The Ley-line.
The Fools Nook pub in more prosperous times.
The small village of Oak Grove (Fools Nook) consists of a scattering of a few houses which one passes while traveling along the A523 Leek to Macclesfield road, the only thing that dominates this quiet hamlet is the public house which is also named Fools Nook which closed its doors some years ago and has now fallen into disrepair.
Out of the many local places I have written about, Oak Grove and the surrounding area is probably one of the strangest, and as I live no more than 4 miles away from here I felt that I should try to come up with some sort of explanation as to what is occurring here.
Gawsworth Church
The name “Fools Nook” stems from the fact that at one time Druids inhabited this sacred grove of Oak trees where few now remain. The locals would have referred to the Druids as the fools and nook would have denoted the sharp bend in the road which would have just been a track in those days. The Oak tree would have played an important role in the ceremonies conducted by the Druids and would have been revered as one of the most important of trees. The Sanskrit word, ‘Duir’, gave rise both to the word for oak and the English word ‘door’, which suggests that this tree stands as an opening into greater wisdom, perhaps an entryway into the otherworld itself.
The Greenway Stone.
Although the Druids obviously chose this location due to the number of Oak trees found here another reason may have been the energy line which still cuts through this area. It can still be detected flowing from the South West corner of Gawsworth church several miles away. By following this line of energy or Ley-line across the intervening fields using a set of dowsing rods I found that it intersected a large burial mound several hundreds yards away from Fools Nook, from here it carries on through Fools Nook
and through Hawkshead Quarry on the hillside above Fools Nook, which is still being worked as I could hear blasting taking place when I was taking these
Burial mound outside Fools Nook.
photographs. The Ley line or strong earth current then carries on and passes close to the Hanging Gate pub at Higher Sutton where it flows through the Greenway Stone (plague stone) which is said to be around 1500 years old, after passing through here it is found to culminate at Three Shires Head.
So to recap this section we have a very strong Ley-line running through a sacred Oak grove which in the past was used by Druids for their ceremonies and one of their beliefs was that the oak was a doorway into another dimension. Now the strong Ley-line has been disturbed by the quarrying in the area and it is unknown whether this has caused unusual lights and unknown craft to be seen in the area and which will be covered in more detail later.
The Sacrificial Alignment.
An unusual alignment can be found running across the countryside from the Staffordshire Moorlands to a location in Cheshire which may have a connection to human sacrifice and which may have taken place at some time in the past. Below is a line of where the possible sites where human sacrifice may have taken place.
Starting from Ramshaw rocks in the Staffordshire Moorlands we find a fashioned rock for the sole purpose of ritualised killing, this tall rock has a worn groove in th
e top of it where a rope would have been located, the victim would have stood on a flat stone at the base of the rock, he would have then been pushed off and would have therefore been strangled by the rope. On the top of the garotting stone I found two libation cups carved into it where offerings to the gods would have been placed.
Following the alignment brings us to Doxey’s Pool on the Roaches about a mile away, there are many legends attached to this pool, however the one that we are interested in is did human sacrifice take place at this spot.Although there is no definitive answer to this question, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest it may have taken place here as there is a libation cup overlooking
the pool where offerings would have been made to the gods.
From here the alignment runs through the hanging stone which can be found on the far end of the Roaches and then it runs through Cluelow Cross a very important feature in the landscape. About 100 yards away can be found the Bull Stone which appears to be some sort of
The Bull Stone
sacrificial stone as it is dished in the top as if to collect the blood of the victim.
The alignment then carries on and passes between upper and lower pethills, the name pethills is thought to have derived from the welsh word pwt meaning a marker stone and this alignment seems to coincide with the route that the pack horse trains would have used in transporting the copper mined at Ecton which would have followed this route through to the river Bollin, whether this has any relevance to this story is unknown at the present time. After passing through pethills the alignment comes to Croker hill where the large G.P.O tower can be found, and it is interesting to note the the word Croker is derived from the word Croaked meaning to have died, just passed Croker hill can be found Croker farm and another area called Croker, yet more evidence of death to be found along this alignment.
