approach just does
not work. One of perhaps the most famous encounters of this variety is the
Wollaton Park Gnomes, who were seen imitating police officers, leading a woman
on a spiritual scavenger hunt, and chasing small children around in 30 bubble
cars. Other encounters describe similar-looking fae disappearing before the
witness's eyes, something a biological entity just cannot do. In Bridgemont,
England, a very bizarre case of faeries was reported, and in the encounter, the
entities not only seemingly disappeared but also rode countless tiny horses in
a situation, not unlike the Wollaton Park case.
In the Summer of 1909, seven-year-old L.A.
Bardsley of Cheshire spent a vacation at her grandmother's house in Bridgemont,
Derbyshire, which was near Whaley Bridge. Her grandmother's house had a flagged
backyard that sloped steeply and also had a low flat-topped stone wall which
was about a foot wide and enclosed the backyard, thereby separating it from the
rest of the garden. This long wall formed a narrow platform that became an
integral part of their playtime. L.A. would dance atop the stone pinnacle and
run along it as though she was some juvenile Spring-Heeled Jack. The height of
the wall was tall, and that the area where it separated the garden was
particularly steep and thereby exceptionally dangerous, but L.A. was not
concerned by this; in fact, this juvenile daredevil got a euphoric thrill from
the potential hazard and would only increase in the range of her gymnastics.
It was on one such bright summer day as
she clamored onto the stone wall, and she was in complete giddiness as her
other siblings and cousins were not around, and she had the complete wall to
herself. Her grandmother was in the kitchen but close enough that should
something go awry, she was in calling distance. Knowing the potential aid she
could get, she began to do her typical dances on top of the wall. As she
continued to spin and groove, she was suddenly filled with an overwhelming
sense of euphoric joy and an incredible sense of happiness in being alive. She
felt the warmth of the sun on her skin and the cool hard stone under her feet
and took in the complete peace and beauty of the garden that was near where she
danced. She could feel fully at one with herself and her surroundings. The
overwhelming feeling of this ultimately stopped her dancing, and she stopped
and proceeded to stare out at the sea of green hills that stretched well beyond
the garden.
As she stared out into the distance, she
noticed one of the most peculiar things she had seen in her entire life. There
some distance away in a nearby field was over a dozen of remarkably miniature
horses bridled and harnessed to tiny open trotting-traps and that they were
going round and round in circles in the field as if in some sort of race. The
horses were chestnut and darker colored and were seemingly well-groomed. Their
harnesses were seemingly polished and incredibly bright and shiny, and the same
goes for the rest of their equipages. As she examined this equestrian event
more closely, she noticed that these horses were not doing this on their own
accord but were being driven by tiny, diminutive gnome-like beings. One gnome
per each horse, much like how a jockey at a horse race would be; however, these
gnomes were being pulled in golden-colored light-built sulkies (a kind of
two-wheeled cart attached to the back of the horse in trotting races). The
gnomes were holding the horse's reins in one hand and in their other a kind of
whip to help keep the horses going. The gnomes wore a variety of clothes, each
vibrant in color, such as bright green jackets, bright scarlet jackets, and
they also all wore hats that matched and bright black boots that shone in the
sunlight like patent leather. These gnomes also wore gauntlet gloves to protect
their hands seemingly from the reigns or to match their already impeccable
fashion sense. She could clearly see these diminutive beings' faces and could
tell that they were "perfectly formed" and had rosy complexions and
high cheekbones. L.A. watched these gnomes and horses race round and round,
noting at how keenly they were attempting to win the game and seemingly unaware
of her presence.
She could hear the voices of the gnomes
commanding the horses in their sulkies, the horses seemingly obeying intently
every inch of their master's commands. The race became exceptionally fast and
furious as L.A. could see the horse's muscles flex and ripple as they ran
around the field. The gnomes she could tell were full of glee, and the whole
area where they competed was bathed in sunlight, which made the area appear
greener than what it actually was. L.A. stood there watching in awe at the
equestrienne event that broke out in front of them, but soon the overall
excitement of the event overtook her, and she in this excitement had to show
someone else, so she began to call emphatically for her grandmother. Calling
out "come quickly, come quickly," but as the older homeowner began to
come out of the house, the young girl had begun to regret calling her guardian.
