This Paranormal Life - Campfire - The Solway SPACEMAN

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Welcome to the campfire! Every Thursday in October we're dropping a mini-paranormal tale, and this week we have a strange one - the story of a mysterious visitor from outer space who appeared out of, and then disappeared into, thin air!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Campfire, short tales of paranormal mystery that live in the space between Tuesday cases. Rory, have you ever heard of the Solway Man? The Solway Man? No, I haven't. I'm not surprised. I hadn't heard of it not that long ago either. Not only because Solway sounds like Temü's version of a Segway, but it is a place here in the UK. It all started on a beautiful summer's day in 1964, almost exactly 60 years ago, in Solway, Cumbria in the north of England.

Jim Templeton and his daughter Elizabeth were on a picturesque daddy-daughter day out, walking amongst the grass in Burgmarsh, just a couple of miles from the Scottish border. They picked a place to sit and relax and maybe have a bit of a picnic. The whole thing was idyllic. Elizabeth had a fistful of flowers and was wearing a new dress. Jim just had to get some pictures. Oh yeah, look, hey, I have never experienced the pure joy of a daughter daddy day out,

but I'm assuming there's ice cream involved, a swing set in there at some point, flowers being picked, the birds are singing. It's just a beautiful, beautiful moment. Right, and it's 1964, so there's no Twitter, no Instagram, no smartphones kind of clawing for your attention like they are today. Because me on a daddy daughter day out in 2024, my screen time is 22 and a half hours a day. Wow, that's really worrying.

It's not leaving a ton of real estate for my daughter to kind of get my attention because I got to sleep sometime. There's only an hour and a half in the day for me to sleep. So sorry, sweetheart. Right. She's only an hour and a half in the day for me to sleep. So, sorry sweetheart. She's like, daddy, I drew you this picture. You're like, tweet it at me. Tweet it at me and maybe I'll see it. But I don't know if I'll even have time. Jesus. Sorry, sweetie. I've had to stop reading my DMs.

I've had to stop reading. There's too many. It's too many because it's you, it's listeners of the podcast. Well, that's work. So, honestly, sometimes they're above your messages. It is true. you are right, there is a lot of ice cream, I don't think just because I live beside the seaside. Like I said, Jim just had to get some pictures of this moment. Now I'll get some photos of you with the new dress on, he would later remember saying.

He snapped the photos on his 35mm film camera, finishing his roll and pocketed the camera as he went back to enjoying his day out. It was a quiet day. There was, in fact, no one else around, except for his wife who was on a walk and two pensioners who sat in their car back at the car park. Of course, Rory, back in the 60s, analogue film was the only way to take photographs and your photos couldn't be viewed until they were chemically developed. So Jim had no idea that he had actually captured more than he bargained for that day. Damn, okay, maybe he picked up something paranormal accidentally in those photographs?

He left the lens cap on, that's right, he shot 36 photos of pure darkness. This is something I've been even getting back into myself. I think I put up some shots recently that we took behind the scenes in the TPL headquarters. And it's a very, very foreign feeling, probably for some of our younger listeners too, the sense of like taking a photo and then having to wait maybe a week to get your photos back.

Yeah, I don't have that kind of patience, unfortunately. I'm very happy you're getting into it, but I need to see those pictures almost immediately, otherwise I'll just forget they exist. Right, I took a portrait of Rory and he was like, cool, so does this thing have FaceTune? Not even FaceApp? I'm gonna need to touch up my eyes. 100%.

So, Jim dropped off his film at the chemist like he always did, chatting casually to the woman there who told him she would have it developed quickly. But when he returned a couple of hours later, it wasn't the conversation that he was expecting. Hello again Laura, great day out there, just what I needed today. Hopefully you saw I got some great shots of Elizabeth on the marsh. I did see, too bad about that fella in the back though, spoiled some good shots I think. Who was that anyway strange looking chap fella in the background. It was just us

Elizabeth I clearly didn't know it was there or I wouldn't have taken a picture what I have Too too bad about that man with the rusty hook dangling just over your daughter's shoulder Well, if I'd known he was there Elizabeth,, I wouldn't have snapped a picture, would I? This is insane. Jim, you didn't tell me you were friends with Freddy Krueger. Freddy what? Too bad about the nine-foot ghost man in the background, holding the souls of his innocents. Time to jump into the conclusions here. We don't know what's in the background. Laura slid the developed roll of film across the counter, along with an envelope with 24

printed photographs in it. Jim quickly flipped through photos to get to the ones of Elizabeth, but he couldn't wrap his head around what he was seeing. Elizabeth was there, just as he remembered, in her dress, holding her flowers, but there was someone behind her. Behind her head in the photograph. It didn't make any sense. He remembered vividly that there was no one else around. Who on earth is that? What are they wearing? Jim said. The longer he looked at it, the less it made sense. The figure was dressed entirely in white, but not just a white shirt, but all over their neck and extending to their head. It looked remarkably like a helmet. Specifically the helmet of a space suit.

