"Tharr'int rayt!" Part 1. Derbyshire Forteana from 2020
Examples & anecdotes of Fortean-like Shenanigans and Downright Oddness in Derbyshire during Spring and Summer of 2020
There was nothing normal about 2020, and yet it had a distinctly more bizarre tang to it for some, including me.
I went binning and support driving from late March 2020. It meant early starts and free reign of the city until everyone else woke up about midday to buy more beer and carry on getting leathered on furlough payments.
Things were getting quite weird and a tad ‘anomalous’ before March 2020, but went next-level by April.
I found some crumpled up papers covered in my scrawl which turned out to be a draft run of documenting some of what I witnessed and what I was told. I also found notes when I attempted to tidy up my Google Drive. There was a lot more, but those note books I jotted stuff in got inadvertently thrown out during the house move.
The Pre-Covid Mini Pandemic of Christmas 2019
I picked up a cold mid-December 2019 that got progressively worse. Initial symptoms were a persistent cough, headache, burning eyes and runny nose.
By Day 3, symptoms included loss of taste, fatigue, fever, sweating, difficulty with breathing, loss of appetite, diarrhoea and delirium.
About a third of all staff at work were suffering and the most severely affected were those who had recently received the annual seasonal flu vaccine (myself included).
Those of us who went to a GP surgery due to concerns regarding specific symptoms were told it was ‘just a bad cold’ and we would quickly recover.
Many of us still had the symptoms in mid-January 2020 including tiredness & fatigue, headaches, lack of appetite, aching limbs and a burning sensation around the eyes.
This illness, although UK-wide, was surprisingly selective. It would severely affect 1 or 2 members of a household but other family members remained in good health and developed none of the symptoms.
February - April 2020 & The Derby ‘Poltergeist Explosion’
Witnessed:
I was sent to a job in Normanton, Derby, and invited into the house by a couple in their early 30s. I took my shoes off and sat down. The table lamp flickered and then goes out and a small glass ornament flies across the room and smashes against the wall. There is a heavy thud upstairs like a wardrobe being pushed over and then a young girl yelling from upstairs ‘Mum, it’s happening again!’. Another (female?) child upstairs is squealing and then starts crying. Mum goes upstairs to see to the children. Dad looks frightened and embarrassed, and slightly relieved when I say I’ll pop back later in the week. I didn’t, I sorted the job out by phone. February 2020.
Tiles from a house roof in Normanton, Derby shower down onto the road and pavement on a dull, still, overcast day February 2020. No one injured, paint and body damage to a parked car. Other witnesses included two elderly men and a group of youths. None of us quite knew what to make of the situation and we cleared the broken tiles from the road. One of the youths went to find the owner of the car.
Several recently emptied and returned wheelie bins suddenly smashed together and skidded across the pavement onto the middle of the road in Normanton, Derby, April 2020 at about 7.15am. This was witnessed by myself and several residents who join me in a chorus of Fucking Hell’s and helped me put the bins back. The crew thought I was having a row and came to my aid. We explained what just happened and the crew joined us with more Fucking Hell’s.
Oakwood, Derby, April 2020. Delivering bins to new build houses we witness a broken plastic bucket bounce down the road accompanied by a sheet of polythene writhing and twisting behind it on a still, slightly overcast afternoon.
Whilst parked up awaiting instructions from the Refuse Office, we watched an abandoned shopping trolley slowly move up the pavement in Sinfin, Derby and drop off the kerb onto the road. It continued to trundle down the Close and stopped moving outside a driveway. None of us wanted to go and investigate. Cloudy, still day, 9am approx., April 2020.
Anecdotal:
A resident of Allestree, Derby, noticed that his car was missing from his driveway one morning in February 2020. A neighbour living much further down the road approached him to say his car was parked on their front lawn. There was no damage to the vehicle and no sign of anyone breaking into it. There were no tyre marks on the lawn until the owner attempted to drive the vehicle off.
Several witnesses observed ‘balls of water’ appear and burst suddenly in mid-air in the living room of a house in Chaddesden, evening, February 2020.
An elderly man was suddenly hit by and drenched in water whilst walking his dog on Racecourse Park, Derby. The dog apparently panicked, bit the man and then ran off. The incident took place on a large, wide, flat grassed area and there was no one else nearby. Mid-afternoon, February, 2020.
Dozens of keys, coins and small stones were found around the front of a house in Allestree, Derby after the residents were woken up by the sound of ‘objects being thrown at the house’, early morning March 2020. A similar incident allegedly occurred at a house near the Royal Derby Hospital around the same time.
Litter blowing down roads as if part of a ‘mini-twister’ witnessed by street cleansing operatives and residents occurring in several streets of Normanton over a couple of still, overcast days, late March 2020.
A child’s garden trampoline went missing from a back garden and was discovered in the branches of a large tree further down the road. There were no high winds noticed the previous evening and the garden was surrounded by high fences and a locked gate. Sunnyhill, Derby, April 2020.