The elder caregiver seeing the young girl
on the wall, was clearly not in the mood for any youthful shenanigans and came
out from of the house grumbling about her 'rheumatics' all the way over to her.
The insistence in the girl's voice annoyed the old woman because she was
relaxing in her favorite chair, and it was in this moment as L.A. watched the
woman approach her that she began to feel an increasing diminution of
consciousness. It was as if the woman who L.A. would describe as
"earthy-earthy" was causing the girl to lose sight of the world
around her. When the old woman was by her side, the vision of the gnomes and
their racing horses was gone. L.A. felt that the old woman's aura either scared
the entities away or that simply being around her stopped her from being able
to see the faeries anymore. The grandmother, however, stood there, arms crossed
as she listened to the girl's story and, seeing that the field was now devoid
of the wee folk, simply refused to believe her granddaughter and instead chastised
her for "disturbing her for 'no reason at all'." L.A. was completely
downtrodden and finished her holiday with her grandmother, which after that
continued to be uneventful.
L.A. kept her story to herself for years
until she was fully grown. One day she was hanging out with her Aunt (her
grandmother's daughter), and for some strange reason, she felt compelled to
tell her about what she saw in the field that day. Her Aunt listening to her
account did not treat it in disdain like how her grandmother did but instead
was surprised and clued her into why she potentially saw what she saw. Her
Aunt, hearing this went into details in how the field where she saw the gnome
race was the same spot that her father (L.A.'s Grandfather) held trotting races
that were common practice when he was a young man. The area was so well known
for this that young sportsmen from miles around would come to the area for the
chance to compete in the field. The sport in the area had died out some time
ago, and so it was particularly bizarre that such an occurrence would have
happened when L.A. saw the event. L.A. had never heard of trotting races and
was unfamiliar with the vehicles attached to it, but she was able to describe
to her Aunt the exact descriptions of how they raced and the vehicles showing
that she had seen some sort of antediluvian equestrian game that day. When
discussing her account to the Fairy Investigation Society, L.A. said the
following about her sighting "Even today I can still vividly recall and
relive the sudden mood of joy that I experienced as I witnessed that entrancing
scene. It must have been an exact replica of a human trotting race, except that
everything was on a diminished scale of about a quarter the normal size with
every detail standing out perfectly”.
Encounters with gnomes are surprisingly
common, and many of perhaps the most bizarre faerie encounters involve this
particular fae. One thing that many of the early faerie researchers discerned
about gnomes was that they were imitators. Gnomes are believed to be able to
use energy and matter in a peculiar way that includes creating varieties of
objects, creatures and even changing their general appearance. There is even a
claim that the gnome as how we know it is not their original form but simply a
guise they take. It is in this way that gnomes are by far in this kind of
research more ethereal than other fae like trolls, brownies, or leprechauns.
This ability to seemingly create objects from nothing like diminutive versions
of the Dark Horse character the Mask has been used to explain their rash of
particularly bizarre encounters associated with them. I've already mentioned
the Wollaton Park Gnomes Case, which featured 30 Bubble cars, police officer
outfits, and some more bizarre elements that appeared in a scavenger hunt they
created (which I plan to write a full article on); there also was an encounter
where a small gnome-like entity was seen driving a car in circles in their yard
in 1940, and another encounter where a small gnome-like entity was flying a tiny
airplane while waving to the witnesses. So perhaps the trotting vehicles and
even the horses are other examples of this kind of matter transformation which
is what Marjorie Johnson and even L.A. years later felt was the case.
While matter manipulation, in this case,
is a possibility, the most interesting thing to me is the diminutive horses,
and that trotting vehicles are rather simple compared to a car, so there's also
the chance that this is non-magical wooden vehicles but faerie crafted
vehicles. Faerie animals are incredibly common in folklore around the United
Kingdom and Ireland. The most famous is perhaps the Kelpie, the shape-shifting
water horse that consumes the flesh of those it drowns. Other faerie animals
exist, such as the Cu Sith or Cu Sidhe; the faerie hounds, they are bright
green in color and covered in shaggy hair. Many stories of the Cu Sith are
almost identical to accounts of hellhounds or black dogs as their howls,
specifically hearing them in sets of three, are often precursors to death.