Before this alignment reaches Oak Grove (Fools Nook) it passes close to Hanging Gate farm and also the Hanging Gate pub where criminals were kept in the cellar before being hung outside (more can be found here https://ludchurchmyblog.wordpress.com/places-of-interest-in-cheshire/the-hanging-gate-pub/) yet more references to death.
Although the alignment passes through Oak Grove there is an ongoing debate whether the Druids were involved in human sacrifice, that being said there are Roman records which support this theory, however some say that the Roman records are somewhat biased. The fact that there is circumstantial evidence of human sacrifice
all along this alignment may strengthen the argument that they were practising this custom. If they were then their method involved building something like a huge wicker man which they would then fill with prisoners and animals and set fire to in the hope of appeasing the gods and providing a bountiful harvest for the coming year.
It may only be speculation, however it is my belief that the Druids, through their practices may have inadvertently or intentionally opened some sort of window or doorway into this reality, which may explain why strange flying craft are seen around this area and seem to be drawn to it, however I will go into more detail regarding this in the next section.
Lindow Man
Getting back to the alignment it carries on through Fools Nook and in a straight line leads us to Lindow Moss in Wilmslow where Lindow Man was dug out of a peat bog, experts were able to tell that he had been ritually killed by being garotted, having his throat cut and then being pushed into a pool of water.
Anomalous lights and UFOs.
In this section we cover the large amount of strange lights and craft seen in and around the area of Fools Nook. In the 1970s a man who lived on nearby Hurdsfield estate witnessed very small lights shooting out of a hill just south of Fools Nook, these lights were only a few inches in diameter, and according to the witness were darting about, he likened them to Tinkerbell out of Peter Pan, and the place that they originated was non other than the Fairyhough, the ridge that lies behind Fools Nook. This does beg the question as to whether these balls of light have been seen
Gawsworth fairy cross.
over the years and this is how this ridge has ended up being called the Fairyhough. Also it is worthy too note that a fairy cross can still be seen to this day on the side of the road in Gawsworth village, around 1 mile away which is said to have been a meeting place for the fairies.
Another sighting of strange lights or fairies took place around 10 miles away from Fools Nook close to Manchester airport at a place known as Hookbank, this sighting and one that I experienced myself which took place about two miles from Fools Nook can be found in more detail on another page of this website at https://ludchurchmyblog.wordpress.com/places-of-other-local-interest/close-encounters-of-the-fairy-kind/
Over the years the area in and around Fools Nook seems to have experienced more sightings of UFOs than the national average and the following accounts are some of the witnesses accounts of these experiences. This first one was witnessed by Robert Hulse and it had such a profound effect upon him he went on to form the Macclesfield UFO Society which I would recommend visiting at http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/ his story in his own words is as follows:
On 28th of December 1980 at around 9pm, I was travelling home to Congleton via the main Macclesfield to Leek road. I was 28 years old. I was in my car with one of our young sons while my wife followed in her car with our other son. As I came round the sharp bend by the canal just before the Fools Nook public house, I immediately noticed a very large red light which was constant and appeared to be about a half mile further up the road. I knew instantly that there was something very odd about it because it seemed far too low to be an aeroplane given the topography of the land around there. I watched it intently as I drove towards it. Just past the Fools Nook I climbed through a twisty wooded section of road and lost sight of it, but then I noticed a layby roughly where I thought it should be, close by the entrance to Rough Hey Farm.
