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Verneys Phil Chamberlain
Dargle Cottage is situated about a mile and a half south-
east of the village of Biddenden in Kent. It is an old
woodcutters' cottage dating back to the period of the Battle
of Waterloo. It is described in the estate agents' hyperbole
as "a Hansel and Gretel cottage" and is set in a mini nature
reserve. An elderly couple, the Verneys, had bought the
cottage in 1969 as a weekend holiday home and planned to
make it their full time home when they retired in 1983.
The Verneys had started young, working in the theatre. They both
did National Service and served in the Second World War. Mr.
Verney in the signals section of Fighter Command; Mrs.
Verney in ENSA, entertaining the troops. After the war Mr.
Verney worked in films and television, and is a founder
member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.
Both Mr. & Mrs. Verney were for 25 years directors of the most
prestigious firm in the high-class furnishing textile
business, a company founded by Mrs. VerneyUs French father
in 1898, which holds the Royal Warrant.
The Spring and early Summer of 1983 passed agreeably. Refurbishing
the house - new curtains and covers and a new bathroom was
planned. They also spent time testing for the Good Food
Guide - Mr. Verney had been an inspector for 25 years.
Retirement seemed almost too enjoyable to be true.
It was not to last for long. On the 1st of October a visitor
noticed a strange humming noise coming up through the ground
in the garden at the back of the house near the entrance to
Sand Pit wood. The visitor took his dog for a walk in the
woods; it appeared ill at ease.The woods were usually alive
with the sound of birdsong and of small feet scattering
across the leaves. Now it was silent. The birds had left and
were not to return the following Spring. The Verneys went
on holiday to France for 3 weeks. On their return to Dargle
Cottage on the 25th they found that the humming had
increased and was accompanied by a strong electronic noise,
like a generator, with vibrations coming up through the
ground from Sand Pit wood. The noise was worst at night.
There was another strange feature - the woods to the north
east were often lit up at night by yellow and pink lights
which appeared to shine up through the trees from the
ground. Described by Mr. Verney as "similar to lights
illuminating a theatre cyclorama". Another odd thing they
discovered - someone had blocked their drains with lumps of
asphalt.
The noise and the vibrations, and the unnerving effect of the
strange lights were making life intolerable in the cottage.
The Verneys were kept without sleep night after
night and were becoming irritable with each other. They also
suffered short term loss of memory. Forgetting things -
finding the car-keys could be a major drama. At first they
thought that the problem might be of an agricultural nature.
They walked at night trying to track down the source, but it
was like a will-of-the-wisp, disappearing into the ground as
they approached it. Mr. Verney checked out the Water
authorities, thinking it might be a pumping operation; he
drew a blank there. One night in the third week of
November, while they were out on foot, they met a police
patrol car. The two officers in the vehicle also heard the
noise and thought it came from Shorts Wood, which is the
next wood to the south-east of Sand Pit Wood. The officers
agreed to put the matter on report at the police station.
Next day Mr. Verney visited Tenterden Police station and
found the duty sergeant most unhelpful, talking to Mr.
Verney whilst staring out of the window. He stated that
nothing had been put on report and the Police had no
responsibility in the matter. He referred Mr. Verney to the
Environmental Health Department of the Ashford Borough
Council, adding as a footnote TAnd theyUre bloody uselessU.
On Monday, the 28th November Mr. Verney telephoned the
Environmental Health Officer for the area, a Mr. Read, but
he was not available. Mr. Verney left his number, but after
three weeks and despite further calls and a letter there
was no response by Mr. Read. After a short break to visit
their daughter in Derbyshire they returned to find a further
escalation of the problem and still no response from the
EHO, Mr. Read. On the week-end of December 17/18th there was
a sudden shortfall in electricity. Electricity officials
seemed edgy after they were told the location of the house.
At 8 AM on Tuesday the woods were full of electrical
engineers, with about six vehicles. The Area Engineer Mr.
Green explained they were putting Tmore power in the linesU.
Before he left he asked if he might come back after
Christmas and put some instruments in the cottage Tto take
measurementsU, but he made no further contact. The
electricity supply returned to normal, but the lights would
dip after one minute.
The Verneys' ThorrorU continued. They contacted a firm
of acoustic engineers. An engineer came to the house
one wild rainy evening and picked up some strong
readings coming from less than a mile away to the east. He
said the matter would be reported to the EHO. Late in the
afternoon the next day, 21st December, Mr. Read phoned. He
was very evasive and declared there was nothing he could do
until Tafter ChristmasU. Next day, at his wife's pleading
Mr. Verney rang Mr. Read who was even more evasive and
finally hung up on Mr. Verney stating he would be in touch
Tearly in the new yearU. After this brush-off Mr. Verney
went to London to try and contact some experts, but they
were closed for the holiday. He did however find a kind of
electrical Told curiosity shopU in the Tottenham Court Road.
Explaining the problem to two assistants they said in unison
"sounds like youUre having trouble with the Ministry of
Defence", adding "You wonUt get anywhere with them". They
introduced him to a customer in the shop as "being just the
man you want, bit of a mad scientist, but heUll track down
your trouble for you". Mr. Verney arranged with this man to
come down to Kent after Christmas. Before entering the shop
it had never occurred to Mr. Verney that the MOD might be
involved - perhaps this explained the EHOUs reluctance and
the sloppiness of the Police Sergeant.
During his searches
around the area Mr. Verney had come across a building called
TOctober FarmU three quarters of a mile to the east of
Dargle cottage. Built recently, planning permission had been
granted in 1981 for an Tagricultural dwellingU. Mr. Verney
found the building to be unusual in several ways. Firstly it
stood out of character for the area. It was of a purely
utilitarian design with no effort to defer to traditional
design like other houses in the area. It was two stories,
with ground floor windows only at the front and back. Thick
curtains hung in the windows which Mr. Verney suggests are
of a type not found in domestic house but at high security
premises. It was surrounded by two very high hedges making
it impossible to view the house without entering its drive.
There was a bunker in the front of the house, covered in
grass. Apart from a few beehives there was no sigh of
agricultural activity. On Christmas Eve Mr. Verney was
looking at the rear of the premises through binoculars and
was confronted by the lady of the house who dropped the
information that "we breed Dobermans here, you know". After
Mr. Verney explained what he was looking for she laid the
blame at the door of the timber-yard. Subsequently Mr.
Verney noticed a large wicker cage at the rear of the house
containing four dogs, but no puppies. For the VerneyUs the
name of the house, TOctober Farm', was too much of a
coincidence considering the 1st of October was the day their
troubles started. He took to referring to TOperation
OctoberU in all his correspondence with Ashford Council.
This seemed to have a curious effect - the swinging sign
TOctober FarmU was removed and replaced by TOrchard FarmU.
Christmas was terrifying for the couple, sleep impossible.
In the early hours of Boxing Day they observed three low
flying satellites flying north-west to south-east. Each had
lights on three corners. Their appearance was always
accompanied an increase in the humming.These were to become
a regular feature. Totally exhausted by the TYuletideU
attack they went to rest in a hotel in Sussex. It was now
clear to them that no one was going to help them so they
decided to look for another house to move to. They found
another property on the 29th December. They had been driven
from what is a perfect retirement home. The Police, Council,
Seeboard etc. had effectively left them to their fate. When
they returned they were greeted by the noise and vibrations
going hammer and tongs. In the early hours of January 5th
Rsomething new manifested itselfS. No noise but an
excruciating pain in the temples and top of the head which
Mr. Verney described as Rbeing bored with a Black &
DeckerS.This seemed to be a kind of beam from which there
was no escape except to duck under the duvet. It left them
feeling disorientated, Mrs. Verney suffering the most. An
Orwellian welcome to 1984.
The next day the EHO made his
first appearance. Mr. Verney thinks that he was checking how
they were standing up to what can only be described as a new
instrument of torture. Mr. Read refused to enter the house
and they stood talking in the garden (in January). Instead
of speaking directly to Mr. Verney he would stand by his
side and speak out of the corner of his mouth Rlike a
conversation in a prison exercise yardS. He refused to take
any action about the pollution, walked about twelve yards
down the lawn, stared into the woods for a few minutes, and
declared: RI can hear nothingS, and left. He was to make two
subsequent visits. Each time it was the same procedure,
talking out of the side of his mouth, a stroll down the
lawn, tracing his footprints so that there were three
imprints of his gum-boots on top of each other for twelve
yards down the lawn.
January was an unbroken stream of
vibrations and noise, the painful TbeamU, lights going on
and off in the woods and three satellites passing overhead.
On the 18th of January Mr. Verney brought the electronic
scientist down from London. Whilst having lunch in a pub in
Biddenden the car was broken into and cheque book and
current bank statement stolen. They had only just unloaded
the scientistUs equipment,when the EHO arrived, somewhat
agitated. Invited into the house he addressed the scientist
by name, exclaiming RwhatUs going on here?S He regarded the
recording equipment with alarm, and made off very quickly -
but not before summoning Mr. Verney into the garden for
another of his strange alfresco conversations. Over the next
seven hours whilst the scientist made his recordings
Reverything went off the airS. Nothing to record, the
scientist called it a day and Mr. Verney drove him back to
London. Minutes after they left, alone in the house, Mrs.