What? There was an astronaut in the field behind his daughter? Rory, check out the photo that Jim took that day. Woah! That is weird! There is a beekeeper in the background of this photograph. Holy shit. It is a little like a beekeeper now You mention it. Yeah, goddamn

And yeah, there is really no one around at all in any other corner of this picture The horizon just spans to essentially eternity So it's not like he could have popped out from somewhere either and he is kind of lodged directly behind Elizabeth's head sort, in the middle distance. So you're tempted to think this is some kind of anomaly, could it be a shape that isn't really a person? But I'll be damned, it's the middle of the bright day, so it really can't be anything else. And the more you look at it, it's clearly a person. This is an upper torso. The guy has some traps on him, decent arms, it's clearly a person. This is an upper torso. You know, the guy has, I mean, he's got some traps on him,

decent arms, he's been hitting the gym. It all goes a bit weird around the head shape because yeah, there is no face visible. This is some kind of, as you say, a bit like a beekeeper, but not quite. The face is entirely shielded by something. Unfortunately, the only conclusion I can reach at the minute is, bye-bye, Elizabeth.

What? This thing wants you, and daddy's not about to stand in his way. Right, yeah. Remember me as the, remember me for the flowers and the ice cream. That was cool. And the dress, yeah, they're going to love that on his home planet. Yeah, she's probably a couple light years away by now. I will say as well, kind of an odd one for this genre of tale where someone shows up unannounced in a photograph. For example, we did a case not that long ago on the Queen's house and the tulip staircase. Now that is a extremely classic,

maybe one of the most famous cases of a photograph taken when seemingly nothing was there, film gets developed, and then something very spooky shows up on the camera. Now, normally, I think we associate that with ghosts, but this is, I mean, I guess it could be a ghost, but as you say, the ghost of an ancient astronaut. Yeah, this dude is not transparent.

He's not even blurry. He is rock solid. That is a physical body in the background of this picture. But you know, has that happened before can it happen? Yes? We've seen similar imagery in in different paranormal cases that we've investigated and you know even quite recently, you know, I was taken to court because My body appeared in a photograph at a local petting zoo after hours

appeared in a photograph at a local petting zoo after hours and I was actually seen in the pen late at night trying to steal some of the goats obviously me being me I didn't do that and I wouldn't do that but somehow some up paranormal mystery what I was in the CCTV footage. Stealing goats. Sorry, were you naked? No, I wasn't naked. I had something on it. You said your body was visible. My human body. Not mine. Somebody's who looked a lot like me

was seen stealing goats from the petting zoo after hours. It just happened to look like me, but I didn't do it. So that's why this is, you know, sometimes weird shit happens. That sounds different to this, I'll be honest. I don't understand how that's different at all. We're seeing a stranger appearing in a photograph and I was seen butt naked stealing goats from a petting zoo.

What's different about that? But this person seeing the background of the image didn't seem to interact with reality at all. It was kind of like a fleeting visage as if it kind of just temporarily tore the boundary of the spirit world and our world. You stole goats. You took the goat away.

No, I didn't interact much either because I barely got a single goat out of the gate. Barely means you got one. Yeah, I got one or two. So you did do it then. Whoever was in the photo probably did get a goat or two. He looked actually pretty strong and cool I think I read this in the paper. Were you wearing an RKG shirt? No, like you're wearing your own merch

Seems like an amateur mistake Jim knew that this was not just a photo bomb Okay, well if it was it wasn't a guy who snuck up on them He knew that this was proof of something strange. He took it to the police in Carlisle. And then he took it to Kodak, the film company. Don't why you that's wild. Both agreed it hadn't been faked.

Why did they give him time out of their day? That's like my Xbox 360 not taking, not turning on. So I bring it to Microsoft and ask them about it. And they're like, yeah, come on in. That's crazy. Xbox 360 not taking, not turning on, so I bring it to Microsoft and ask them about it and they're like, yeah, come on in. That's crazy. It didn't start. Oh, that's weird. Hey Bill, Mr. Gates.

Yeah, we got an Xbox here that won't turn on. Can you come down here for a second? Like that's wild. Right. And he jumps up from his desk. Jesus Christ. Really? Um, you're describing the concept of a warranty.

