The Hollinwell Incident


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I remember the incident clearly , and your thread seems to have covered all the possibilities discussed at the time (And since) even the UFO intervention bit!!!

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I hate that !!

I started reading your connection Rob , and I immediately thought "St Vitus dance" , there solved it , why didn't they think of that ?, then smug bu55er here read on a bit more........

It was the same with Stu's original post and connection , I thought mass hysteria solved it , and then read on !!

I am not cleverer than wot they is , is I ??

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  • 1 year later...

Does anybody recall this strange story from back in 1980? Any extra information about the mysterious events of that day?

The Hollinwell Incident

Hi Stu,

I'm new to this site and obviously I've been trawling the various posts, so when I came to this one it brought a few memories back for me as I was there along with my sister. I must have been about 14 at the time and my sister 16, we were both members of the Pleasley Carabiniers one of the marching bands that took part in the competition on that day. All I can remember now is my sister becoming rather frightened and collapsing and being taken away on a stretcher. Personally, I didn't have any of the 'symptoms', only the normal worry anyone would have seeing there big sister in such a 'state'.

As for the cause, who knows ? Thinking about it now I'd say it was hysteria - a large gathering of children, excited and also nervous about a competition which they took very seriously. You have to remember that there was a lot of healthy rivalry in those marching bands, I'd like to think that it was a coincidence, perhaps started off by a couple of kids succumbing to nerves or maybe even food poisoning, alarmed parents leading to scaring the younger members of the bands (some of those kids were aged around 7 or 8 I think) creating a chain reaction.

This is the first time I've thought about this since it happened all those years ago so my memory is not so clear. What I do seem to remember is that is was very surreal.

Cheerz

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Hi Weimieguy

Thanks for your remarks, it's nice to hear the views of someone who was part of that strange day. It's a fascinating story I think. Small world eh! Hysteria seemed to be one of the main explanations from that time ans interesting to hear you agree with that all these years later. I It's easy to imagine how the kids could have got embroiled in that. I guess we'll never truly know the cause for sure but your explanation sounds as feasible as any and more so than most.

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Your welcome Stu, next time I speak to my sister I'll bring the subject up and see what she remembers about it.

Cheerz

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Hi All, and Weimieguy,

I was there at Hollinwell too on that day. It wasn't only children and babies and parents that were collapsing on that day. There was also a horse show, and dog show taking place at the same gala. Both horses and dogs were collapsing too, (but there isn't a mention on any of the reports nowadays.) All the buses were all taken out of the gate and lined up on the A611 (the road outside the field). We were all taken by bus to the local hospitals for check ups. A few people were kept in. I remember that both Carabiniers and Shirebrook Rainbows were taken to the Mansfield General Hospital, and we were all in the old front part, (it used to be the private part of the hospital - the old part to the right of the former A&E dept). I remember my mouth tasted funny, and we were given bottles of water or milk to cool it down.

I do remember very clearly that on the day of the gala, there was a drilling rig at the bottom of the field. The day after all the collapses, and hospitalisations etc, the drilling rig disappeared and that area all tarmaced over. i still think that had something to do with it. No mention of it has appeared in any reports or newspaper reports. :/

We had a meeting in the methodist church in Pleasley and invited Dennis Skinner to the meeting. The meeting was upstairs in the main church area, and us kids stayed downstairs with some of the older kids to keep an eye on us. I remember that the Chad reporter had turned up, and Dennis Skinner told him that he'd been invited, and that they and the other newspapers had whipped up a frenzy saying that the kids all had mass hysteria. Then told him to get out and stop printing lies in the newspaper.

At that same meeting, a mother had brought her young baby to the meeting, and the baby had been in hospital due to the collapses at Hollinwell. The baby collapsed again and had to be rushed into hospital from the meeting.

Even after all these years, we still have never had a valid explanation as to what happened on that day. I for one will never forget it.

Forgot to mention, I was in Carabiniers at the time too. Mum was on the committee then. :)

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Fantastic recollections, Sal. That babies, adults and particularly animals suffered seems to give the lie to the 'hysteria' theory. Thanks for your memories of the day and its aftermath.

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It is interesting you say there was a taste in your mouth. It seems plausable that there was a release of underground gas from active or redundant mining or coal reserves (the like of methane, carbon monoxide and/or hydrogen sulphide) all of which reduce oxygen levels. The gas could be released by ground movement or by local ground drilling. Some gases are odourless.

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Hi All, Sal.

I checked with my sister and she also remembers the horses and adults going down. I'm mighty impressed by your recollection of the day Sal !! As I said in my first post I don't remember very much about the day only that it was very scary and surreal.

Cheerz

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I was there at Hollinwell too on that day...

A quite excellent report of the incident, many thanks...

Interested in your reference to the adjacent drilling rig, as I distantly knew an adult and her child who were also involved and she always contended that the rig was a prime suspect.

Share your intrigue with the apparent lack of coverage relating to this aspect...vested financial interests, I wonder?

Cheers

Robt P.

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I remember such, and if I've got my facts right surprised no one has mentioned it was the same afternoon that Sankeys plastic plant pot factory on the site of their former quarry at Bulwell burned to the ground, terrific clouds of thick black smoke going hundreds of feet into the air and drifting across towards Bestwood etc. Whether such "came to ground" at Hollinwell I don't know but there was speculation at the time

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Another interesting theory...the smoke would certainly be heading in the right general direction.

Pity that the nearest version to a quality local investigative journalist that we now have in the region specialises in sport, namely Duncan Hamilton. Someone such as Michael Crick could make an enthralling book/TV programme from it...

Rather tempted to forward (anonymous) extracts from this thread to his literary agent.

Cheers

Robt P.

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re the smoke, there was enough of it, as per the kuwait oil well fires in 1st gulf war. As I recall the fire was around 2/3 pm, was playing football with the kids on whitemoor park and this rising black tower of smoke clearly seen from there, drove to bulwell with them to see it (as you did back there) still blazin away when we got there and for ages afterwards

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cheers Guys. can remember stuff clearly from donkey's years ago,but when I try to remember stuff I did yesterday, the brain forgets lol.

:) Sal

ps, will ask mum if she remembers the smoke. :)

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  • 2 years later...

Hi there

ITV are looking for former band members of Juvenile Jazz groups who attended the Hollinwell Show in 1980 and were affected by the fainting etc that occurred that day, who would be willing to talk on camera about their experience. Can anyone help? Thank you.

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  • 2 years later...

Just saw this news item and thoughts immediately turned back to the Hollinwell Incident. I have just read through this historic thread, its really interesting to hear from people who were there. I recall the news coverage of 1980 vividly. Still very much a mystery and keeps coming back as a news item every now and then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-34789661

Hope the Ripon girls recover quickly. It will be interesting to hear in time of the cause. Could be something much more straightforward.

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  • 5 years later...

I remember this,  I was there. I was 12 at the time I was attending with my mother my sister(13) and my 2 younger brothers. Me and my sister were members of the kilton concordes marching band who were competing that day.  I don't believe the mass hysteria theory because this happened so fast and stopped just as quick.  My memory of what happened is  this.  A band was doing their display in the arena when 2 members fainted.  The seconds later Moor and Moor people started dropping.  People were passing out all around the ground, people who were not watching the display fell down and a lady walking past the show ground passed out. So the mass hysteria theory doesn't work with me. 

Another theory was the heat and tired and excited children.  We did this most Sundays during the summer at bigger events without fainting.    

Two days after the event my sister and another member of our banned were hospitalised through feeling unwell and passing out on the same day but different places.  

I. Don't know what happened that day but would lo e to find out. 

 

Xhris

 

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