Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 11:46:30 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Underwater caves off Yucatan yield three old skeletons—remains date to 11,000 B.C.
http://www.edgarcayce.org/am/11,000b.c.yucata.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

English villagers scratch heads over mysterious gargoyles

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: English villagers scratch heads over mysterious gargoyles  (Read 81 times)
0 Members and 37 Guests are viewing this topic.
Tobias Niles
Full Member
***
Posts: 3



« on: October 03, 2007, 03:01:17 am »

English villagers scratch heads over mysterious gargoyles


Tue Oct 2, 1:18 PM ET
 


LONDON (AFP) - Villagers in northern England were left scratching their heads Tuesday after a series of mysterious gargoyle-style stone blocks were left on their doorsteps, with cryptic messages attached.



A carved stone head sits by the side of the road in the village of Kilburn in North Yorkshire. A mystery over the unexplained appearance of a string of gargoyle-style stone faces in northern England was solved Tuesday, when the artist behind them was named.(AFP/Paul Barker)

 
The sculptures, which all have a carved symbol which apparently spells "paradox" and a riddle, have been left overnight outside homes and businesses across the northern county of Yorkshire over the last few weeks.

Security camera footage caught a man leaving three of the heads outside a post office, but detectives have so far drawn a blank over who is behind the bizarre nocturnal activity.

"It's very weird. They're a bit like gargoyles really, obviously somebody has taken a lot of trouble if they have been carved," said Valerie Hoyes, who runs the post office in Braithwell where a trio of heads were abandoned.

"On the back it looks like an occult thing, it does actually spell paradox, but we don't know what any of it means."

In all 12 of the heads have been left in the villages of Goathland and Kilburn in north Yorkshire, four in Arthington in west Yorkshire, and three in Braithwell, south Yorkshire.

They are accompanied by a riddle, which reads: "Twinkle twinkle like a star does love blaze less from afar?"

George Griffiths, an artist from Arthington, has so far received two of the statues, the first one on August 23.

"I thought somebody had just dumped it, that it had fallen off the back of a lorry. But then I read the message and thought 'it's queer is this'."

"I think it's a publicity stunt -- I can't see anything else. They're not sinister or anything like that. It's just a puzzle. We're all just waiting and wondering to find out more."

Valerie Hoyes added: "We're just a bit nonplussed really, didn't know what it was all about. We just moved them away from the front of the shop and more or less forgot about them.

"It's just a bit of a quandary."
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

rockessence
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 1688


Using rocks and minerals to heal the earth and us.


WWW
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2007, 10:40:43 am »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=485046&in_page_id=1770

Solved: the mystery of the stone heads that invaded sleepy villages
 

Their mysterious appearance in sleepy English villages across the north of England has left residents baffled.

But now it appears there may be an answer to the riddle of the carved stone heads which have been slowly spreading across Yorkshire.


And like the artful carvings themselves, the possible source of the connundrum - an enigmatic artist called Billy Johnson - is equally illusive.






Riddle: The stone heads have been appearing across Yorkshire



Personal details about the sculptor are slim and efforts to contact him have so-far proved fruitless.


A spokesman was also distinctly reticent and would only say Mr Johnson was "out of the country for a few weeks" and was not contactable as he does not use a telephone or a computer.






Is this the mysterious stone carver?: CCTV shows man carrying suspicious object

Mr John's website however, reveals he is a Yorkshire-based artist who "spends a great deal of time combing beaches for fossils and rocks which he later uses in his artwork."


He is "inspired by the natural environment, his work is about cultivating a timeless essence of personality in each individual stone, rock and fossil matrix."

To date, the mystery interloper has dumped at least 13 of his curious carvings at various locations 90 miles apart across the Yorkshire countryside.

They all accompanied by the same intriguing handwritten rhyme and mystic symbol.



Snap?: Some of Billy Johnson's heads


Now, with the area in danger of looking like a miniature version of Easter Island, a clamour is growing for the conundrum of the surreptitious sculpture-spreader to be cracked.


At the latest count, 13 heads have been found - one of them in a village phone box - and seven more were reported, but then vanished.

The recipients appear to have no connection.


Each sculpture carries a tag, clearly written by the same person, saying: 'Twinkle, twinkle like a star, does love blaze less from afar?'

On the reverse side is an ancient symbol - the Chi Rho cross - with letters arranged around it to spell the word 'paradox'.


The Chi Rho cross was first used in the 4th century by the Roman Emperor Constantine as a military emblem and later became a familiar Christian logo.

So far, the link between the sculptures, the rhyme, the cross and the word paradox has defied explanation.

Several bemused villagers have turned detective in a bid to identify the dumper and discover why he is doing what he is doing.



Prolific: and some more of Mr Johnson's work




It is hoped a grainy closed-circuit television image of a man leaving three of the heads outside a post office in Braithwell, near Rotherham, in the early hours may lead to him being unmasked.


The footage has been handed to South Yorkshire Police. But unless there is evidence of a crime, the chances of detectives launching an investigation are slim.

Valerie and Mike Hoyes, who run the post office, found the heads outside when they woke up on August 23.

They checked the CCTV images from the night before and saw that a "big man with longish hair" had been captured on camera dumping the carvings at around 4am.



Mrs Hoyes said: "You can see the car drive up, the chappy gets out, and takes these three very heavy stones out of the back - you can see the suspension lift as each one is taken out.




Symbol: Chi Rho spells 'paradox'

"It's a smallish car, maybe a Peugeot 206 or similar. You don't get a front view of him, as he is bent over with the weight.


"If he didn't get a hernia then, he must have one by now. He looks to be quite mature, say in his 40s.

"I just thought, 'silly man' when I saw the pictures later in the day.

"They are a bit like gargoyles. We're just a bit nonplussed, really. It's very weird."

Measuring around 18in to 24in high, each carving has its own design.

Different types of stone, including Yorkshire limestone and red sandstone, have been used.

A mason who has seen several of the heads said they are the work of a skilled craftsman and each would have involved several hours work.

The mystery was first reported last week after six stone heads, wrapped in paper advertising a brand of German cigarettes, were left in Kilburn, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, on September 18.

Fiona Gould, who runs the Forresters Arms Hotel in Kilburn, found one on her patio.

Others were discovered outside a gift shop and a furniture workshop and in a cottage garden.

Villagers suspected a practical joker, until news arrived of the other head-dumpings across the region.

Artist George Griffiths, 77, received one head on August 23 and another two weeks later outside his home in Arthington, near Leeds. His neighbours got two.

Six others were said to have appeared in Goathland - setting for the TV series Heartbeat - before vanishing.

Still more were reported in Collingham and Selby.





Stony gaze: Valerie Hoyes with the three heads left outside her post office in Braithwell


Mr Griffiths said: "I thought someone had just dumped them, but then I read the message and thought, 'That's queer.'

"My wife said don't bring them inside because they are a bit sinister, but I think it's harmless.

"I originally thought I was the only person to get one and that someone was playing a joke on me, but it's a real mystery."


« Last Edit: October 03, 2007, 10:53:52 am by rockessence » Report Spam   Logged

ILLIGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM

Thus ye may find in thy mental and spiritual self, ye can make thyself just as happy or just as miserable as ye like. How miserable do ye want to be?......For you GROW to heaven, you don't GO to heaven. It is within thine own conscience that ye grow there.

Edgar Cayce
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy