The Hexham Heads
Issue #2: February 1979
In February 1972, two young brothers digging in their garden in Hexham, Northumberland, unearthed a pair of crudely carved stone heads. The discovery would trigger one of the most disturbing sequences of events in modern British paranormal research, involving multiple independent witnesses and a respected Celtic scholar who experienced phenomena she could not explain.
The Hexham Heads remain one of the most troubling cases of object-associated supernatural activity on record.
The Discovery
Colin and Leslie Robson were helping to clear the garden of their council house at 3 Rede Avenue when they found the first head, roughly the size of a tennis ball, buried about a foot below the surface. The second emerged shortly after, mere inches away.
The heads were crude but distinctive. One appeared masculine, with heavy brows and a stern expression. The other seemed feminine, with a more pointed chin and what might have been hair or a headdress swept back from the face. Both had a greenish-grey colouration and felt unusually heavy for their size.
The boys’ father assumed them to be old garden ornaments and allowed the children to keep them. Within days, the Robson household became the site of inexplicable disturbances.
The Manifestations
Objects began moving of their own accord. The heads themselves would rotate overnight, found facing different directions each morning. Glass shattered without apparent cause. The family’s young daughter woke repeatedly, claiming something was pulling her hair.
Then came the sightings.
Mrs Robson reported encountering a dark figure on the landing: “half-man, half-beast,” she later described it, moving on all fours with a loping, inhuman gait. Ellen Dodd, a neighbour in the adjoining semi-detached house, independently reported an identical creature appearing at the foot of her bed. Neither woman had discussed their experiences before giving their accounts.
The descriptions matched precisely: a large, dark, lupine entity that moved unlike any known animal.
Dr Anne Ross
The heads came to the attention of Dr Anne Ross, a respected archaeologist and authority on Celtic culture. Dr Ross initially believed they might be genuine Iron Age artefacts, perhaps ritual objects associated with the cult of the severed head practised by ancient Britons.
She took the heads to her Southampton home for study. The consequences were immediate.
Dr Ross, a scholar of international standing with no prior interest in the paranormal, later gave a detailed account of her experience. She woke one night with an overwhelming sense of dread and looked toward her bedroom door to see a figure standing there: tall, dark, covered in thick hair or fur. As she watched, it dropped to all fours and loped down the corridor.
Her teenage daughter, sleeping in another room, independently reported seeing the same creature on the stairs.
Dr Ross removed the heads from her property without delay.
The Craigie Claim
The case took an unexpected turn when Desmond Craigie, a former resident of Rede Avenue, came forward claiming he had made the heads himself in 1956, casting them from concrete as toys for his daughter. He demonstrated his technique to researchers, producing similar objects.
Yet Craigie’s explanation raises as many questions as it answers. Geological analysis of the Hexham Heads proved inconclusive regarding their composition. More significantly, Craigie’s claim does nothing to account for the phenomena that followed their discovery.
If the heads were merely concrete toys, why did multiple independent witnesses in different locations report the same lupine entity? Why did a sceptical academic with no history of supernatural experiences see something that profoundly disturbed her?
The Current Situation
The Hexham Heads have passed through several hands since the early 1970s. Their current whereabouts are uncertain. Some sources suggest they were deliberately destroyed; others maintain they remain in a private collection.
The houses on Rede Avenue have been quiet since the heads were removed. The Robson family moved away. Dr Ross continued her academic career but has remained reluctant to discuss the case.
Conclusions
The Hexham Heads case presents a genuine puzzle for researchers. The consistency of witness testimony, the independence of the observers, and the professional standing of Dr Ross combine to create a body of evidence that resists easy dismissal.
Whether the heads were ancient artefacts with accumulated ritual significance, or mid-century concrete that somehow catalysed phenomena rooted in the location itself, remains unknown. What is certain is that something manifested in connection with these objects, something that left multiple credible witnesses with experiences they could not explain.
The case stands as a reminder that certain objects may carry associations we do not understand, and that disturbing such objects can have consequences no one anticipates.