By David Buttery (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Loganberry&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Loganberry (page does not exist)">Loganberry</a> (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Loganberry" title="User talk:Loganberry">Talk</a>)) - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2010201">Link</a>

Graffiti on the Wychbury obelisk (photo by David Buttery)

‘Tis the season for all things spooky and one of my all-time favourite scary films is Jacque Torneur’s 1957 masterpiece Night of the Demon. Based on the M.R. James story Casting the Runes it’s still a genuinely unsettling watch. But did you know that this film might have a link to a real crime?

Back in 2015, I started a series of posts looking at the true cases that inspired various films. One of the first I explored was the strange goings on in Lower Quinton and the unanswered question of who put Bella in the Wychelm.  It’s a series I’d like to start up again so by way of a reintroduction here’s the story of strange goings on in Hagley Wood through original news reports at the time.