At this stage I could see no lights of any sort except for the many stars which were visible in the totally clear sky. It was a frosty night on that dark country road. I got out of my car as soon as I got in the lay and looked up to find myself almost directly underneath a disk shaped craft of some 85 feet in diameter. The size of things in the air is so hard to guess and it may even have been larger than that. It was certainly no more than 200 feet above me at most. The completely flat bottom of the craft was hard to focus on and appeared like a strange sooty black hole in the sky. All around the rim of the craft the stars shone brightly in the small amount of sky still visible between the bottom edge of the craft and the hills. The craft made a very deep rumbling roaring sound which was not at all unpleasant on my ears. I had never seen anything like this, and I instantly felt that whatever it was, it had not been made on this planet. At this proximity, a huge portion of the sky was blotted out as it hovered above me. Slowly it began to fly horizontally at perhaps 30 mph towards Macclesfield. As I began to get a side on view, I could see that there were rectangular windows, perhaps 6 feet wide by 3 feet deep, with a gap of around 18 inches between each of them. A soft white light came through them. I could not see anything inside but I felt strongly that these were indeed windows. There were 11 and a half of them visible from a side on view. I counted them 3 times just to be sure. By this time my wife had followed me into the lay by and was stood watching as the craft flew slowly towards Lyme Green. No other lights were visible on this domed topped craft. I drove home in a bit of a daze and went to bed. Strangely, I don’t recall discussing it much with my wife. I’m quite sure that she was frightened by the encounter, and from then on “Ufology” became a serious bone of contention between us. I drove to work in Macclesfield the following morning. As I passed the lay by, I wondered about the amazing encounter of the previous evening. I carried on past The Fools Nook and round the sharp bend by the canal. It was then that I was shocked to see another strange craft. Approximately 100 yards up the road in front of me, a silver cylindrical object flew out of the field on my left, and on a rising trajectory of perhaps 45 degrees it flew straight across the road and off towards the hills. I could hear no sound coming from it as I sat inside my car, and there were no protrusions or obvious signs of methods of propulsion anywhere on this small car sized craft. For all the world, it looked like a large silver tin can.
The next sighting and not in any particular order involved three people who had just left the Boars Leigh restaurant at 12.45 on 1st of January 1981. They crossed Bosley traffic lights and were heading along the A523 towards Macclesfield which is about 1 mile from Fools Nook, when they noticed a very bright star that appeared to fall to the ground. A red sphere then appeared to come from the main object which had settled near some power lines, this red sphere which was around 10ft in diameter then hovered about 1 foot above the road casting a red glow over the car. There appeared to be red sparks shooting from the exterior of the craft, after a few moments another car appeared and the craft flew off. More information and photos regarding this sighting can be found at http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/dawn-dale-ufo/
Another sighting which took place in 2014 and was seen close to Manchester airport which is probably about 10 miles away from Fools Nook,and involved the sighting of a flying humanoid which was observed by the flight crew of a plane coming in to land at Manchester airport. The report appeared in the Daily Mirror, more details can be found at this link http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/bird-plane-no-its-human-4456115
A sighting took place at Henbury about 3 miles from Fools Nook sometime during 1981, the two occupants of the car witnessed a flash of light and loss of power causing the engine to cut out. This happened when they were travelling from Chelford heading towards Macclesfield and took place by the Blacksmiths Arms close to Henbury, unfortunately no more details are available at this time.
Sometime during 1974 or 75 a woman was travelling to work one morning from Knutsford to Macclesfield when she observed a landed UFO in a field, it was said to be about 8 feet in length glowing an orange colour, she stopped the car to get a better look at it, whereupon it took off vertically at high speed. More details can be found at http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/chelford-ufo/
In November 2000 a woman living at Bollinbarn, Macclesfield witnessed a strange display of coloured lights dancing in what seems to be an intelligent way around her bungalow. More details can be found at this link http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/bollinbarn-ufos/
On the 18th of August 1996 a cigar shaped UFO was seen hovering above Jodrell Bank radio telescope. This famous telescope is not many miles from Fools Nook and yet seems to attract UFOs too it. A light was observed shining down from the craft onto the dish of the telescope, the full story can be viewed at this link http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/jodrell-bank-ufos/
A woman who lives in Bollington not far from Fools Nook spotted something strange in the sky in September 1999. She described it as giving off a pale yellow light and being below cloud height, moving from side to side, hovering and then disappearing. To read the full story visit http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/bollington-cross-ufos/
Sometime during 1969-70 in the Macclesfield area, a man witnessed what he described as something looking like a silvery tennis ball making strange circular motions high in the sky before shooting off at a great speed, for more information visit http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/figure-of-8/
One day in 1979 a Mrs Frost from Macclesfield witnessed a hovering UFO only 100yards away from her front door. The full story can be found at the following link http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/hurdsfield-ufo/+
Another UFO sighting at Jodrell Bank telescope took place at 3am in the morning in 1995, this sighting involved a 40ft craft which was sending out beams of light. For more details click on this link http://macclesfieldufosociety.co.uk/local-sightings/david-lewis-centre-ufo/
one sighting of ufos in the Fools Nook area took place in the 1960s around the time of the construction of the GPO tower on Croker hill, four motorists were travelling on the Macclesfield to Leek road which passes through Fools Nook, when they saw flying saucers shoot out of the hill behind Fools Nook, they then flew to Croker hill and hovered over the building site before flying off at high speed. Two weeks later a car was waiting for the traffic lights to change at Bosley croosroads, when one of the passengers in the rear saw a silver glowing craft approach the car and hover over it. The car drove on towards Macclesfield and the object stayed over it. As the car approached Fools Nook the vehicle’s lights went out. The driver brought the car to a standstill, then the object took off at high speed, the lights came back on and the occupants of the car were able to carry on with their journey, in a state of shock but unharmed.
