MAN WITH NO FACE

ONE pleasant afternoon in the 1960s, artist Doris Whiting and her sister, Elsie Faulkner were driving from Macclesfield to Congleton to visit their mother.

Travelling over Gawsworth crossroads and just before the Harrington Arms, by the new part of the road that skirted the pub, Doris suddenly spotted a stumbling figure in the middle of the road.

Slowing down to avoid hitting whoever it was, the ladies drove past but then, their curiosity piqued, turned back.

What they saw next was something they would never forget and would never be satisfactorily explained.

Doris told Doug: “The man (I’m calling him a man, I’m pretty sure of that) had no face, instead there was a piece of metal.

“The figure was about five feet nine or ten, with well-worn, brown clothing, the sort a farm yokel would wear.

“The hat brim was stuck down and the metal on the face was straight, with no slits for eyes so I don’t know how he could see.”

The sisters told their family what they had seen and checked the local newspapers for reports but there was nothing. The only record is a sketch that Doris drew (right). previous day.

“What the sequel was I don’t know. I have scoured the papers of the time and cannot find any evidence to support this, so what was going on?

“Did the farm worker indeed see bodies being unloaded? Such a thing could not possibly be mistaken, and it is not impossible that bodies were used for research purposes, although it would have been a very risky business if anyone had been caught.”