The Phantom Army of Haverah Park

Haverah Park, spelled Havarah in the 1812 report, lies about 3 miles west of Harrogate, in Yorkshire. It was once a royal chase. In 1812 it formed part of the estate of Sir John Ingleby, Bart. Britain was at war with Napoleonic France. Ten days before the sighting, the United States had declared war on Britain too.

Sunday, 28 June 1812. Between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. Anthony Jackson, a farmer aged 45, was looking after cattle with Martin Turner, the 15-year-old son of William Turner, farmer. At some distance they saw "a large body of armed men, in white military uniforms, in the centre of which was a person of a commanding aspect dressed in scarlet." The ranks extended four deep over an enclosure of 80 acres.

The soldiers performed various evolutions, then the whole body moved forward in perfect order towards the summit of a hill. It passed the two men at about 100 yards. A second body followed, far more numerous, dressed in a dark-coloured uniform. It marched after the first to the top of the hill, where the two forces joined. They passed down the opposite side and disappeared.

Then a column of thick smoke spread over the plain. The Leeds Mercury called it impervious. It hid the scene. From the first appearance to the clearing of the smoke, the witnesses supposed, little more than five minutes had passed. No sound is recorded. Only ranks, uniforms, movement and smoke.

The Leeds Mercury reported the case on 18 July 1812. The appearances, one account says, "created a great sensation among the superstitious, who considered them as ominous of the great waste of blood by Britain in her wars with America and France." No magistrate, clergyman or scientist is recorded as investigating. The press report is the only contemporary record. The Edinburgh Annual Register for 1812 reprinted it in its chronicle under 14 August.

Over a century later, Charles Fort listed "phantom soldiers" at Havarah Park, near Ripley, in New Lands (1923). He dated them 28 October 1812, citing the Edinburgh Annual Register. The October date may be a misreading of the newspaper's "28th ult." Later retellings drifted further. One puts the troops in the sky, in the morning. Another moves them to the brow of the hill in Beckwithshaw.

Fort summarised the debate. "When such appearances are explained by meteorologists, they are said to be displays of the aurora borealis. Psychic research explains variously. The physicists say that they are mirages of troops marching somewhere at a distance." No hoax has ever been alleged.

Havarah Park belongs to an old tradition of phantom armies in northern England. At Souterfell in Cumberland, on 23 June 1744, about 26 witnesses watched spectral horsemen for over two hours. Spectral troops were reported at Stockton in the Forest, Yorkshire, in 1792. Thomas Hanley retold the 1812 story in the Yorkshire Folk-Lore Journal in 1888, and Northern Earth reprinted it in 2009. It has since resurfaced in Halloween features.