Here is a transcript of a sighting at Rudyard which was reported in UFO magazine and which is only a couple of miles away from Fools Nook;
On Sunday 12th of November 2000, my friend and I were driving home to Northwich after visiting family members in Lincolnshire.
Sometime between 6 pm and 6.15 pm we found ourselves by a place called, I believe, Rudyard Lake, situated between the town of Leek and the town of Rushton, Derbyshire. It was a clear chilly evening, but the visibility was good, and as the front seat passenger I enjoyed a good view of the fields and hills as we drove through the area.
I have always taken an interest in the night skies and look out for stars and planets, and any other interesting things that can often grab my attention. I was doing much the same on this particular evening when Miss Whalley and I both noticed outside her window, a shimmering grey/white object glittering at no more than roof top height.
We were only travelling at around 30 miles per hour, but this still made it difficult to determine whether the object was actually moving, but it did not appear to be that far distant from us. While Miss Whalley was concentrating on the road ahead, I began to notice that it was swaying, more or less in a fixed hovering position. Then it seemed to disappear, before suddenly coming back. Now it began to rotate, first clockwise, then anti clockwise. Then it literally split in two, sending out a smaller, but just as bright rotating object.
It was like watching a shimmering watery mirror, and the swaying movement resembled that of a jelly fish swimming gently in the sea.
A vehicle just ahead of us flashed its lights, and I feel certain that the driver was making his way up a steep incline towards the object for a closer look. Then we noticed that another vehicle had pulled over to watch. We then decided to pull over at the first available spot to check it out for ourselves.
However, I remember that we both felt a bit panicky and opted to stay inside the car. My diagrams and attached comments give a true account of what we saw.
Neither of us decided to report it that night because to be honest we both felt ill and disorientated. Even our own home felt different, less familiar. It was a feeling that lasted from about 7pm to 8pm.
While viewing the object, I used my mobile phone to call my mother and auntie to describe this amazing sight. Twice our conversation was cut off by static interference. Whether this was somehow connected to the object, I have no way of telling, but it made me nervous.
A couple of days later Miss Whalley mentioned the incident to members of her family and was really surprised to learn that many people had reported seeing a similar object that same evening in the Macclesfield area of Cheshire.
A subsequent article appeared in the Macclesfield Express newspaper on Wednesday the 15th of November 2000.
My friend and I contacted the newspaper to tell them of our experience, but they said we were three days too late. The police seemed to know nothing about how or why the object was around at that time.
Looking back, I now find the whole experience quite relaxing, and the best thing I have seen in a long time.
Miss R A McGeorge
There are many more accounts of sightings in the Macclesfield / Fools Nook area which can be viewed on the Macclesfield UFO society website.
Geology & Fault lines of the Area.
The following account is taken from the book Earthlights by Paul Devereux : One of the most dynamic and original of UFO researchers is John Keel. Keel has become convinced that the UFO enigma is one that has always existed on earth. It frequents “window areas” of the globe, he maintains, where geological conditions cause electromagnetic conditions to prevail that possibly help the phenomenon to manifest.
On page 71 of the same book there is the following account: The Canadian researchers discuss many trigger mechanisms – stellar, planetary, solar and lunar and how these might effect human bioelectrical systems and seismic and mineralogical features on Earth. These probably result in electromagnetic anomalies that might be contributory elements to a mechanism capable of producing unusual events, of which UFOs comprise one category.
