admin In 1971, the Robson family, living in Hexham, county Northumberland, the northernmost part of England, were evicted from their home due to strange events. These events will only begin for them after the discovery of two stone heads in their garden.
The Hexham head is small, only about 6 centimeters (2 inches). One of these heads is called a “boy” due to the masculine shape of the skull, while the other is called a “girl” due to its feminine features and long hair.
According to family accounts, the chiefs traveled on their own. And that’s not all:
Hexham’s obsession with heads has only just begun.
Perhaps the most terrible event of the first days was witnessed by one of the children in the family. The front door of the house opened as they passed, and outside was a fearsome half-human, half-sheep creature. A neighbor also saw the creature outside the front door, but when the family received the baby’s cry it was gone.
Buried and Cursed
The two young boys of the family were the ones who had discovered the stones, unearthed while they were digging the garden of their family house in Hexham, Northumberland. While they reached deep into the soil, they found two small stones shaped like skulls. They seemed like carved heads, which they brought to the house to show their parents.
The Hexham heads in truth only vaguely resembled skulls, being made out of stone and quite rudimentary in design. They were spherical and had little necks, which suggests that they were connected to something bigger at some point in time.
All of the people who examined these Hexham heads gave different descriptions, but they were sure they were palm-sized. These stones were no masterpiece art but were just basic approximations of a human face.
The discovery of these stones didn’t just bring curiosity but also a sign of terror. The Robson family started experiencing paranormal activities around the house. The heads were once seen moving by unseen hands, and the bottles around the house were thrown across the rooms.
These activities were not limited to the Robson family, as the kids in their house found the stones, but also linked to the neighbor’s house. Even the neighbors reported frightening experiences. Their young son got his hair pulled by some ghost.
After the discovery was made and the news reached the journalists and newspapers, specialists in neolithic art came to study the Hexham heads. Even the experts were facing difficulties in dating these stone heads. They were examined thoroughly multiple times, but the results were always different from the last report.
The heads were generally thought to be linked back to the Celtic tradition: they resembled other examples of Celtic heads of antiquity and other Celtic artifacts. Dr. Anne Ross, an expert on such art, took on the job of researching and analyzing the Hexham heads.
But in taking on the heads she also exposed herself to the curse. Later she would outline in her reports that she saw a half-wolf, half-man figure walking around upstairs in her house. She said she followed the creature downstairs to the kitchen, after which it disappeared.
Shortly afterward, Dr. Ross’s daughter, Bernice, also experienced a similar apparition. She felt a cold figure standing behind her, most times while the stone was in her possession. Soon, it became clear to all who lived there that these Hexham stones had some supernatural influence on them. The stones were removed from the house, and the hauntings stopped.
However, nobody could have foreseen what happened next. A man named Desmond Craige came forward who claimed that he had made the stones. He said that in 1956, while he was living in the house that the Robson family occupied later, he made three of these stones for her daughter to play with.
The third of those stones were lost, while the two remained. He said he used local water, sand and stone to craft the faces.
But Craig’s statement was not immediately accepted:
he is asked to reproduce the method. He did the right thing, but his copy is much coarser than what he claims was made 16 years ago. To complicate the story, Professor Dearman, of Newcastle University, claims that the Hexham heads are artificially cast, even though they are made of solid rock.
Some scholars have spent their time with the Hexham Chiefs for several years. The heads eventually fell into the hands of the University of Southampton and were subsequently transferred to a vehicle in 1978. These stones were then thought to have been lost, as there is currently no record of the location or custodian of these heads.
What Theories Exist About Them?
As the heads were claimed earlier to have been descended from the Celtic traditions, it was presumed that the stones were cursed.
Following that, there was a theory that the stones were linked to Nordic mythology, specifically the monster known as a “Wulver”. This half human wolf man closely matched the descriptions offered by Dr Ross and her family. The Wulver in mythology was a powerful spirit but was benevolent towards all humans until they provoked him.
The townspeople of Hexham had what they thought to be good cause to fear the Wulver, however. In 1904 the town had suffered from attacks from a creature described as a wild wolf. Many at the time thought the creature supernatural, and of course the link was made between the 1970s sightings and this earlier monster.
The 1904 wolf was ultimately killed by a passing train while running away from the fields after killing livestock. Many people believed that the creature from the 1970s was the wolf who was more than a mere feral animal. The power of Hexham heads, they said, was helping the wolf to live again.
But, sadly, we have no opportunity today to study either the heads themselves or the effects they were said to have. After the stone heads were lost, the reports on such activities were also stopped.
Even though there is no proof of Hexham heads being linked to paranormal activities, and even a putative creator for the carvings, many believe they were something else. Could these crude faces have been haunted by a wolf man, and could that wolf man return?
Top Image: The Hexham Heads seemed to be guarded by a terrifying phantom figure, described most frequently as half human and half wolf. Source: Divinisphere / Adode Stock.