That's exactly actually what manufacturers are legally mandated to do for their consumers. Still to this day? Well, not for your 2005 Xbox, no, but if you bought an Xbox today, yes, it would be warrantied for a couple of years, probably. Right. I get a lot of my shit from car boot sales. So I'm assuming the warranty void. I would imagine, yeah. Okay, okay.

Because if I didn't get it there, you can actually get stuff really cheap at crime scene auctions.com, where certain valuables left behind from scenes of crimes can go for massively discount prices. Why would you want that? That's why we got Phil, our editor. He was found in a crime scene.

We opened up the back of a police car, found Phil handcuffed in the back, we said, can you edit? It was like, brother, I'll do whatever you want if you get me out of these cuffs. It's a good point, but again, much like the police in hashtag Broken Britain, Kodak was at the time one of the biggest public companies in the world because they had such a kind of monopoly over the creation of film and film cameras. Rory, not only did they give him the time of day, Kodak offered a public reward for anyone who could prove this photo was faked. Mmm, I see. They smelt a little publicity stunt out of this. That was smart.

I mean, it really was smart. It's actually not even the first time we've heard of this interaction with Kodak because again, it came up in the Queen's House tulip staircase investigation. The reverend who took that photo back in the day, he also contacted Kodak and they confirmed that the photograph had not been altered. I mean, you've got to remember this is pre-Photoshop, so Kodak were really the judge, jury, and executioner of saying whether an image was real or not. Basically the Kitten Rory of deciding whether or not something's real or false.

And just like Kitten Rory, most of them were smacked on unedibles, nine to five, Monday to Friday. It wasn't a very professional operation. And maybe it was that public reward that alerted the media to the coming firestorm. They took it and ran. First the story of this photograph popped up in local papers, but eventually it went national into the Daily Mail and Express. People started writing to Jim with their own paranormal theories about whether this was some kind of spirit or maybe a

visitor from space. But the most shocking theory by far came from very far away in Woomera, South Australia. You see Rory, just a couple of days after Jim took his photo, Australia was testing blue streak missiles in Woomera. But seconds before the launch took place, technicians aborted the launch of the missiles because they reported seeing quote, two men standing in the firing range. A week or so later, when Jim's photo of the Solway spaceman reached Australian newspapers, the technicians couldn't believe what they were seeing. The figure looked exactly the same as the beings they saw near the missile. How on earth did his photo make it all the way to Australia? Was there really that little going on in the world that a photograph of a child was front-page news over the

planet? There really wasn't anything else going on? When was Vietnam? Maybe they were like, it is going badly. We need to put more little girls in the news. I had to look it up. Jesus, was the conflict in Vietnam for that long? Oh my God. It was going on all the way through this apparently. So yeah, maybe this was a bit of comic relief.

Yeah, they were like, what do you think? Do you think it was an alien or do you think it was a ghost? They were like, when are the soldiers coming home? It's like, don't worry about that. That's fine. Everything's fine over there. It's a great question. Although maybe that's why we haven't brought up America yet. Maybe America had its hands full and the papers weren't running this photo. But in Australia and England, this was all the rage. And Rory, to make matters even more strange, it turned out that the missile being tested in Australia had been built in England, only a few miles from where Jim took his original

photo of Elizabeth. What? Are you guys keeping up? This is very peculiar, almost in a way that I don't think I've seen anything quite like it in this paranormal life. So we have an original mysterious photo taken of a kind of what they dubbed the Solway spaceman in Cumbria in England. And then a couple of days later, seemingly two of these spacemen turning up in Australia at the launch of a missile that was made back where the first spaceman was seen.

That makes it a little bit less weird, if anything, because you're like, this guy turned up in the middle of this field where, yes, very closely nearby, they were building experimental missiles. And then two other guys showed up at the missile facility wearing similar clothes. It's like, yeah, if anything, that just makes more sense than ever. Well, it makes more sense if the guy was friggin human I mean he looks human to be fair I don't want I don't want anyone to think listening to this that he has more than two arms or anything

It is a human body. No How does that look like does that look like even a NASA astronaut to you? I mean, it just looks like it looks like a guy almost in either a beekeeper suit or a contamination suit Now if you want to run either a beekeeper suit or a contamination suit. Now if you want to run with a beekeeper theory, might I point out, this girl is holding a huge amount of flowers. She's holding a small bunch of flowers. What on earth are you suggesting? Bees, flowers, do I have to walk you through it bud? You somehow managed to pick the only worse theory than what I was already suggesting

You're like, please aliens that are closely monitoring Earth's defense systems. I think not I think what we have here is bees standing on each other's shoulders inside a beekeepers suit To get access to flowers a beekeeper's suit to get access to flowers. No, this is a guy in a beekeeper's suit and he's kind of running at the girl being like, no, trying to get rid of the flowers because of the sheer amount of bees in the field. She's basically dripping in honey. She's going to get destroyed. She's quietly sitting in a field.