Another example of a faerie animal is the Cat Sith, a dark black shadowy,
spectral cat with a white spot on its chest; these malevolent fae were believed
to steal the souls from the dead when they pass over a corpse, and much like
the Cu Sith was a creature often linked to death. While most faerie animals
seem to be malevolent, they are not all that way; in fact, there is a variety
that matches the kind seen in Bridgemont and has appeared in countless tales
these faerie horses while at least from what I’ve been able to glean do not
have a specific name like their more nefarious relatives like the Kelpie,
Each-Uisge, and Cabyll-Ushtey but appear to be very much typical horses in
behavior and form but are faerie versions of them. These horses are often seen
being ridden by the Seelie Court and the Gentry, and there are countless
stories revolving around them. The Bridgemont Gnome encounter seems to show
this same variety of faerie, but with the complicated and highly speculative
nature of faeries and encounters with them, this cannot be for certain.
Now while I've discussed the faerie theory
for this encounter, there is one thing that I think should be mentioned, and
that is the hypothesis that the entire encounter could have been something
biological. Before I really started doing research into the faerie phenomenon,
I felt that all encounters with diminutive beings were examples of hominids.
That they were pockets of undiscovered relatives to us that due to island
dwarfism or some other evolutionary factor led to them being the creatures we
associate with elves, leprechauns, gnomes, and red caps. With their short
stature, they could evade us more easily, and perhaps they built subterranean
lairs or were nomadic hence why they didn't have evidence of civilization
outside of the occasional faerie pipe and other small artifacts which have been
found on extremely rare occasions. Perhaps that is the case here the gnomes are
examples of this and that they are technologically sophisticated enough to
build devices on par with us or maybe a few years behind us hence why devices
of antiquity built to their stature yet seemingly new are seen in times when
such devices should not be around. If we go this route, there are all sorts of
anthropological elements one could speculate, such as that perhaps these
hominids had been able to breed diminutive horses in the same way we have
teacup poodles which if possible means that they are much smarter than us as
such reports have predated any Mendelian attempts at cross-breeding or
selective breeding and if that's the case could add to why we only have legends
and no hard evidence for their existence. If this is a highly advanced species
that wishes to remain elusive, and they are potentially smarter than us, then
they could have all sorts of methods that would to us seem like magic but, in
reality, be either a kind of science or illusion that they created after how
many countless years. However, all of this is mere speculation, and while
fascinating to think about, I personally do not think this to be the case in
this encounter.
I've discussed in earlier articles,
particularly on Trolls, how difficult faerie investigation is as there's no
real methodology to it. One seemingly cannot go out and track faeries in the
ways one would a bigfoot or use sonar to find lake monsters. Ghost hunting
equipment seemingly has no effect on these entities, or if it does, it's never
been reported. Most encounters with faeries are often described or investigated
by those of a more spiritual mindset, and they will describe encounters through
meditation and emotional output and for someone who attempts to study this
phenomenon from a scientific point of view, while interesting, it is very
difficult to conduct any kind of experiment or inquiry outside of simply
collecting encounters or the off chance that one is caught on camera as there
have been a few photographs and videos over the years that seemingly show
faeries, but as with most evidence nowadays and the easiness of hoaxing,
there's a good chance that most are either fake or some natural phenomenon like
a bug on the lens or something similar. However, I am completely fascinated by
these reports partly because of my ancestral Irish heritage and because, as a
Fortean, there are so many encounters that have been reported and are still
being reported to this day that there just has to be something to it. Just what
I can only speculate, but perhaps someday we'll find the gates to faerie land,
or they will come from their dark corners and share their technology and
secrets with us… the big folk.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Faeries/hominids
Location: Bridgemont, Derbyshire, England
Sighted: Summer of 1909
Works Cited:
Seeing Fairies: From the Lost Archives of
the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times
By Marjorie T. Johnson
Main Image from:
Gnelsome Gnome. https://gnelsongnome.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/saratoga-race-course/
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