‘A driver-less car without the lights on’ is said to have been witnessed by several youths slowly going down Marlborough Road, Allenton, Derby about 3am, April 2020. It stops for a while and then continues towards Adrian St where it bumped into the kerb. It apparently successfully navigated speed bumps on its crawl.
A women went to investigate ‘a commotion’ coming from her kitchen in Little Chester, Derby and found everything covered in water, including her distressed dog lying in its bed. There were no other signs of damage, after checking the plumbing, washing machine and boiler. Cleaning up the kitchen, the water is said to have left a sweet/sour smelling odour for several hours ‘like milk about to go off’. Midnight, April, 2020.
Five Lamps area, Derby. Bin crews told of recently emptied bins ‘chucking themselves into the road’ 7.30am approx. April 2020.
Several people claim to have been ‘pushed over’ whilst walking down South St and Vernon St during the day time and evening. One person felt like they were being followed immediately before they were pushed, although the street was empty and no one was behind them. March/April 2020.
Thousands Of Massed Family Walking Groups Marching Around Parks
The first Sunday after they announced the first lockdown, Rach got a call from her sister about 9am asking if we’d like to go for a walk up to Allestree Park with them. It was a tad unusual, but so was everything else going off at that time.
They turned up about an hour later, including our two sleepy-eyed teenage nieces and off we set up to the park. We chatted away and I started noticing other family groups heading towards the park. Then more. There were hundreds of families converging on Allestree Park.
Inside the actual park, the paths were an oozing mass of groups of people trying to avoid other groups of people. Just walking around, not seeming to talk, just trying to weave away, past, but definitely not through, other groups.
I was getting a little weirded out by all this so I suggested we ‘go off road’ and walk through the golf course. There were still dozens of family groups wandering about in this part of the park too. As we got to one of the highest points at the top of the golf course we looked down and across at thousands of people trudging all over the grounds in small groups. More family groups were spilling out from the top car park behind us to join in. There seemed no point or purpose to it, but we were all determined to ‘go for a walk in the park’.
Animals Doing Weird
Witnessed:
A small herd of Roe Deer wandering up our road from the direction of the A38 Little Eaton roundabout at about 5am on several mornings in April 2020. They were aware of my presence but were neither scared or paid much attention to me. They continued to nibble on the short grass verges as they went past me as I stood on our driveway.
Large groups of Treecreepers (Certhia familiaris) crawling up and down walls and pavements during the day across Derby, April 2020 seemingly oblivious to myself or other members of the bin crew.
Parliaments of Tawny Owls and Short-Eared Owls perched in trees together until about 9am each morning. Spotted most mornings in various locations across Derby in April and May 2020.
During the first 2 weeks of lockdown three Tawny Owls would be perched in the tree outside our house every morning. They would look mildly interested in me if I went up close to the tree and would watch me getting into my car and drive off to work.
Various bird species, including thrushes, sparrows and blue tits were unusually fearless and ‘overly familiar’. On breaks some bin crew members were feeding wild birds by hand.
Vast numbers of various bird species flying around or chilling on rooftops, front gardens, verges and streets.
Stoats and weasels spotted in broad daylight in various outlying suburbs of the city, April and May 2022
Swarms of bees that you heard before you saw them. As the weather continued to improve throughout April 2020 and the mornings got lighter these mass formations of bees were spotted earlier.
One particular morning I thought there was a swarm close by in the small shrub bed in our front garden due to how loud the thrumming was. They were actually over the jitty (alleyway) to us hovering over a brick wall covered in a large-leaved variegated ivy cultivar. I estimated this swarm of honey bees to be about 4m in length, 2m high in the middle and tapering to about 1m high at each end.
Various dragonfly species flying through the city centre and other locations, usually in groups of 4 or 5 and sometimes more in the mornings of (possibly late April,) May and June 2020.
Corvids, particularly crows and jackdaws involved in (what I can only describe as) ‘having a laugh’.
About 9 crows playing a version of football with a discarded tennis ball on a suburban cul-de-sac. Beaks and feet were used to move the ball about and small localised brawls broke out throughout the game.
Jackdaws taking it in turns to slide/skid down a roof and try to stop at the guttering by their talons. This involved about 15 birds whilst many more watched from a nearby mature oak tree.
Groups of jackdaws and crows having some kind of ‘dance off’ on Darley Park. This seemed to involve each competitor strutting, hopping, gesticulating with wings, head movements and various squawks, trilling and purring noises. There were about 50 birds in this group, jackdaws on one side and crows on the other.
Anecdotal:
‘A large, muscly white horse’ was seen galloping without a rider heading north up the A6 between Belper and Ambergate, early morning, April 2020.
A group of crows dive-bombed and attacked a jogger and his dog at Shipley Country Park, Heanor, April 2020
Huge flocks of birds flying across the city, perched in trees or stood on verges, in gardens and over playing fields, roads and car parks.