Just a theory. That's what to get destroyed. She's quietly sitting in a field. Just a theory. That's what this is about. Since when do beekeepers stand in the detonation zone of military test missiles? That bit's a little weird. Did they have a picture of these two individuals in Australia? Allegedly, there is actually footage of this launch video. Footage that was reflective of what the technicians saw. I don't believe it's publicly available but one Dr Clark who is a doctor of folklore has studied this case and he says he

has seen the footage as part of the Ministry of Defence files. Okay okay. Clearly anything was possible in the case of the photograph of the Sulwey man. Everyone around the world had their own theories for what had happened. But if Jim was in any doubt that what had happened was significant or unusual, he wasn't after he received a knock at the door. One day Jim opened the door to two quote, men in black standing at the door asking to be taken to the spot where his photo was taken. The men accompanied Jim and only referred to each other as number nine and number 11.

No, this didn't happen. This didn't happen. They're not even trying at that point. At least call yourself agent Smith and agent Johnson Rory This is the story of the soul way space man. I mean what a twist at the end Good evening, sir. This is I'm agent hashtag. This is agent dollar sign Would you be able to take us to the location where you saw the alien? It's like I I think you guys were not supposed to say a ton of the shit you just said.

I'm Weng, he's Ding. Please take us to the site of the photo. This is crazy. Whilst it is hard to believe, even the report of the men in black coming to the door, I mean, this was documented by the BBC who did a report on this story back in 2008 and interviewed Jim Templeton before he died. You gotta love Rory. A story with a little freak in it. You don't know where he came from or where he's going.

It reminds me a little of say, the Sam Don clown. Sam the Sam Don clown. Yeah, I mean, he did a lot of shit. Sam the swamp jester, he had like a little microphone, they could describe his outfits, I think he was doing a bunch of crazy stuff in the swamp. This is just a guy! This is just a guy in a white, you can't even see half his body, he could be wearing jeans behind that head.

It's just a dude in a white jacket. Oh yeah, just a white jacket that goes entirely over your head with a metallic visor. Yeah, love those. They're really in season this year, aren't they? He's not even doing anything that kind of defies logic. He's standing in the field. He's not like floating or hovering like f***ing Zenyatta.

He's just standing there. Yeah, he is just standing there after he appeared out of nowhere, disappeared into nothing, then reappeared a couple days later at a military test site in Australia. With his buddy, yeah, of course. It was really interesting to hear about Agent 9 and 11. I didn't realise I was hosting the podcast with Agent 13. So whether you're a sceptic like Rory or a Justin Belieber like me, I hope you have enjoyed this week's episode all about the Solway Spaceman. I know I have enjoyed making it and all of these Campfire episodes up until now.

It has been a fun ride. But Rory, if you cannot get enough stories of little kind of freaks in your life, little things that just don't really make sense and men who appear out of nowhere and now that I mention it sound a bit like flashers and creeps. Forget I said that and head over to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Yeah because four years ago two little freaks appeared out of nowhere and started making content on patreon.com So if you go over there, I wish it was four years ago. Oh god hasn't been that long has it? Well, hey, maybe that that's a good thing I'm 21

It's been so long that if you go over to patreon and sign up and support this paranormal life You can get access to a huge back catalogue of content over there. You'll never be bored again in your life. There's so many episodes to uncover. Doesn't that just sound like something a Scientologist would promise you? You'll never be bored again. But that is something we can genuinely offer you here at the Commune. So patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life, the link of which is in the description of this podcast. Now here's the exciting part. This was just the penultimate episode.

Next week is going to be our final climactic episode of Campfire. Oh, oh! It's all true. It comes to a beautiful, satanic, and terrifying end next week. And we are going to be celebrating Halloween with our final episode. I can't wait. So we'll see you for a beautiful week of Halloween

celebrations back on Tuesday with another Paranormal Tale. Bye bye! You Working in the trades is intense it can be stressful and painful Some guys use drugs and alcohol to cope But when we ask for help or we see someone struggling with addiction Our silence speaks volumes. See how you can help, or get help, at Canada.ca slash ease the burden. A message from the Government of Canada.