Tring

And it isn't even a shadow at all.

The Black Dog of Gobblecoat Cross, Tring, Hertfordshire, 1751.

And now we come to an account that isn't folklore.

Or rather, we come to one where the folklore grew up on top of something that genuinely happened to people whose names we know in a place you can drive to this afternoon.

I've saved it till last because I think it's the darkest thing in this episode and because I wanted you to know how these stories work before I showed you this one.

Tring in Hertfordshire, 1751, There was an old woman in the parish called Ruth Osborne, and a rumour got about, a usual rumour, the one that had been getting old women killed in this country for 200 years, that she was a witch.

It was during this period, the witchcraft act that had made it a hanging offence had been repealed 16 years earlier.

The law had moved on.

And so he clambered back onto the Norseman, determined to get to Paris that day.

So this theory is that the plane took off from RAF Bovington, which is very close to Hemel Hempstead, southeast of Tring and northwest of Watford.

It then somehow crashed into the Chiltern Hills.

Even without the evidence uncovered by Sprague, this strikes me as an odd theory.

It's in a field.

It's at Champneys in Tring, which sounds very posh, but it's in the grounds of Champneys.

So by the time this podcast goes out, that would have happened and finished and we'll be approaching the next podcast where Hannah can tell you all about it.

Yes, exactly.

So she was actually lucky that hers wasn't cancelled.

But she was just quite delayed.

Nevertheless she is in Tring.

She is at Ideas Fest.

And throughout her career, she published over 80 scientific papers, which is a lot of writing.

Um, but her plaque now has been put in the Natural History Museum in Tring, which is in Hertfordshire, where she was officer in charge for three years.

Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

Really impressive.

John Palmer, the guard, was able at the inquest to give some evidence which threw a little light upon the matter.

There was a spot between Tring and Cheddington, according to his statement, where on account of some repairs to the line, the train had for a few minutes slowed down to a pace not exceeding eight or ten miles an hour.

At that place it might be possible for a man, or even for an exceptionally active woman, to have left the train without serious injury.

It was true that a gang of platelayers was there, and that they had seen nothing, but it was their custom to stand in the middle between the metals, and the open carriage door was upon the far side, so that it was conceivable that someone might have alighted unseen, as the darkness would by that time be drawing in.

But what the second stage had been, or how the final one had been arrived at, neither the guard nor the experienced detective officers could suggest.

A careful examination of the line between Willesden and Rugby resulted in one discovery which might or might not have a bearing upon the tragedy.

Near Tring, at the very place where the train slowed down, there was found at the bottom of the embankment a small pocket testament, very shabby and worn.

It was printed by the Bible Society of London and bore an inscription.

Where are you? What do you do? And what is this team all about this

week? So I'm in a little town called Tring in Hertfordshire.

Sounds like a bike ring.

I work for a hospice charity.

Well, that's fun.

Well, you're very welcome to the show this week.

Tring, tring to you.

So some facts about you that I've learned is that you can burp on command.

It will be good.

And then we're in Tring.

Right.

We're at the

So, Denby Theatre.

Denby.

In Tring.

In Tring.