‘A white horse’ seen grazing on Oscar Park Recreation Field, Allenton, Derby by local residents, early morning, April 2022. There is allegedly phone footage of this.
Several incidents of deer herds roaming through various towns in Derbyshire and across the UK, many filmed and shared on social media, April 2020
Dogs allegedly regularly barking and howling en masse down certain streets of Chaddesden, Allenton, Normanton and Alvaston in Derby, usually between 11pm and 4am, March and April 2020.
‘Herds of bats’ and ‘massive flocks of bats’ reported flying after sunrise across Derby by several bin crews, April 2020.
Several ‘toad invasions’ around the Derwent and Amber river valleys. Roads, paths, and gardens ‘covered’ in toads, April 2020
‘Packs of foxes’ spotted across Derby between 5am and 9am by bin crews, April, May, June 2020.
Foxes allegedly ‘leaving food’ on doorsteps in the Sinfin, Sunnyhill and Littleover areas of Derby as well as in the outlying towns of Belper, Ilkeston and Clay Cross, April 2020.
Hares spotted on grass verges and playing fields across Derby by bin crews, April and May 2020.
‘Crows playing games’, ‘jackdaws coming into our house’, ‘the magpies keep bringing us gifts’ as told by various crew members, April and May 2020.
‘A big white horse and a smaller dark-coloured horse’ with no saddles or riders seen at the top of Shining Cliff Woods, Ambergate, April 2020.
Large groups of owls spotted across Derbyshire during the daytime, April and May 2022
‘Unusual’ activity of various bird species across Derbyshire, April and May 2020. ‘The birds were being fucking weird again this morning’ was a familiar phrase from bin crews in April 2022.
‘Huge bee swarms everywhere’ as reported by Derby City Council bin crews late Spring/Summer 2020.
Pulsating Flying Beach Balls & Other Aerial Anomalies
Did I actually see what I saw? Was it in my head? How come other people claimed to see the same things if my brain was just playing tricks on me.
Witnessed:
It was April and still dark but the sky was lightening up to the East. I’d got up earlier than usual to go sit in the garden with a coffee and stare into space.
I heard a soft, low trilling/purring sound above me and stood up to watch a mostly light-pink coloured sphere go across directly above me, followed by two more, heading towards the direction of Chaddesden over the river.
They appeared to be about 10m up in the air so I presume they were about 2m in diameter. They disappeared over the rooftops going in a straight line., except for the third one which veered slightly to the left before swerving back onto the same course as the other two.
For some reason, I got the distinct impression they were ‘fleshy’ and organic. As I stated, they were predominantly a soft-pink blush, but with definite hints of yellow and various shades of red and dark.
When you work on the bins in Derby, you get Mondays off. Rachel had been furloughed and the weather started to become glorious, so we took advantage of this, and the fact there were several bridleways and footpaths nearby that took us out of the City boundary and into the countryside.
One Monday we got up early and headed off through the park and over into the hills between Quarndon and Duffield. It was a bright and still, sunny morning. No one about.
Just as we got over a stile and trudged through a field of young, green barley we noticed a cloud slowly forming over a copse of trees, predominantly hawthorn and ash. The sky was bright blue and clear, there were clouds far to the West on the horizon in the Staffordshire hills.
When we got nearer, the cloud was sending water vapour down into the trees and covering us in a light film of moisture. This little low-lying cloud then dissipated but left the leaves and grass covered in water. May 2020.
‘What’s up with them clouds, man!’ ‘Must be lightning or summat’. ‘Can’t here no thunder or owt.’
We watched the bottoms of some early morning low clouds flicker with light. The clouds appeared to be moving in a slightly different direction to the rest of the clouds higher up in the atmosphere. ‘That’s fucking weird, man’. We continued to get the bins emptied. April 2020.
Anecdotal:
Crew members come to work claiming to have seen pulsating beach balls flying over Chaddesden in a South Eastern direction on several mornings.
Several residents of Chaddesden also claim to have seen ‘flying balls’ going in a South Eastern direction on several mornings. The noise emitted is said to be difficult to describe, but ‘soft sounding’.
‘Balls of light’ are claimed to have been seen moving around Shining Cliff Woods, Crich Moor Woods and Lea Woods early mornings and evenings by several witnesses over a period of 3-4 weeks in April 2020.
‘A massive thick lump of meat’ is spotted hovering over houses in Oakwood, Derby before heading off towards the North West, early morning, April 2020
‘Glowing yellow orbs’ are witnessed by two early morning dog walkers hovering in the tree canopy in Allestree Park, Derby before moving out of site further into the woods. The dogs were spooked and refused to go any further. April 2020.
In Part 2 I will share some bizarre anecdotes involving strange people, strange behaviour, people who didn’t quite look like they were real, the shocking amount of food waste we collected during April 2020, and the 33.3333% Tribes we encountered on the rounds.