Verney was subjected to an unnerving display of lights. As a
consequence her hair went white. The night of January 20th
was appalling and Mr. Verney pleaded with the duty officer
at Ashford to come and help him, he said the matter would be
referred to the EHO. Mr. Read however was never seen again.
The next afternoon there were loud bangs in the woods until
the late evening. At about 3 PM the lady at October Farm
phoned and asked if he could hear the bangs. She seemed very
concerned but the line was cut off and when Mr. Verney rang
directory inquiries they had no number for October Farm. Mr.
Verney again rang Ashford but Mr. Read was not there and Mr.
Saunders, apparently his superior, could not be persuaded to
come out and investigate. A few days later they were due to
go to Scotland and the night before they were Rattacked
unmercifully with the beamS. The police were called, a
patrol car came to the house and the two officers were most
concerned with the state of Mrs. Verney - who was close to
collapse. Everything had subsided while the patrol car was
in the area and started up again when it left. When they
drove up to Scotland along the East Coast route Mr. Verney
experienced a strange burning feeling when they neared RAF
and USAF bases. Mrs. Verney found that she could Rpick up
transformers from some distance with buzzing in her earsS.
While at Aviemore Mrs. Verney awoke in the night with
stomach cramps and vomiting, the first of many such attacks.
These are described in an MOD manual as symptoms of
irradiation. Most of February and March were spent away from
the cottage, including two weeks in the Caribbean. Mr.
Verney was desperately ill with back pains and could
scarcely stand up, let alone walk. Returning to Kent they
found that concrete had been inserted in the drainage pipes.
They put the house up for sale and quickly found a buyer for
this attractive cottage. Nothing was said of the real
reasons for their desperation to sell. Any comeback would be
the EHOUs problem. Their last weekend at the house was May
18th-20th. Their daughter and a colleague who worked with
her on the Daily Express came to stay and help pack up. At
about 1.30 AM on Sunday Mr. Verney was woken up with a
burning feeling in his eyes. From then until 7 AM they
experienced a terrifying ordeal. Vibrations tore through the
ground and into the house shaking it violently. There was
the sound of men shouting and dogs barking. Eugenie, their
daughter, was Rterrified out of her witsS and suffered short
term loss of memory and was off work for a week. Her
colleague was taken ill on the motorway driving back to
Derbyshire, fortunately close to a service station. They
moved to Sussex later that week and throughout the summer
Mrs. VerneyUs health rapidly declined. She was, Mr. Verney
says, Rdying in front of my eyesS. At the end of August she
was diagnosed as having a rare form of lymphatic leukaemia.
She went into operation with only a 10% chance of recovery,
but pulled through and then had to endure months of
chemotherapy. It left her an invalid and her health finally
collapsed when she had a stroke in June 1991. She never got
to wear the new walking boots she bought when she retired in
May 1983. Mr. Verney lost most of his teeth in one go which
his dentist attributed to irradiation. He also developed a
condition which resulted in the over-production of red blood
cells and suffered severe damage to the lumbar region and
spinal area which became more painful with the passing of
time. He now has great difficulty walking. Back in the
summer of 1983, before they moved to Kent, they both had
medical checks as part of a pension scheme and had come
through them very well. Yet less than a year later they were
both virtual invalids.
On leaving Biddenden they left no
forwarding address, and due to a misspelling of his name on
his driving licence they felt safe that they could not be
traced to their new house. They made sure that they posted
mail concerning TOperation OctoberU from well outside their
postal area. On 1st October 1984 he sent a letter to the
Deputy Prime Minister, Viscount Whitelaw, recorded delivery
from a sub-post office. About ten days later someone visited
this post office and quizzed the postmaster about Mr.
VerneyUs address, which he did not know. On the 1st November
from his study window he observed two uniformed policemen
examining his car. They were somewhat put out when he opened
the door and asked what they were doing. One of them
volunteered that he had been in the Kent police and was
always interested in Kent number plates. Shortly, while he
was away in London visiting his wife in hospital, his house
was broken into. Now began years of harassment, break-ins
and interference with the mail and telephone which continues
today. Mr. Verney lays the blame for this on Willy Whitelaw.
Over the years Mr. Verney has pursued this matter in the
search for justice, a campaign which has put him in touch
with many other people who have suffered in the same way. We
hope to devote a further article to Mr. VerneyUs quest for
an explanation for what he has suffered.