After considering a large number of possibilities, Persinger and Lafreniere state that the data consistently points towards seismic related sources. Their core theory for explaining UFOs involves seismo-electricity. They point out that mankind lives on a thin shell beneath which mammoth forces operate. As their data, when closely analyzed, reveals that the majority of transient events seem closely linked with seismic movement.
The reason I have included the accounts from the above mentioned book is that there is considerable faulting above Fools Nook which may contribute in some way to the unusual activity seen in and around this area. The following account is taken from the book titled “Geology of the country around Macclesfield” and is as follows:
A considerable fault, increasing in magnitude southwards, lies to the west of the hill of Rossenclowes (overlooking Fools Nook) and may be interpreted as an outward throwing flanking fault on the western limb of the Sutton Common anticline. It is responsible for a structural discordance between the gentle easterly dips of the beds to the south of the Hill of Rossenclowes and on the west bank of Croker Hill (overlooking Fools Nook), and the southerly dips around Hanging Gate Farm (above Fools Nook).
The structure above Croker Farm (again above Fools Nook) is obscure, partly because of the drift cover. A fault throwing down to the east is thought to run north north westwards to the east of Hawkshead Quarry (next to Fools Nook), for all the features traced eastwards from around Hawkshead and Roughhey quarries and on Gawsworth Common appear to end of along this line. This fault converges northwards with a down west fault lying along the western side of the Rough Hey anticline.
Returning once more to the book Earthlights by Robert Devereux, on page 187 the following account can be found:
The research carried out by my co-workers and myself indicates that in England and Wales UFOs tend towards rural areas; they can occur in zones of peak incidence – windows – and are related to tectonic activity. All these findings are in line with results obtained by other workers in other parts of the world. It is the tectonic correlation which is crucial.
Persinger and Lafreniere state, as we have seen, that the data consistently points towards seismic – related sources in their North American studies. F. Lagarde, studying material obtained in the 1954 French wave and referring to sightings of UFOs near the ground, found in an initial survey that 37 per cent occurred on or in the immediate vicinity of faults, and that 80 per cent of the sighting localities were associated with faults.
And on page 206 of the same book we find this interesting piece of information:
Even the apparently solid UFOs, when manifesting first of all as fireball types of phenomena, or when degenerating into such appearances before flying off, are just aspects of an evolving transient atmospheric event. Even when viewed close up, the solid type of UFO often has ghostly or insubstantial characteristics. Apparent metallic UFOs can display alarmingly non – tangible aspects of themselves. UFOs seem attracted to energy sources such as vehicles and power lines and, perhaps, the energy fields surrounding animals and human beings. This gives them a spurious appearance of intelligence, as has been noted in ball lightning behaviour.
Summary
It is difficult to reach any decisive conclusion as to what is going on in Fools Nook and the surrounding area. It does seem that people are witnessing some sort of phenomena which maybe linked to seismic disturbances caused by localised faulting. This may in fact explain the cause of UFO flaps, where for many years nothing is witnessed, then all of a sudden a spate of unidentified craft are seen. It maybe that seismic pressure is steadily increasing along the fault line until such time as the phenomena manifests itself.
Also we know that at one time the Druids were active in this area, we know that they venerated the Oak tree and believed it was some sort of portal to another world. Have their ceremonies in the past linked with the faulting, human sacrifice and the ley-line that runs through this area opened some sort of a window which allows this phenomena access to our reality? This may sound far fetched but bear in mind that I have come across something similar only 5-6 miles away in a valley the other side of Macclesfield, and which I have written about on this website
https://ludchurchmyblog.wordpress.com/places-of-interest-in-cheshire/into-the-valley-of-the-demon/ .In this valley hundreds of years ago pagan worship took place along with human sacrifice, and it seems that this combination opened some sort of window allowing a demonic entity to come through and create problems for the inhabitants there, even the clergy would not enter this valley, and the people there are still skittish to this day. It maybe that something similar is taking place at Fools Nook, only here it is manifesting itself as something different and it has been taking on a different form. On the other hand I could be completely wrong and extraterrestrial life is travelling trillions of miles to visit a scattering of houses on the A523 in the Cheshire countryside known as Fools Nook!
ludchurch 