Back in December 1984, Ken Webster, a high school teacher living with his friend Nick and girlfriend Debbie in the small village of Doddleston, experienced something truly bizarre. One evening, they returned home to find a strange message on their computer, written for them by name. Their computer wasn’t even connected to any network. Over the next few months, more messages appeared. Initially thinking it might be a prank, Ken eventually believed the messages were from someone living in the same house in 1541. What transpired was astonishing.
Ken later documented these strange events in his book, “The Vertical Plane.” From the moment they moved into Meadow Cottage in Doddleston, odd things began to happen. Small, six-toed footprints would walk up the walls, and objects would be stacked into towers. One day, they came home to find a message saved on their computer:
“Thou art goodly man but hath fanciful woman who dwells in mine house.”
These occurrences weren’t just isolated incidents. Ken involved friends, such as Peter Trinder, a literature teacher who believed the messages were written in Old English. They even started communicating back to the entity, asking about its life, leading to more mysterious responses about a man named Lucas and his connection to the king and local folks.
Skeptics and true-believers have long argued about the authenticity of these experiences. Some point to inaccuracies in details such as the age of Henry VIII, while others, like Peter Trinder, argue that the archaic language was genuine. Even when paranormal researchers from the Society for Psychical Research investigated, they couldn’t crack the mystery.
The tale takes another turn when Ken finds out Lucas’s real name was Thomas Hardin and that Thomas reportedly interacted with beings from yet another time, the year 2109. These future entities warned Ken and Lucas about revealing too much about each other.
Despite many skeptics, the evidence that Ken and his friends presented was compelling. They even confirmed some predictions made by the mysterious 2109, like the solution of Fermat’s Last Theorem.
To this day, the Doddleston Messages remain a topic of intrigue and debate. Ken and Debbie’s story, documented for posterity, might one day be verified through the discovery of the mysterious book written by Thomas Hardin. Until then, it stands as one of the most enigmatic episodes of reported time communication.
