Spooky tale of time slip in Bedford which pushed man forward to the future

Famously, there was the case in Liverpool (more on that later) – but whether you're a believer or not, surely the best time to read about these cases is around Hallowe'en... you know, when you can really scare yourself silly.

And what do you know, we even have a case which happened in Bromham. Question is, do you believe?

In her book Time Storms: The Amazing Evidence of Time Warps, Space Rifts and Time Travel, Jenny Randle recounts the story of Paul in 1973.

At 2am the 21-year-old was driving home from a dance, passing through the village of Little Houghton in Northants. As Paul drove past the church clock, he lost all sense of time, and suddenly found himself on foot in Bromham – almost 15 miles away.

It was now 7am, he was soaking wet even though it wasn't raining. But where was his car?

Paul enlisted a friend's help to find the motor which was now in a locked field in Turvey – and what's more, there were no tyre tracks in the mud.

If you're reading this, either the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up or you're saying "pull the other one, Clare". But how do you explain Paul travelling forward in time by five hours, eh? And before you ask, no he wasn’t drunk.

Back to the famous Liverpool case. Now, this one is a doozy and even featured on Danny Robins’ BBC2 show Uncanny last year.

It tells the story of an off-duty police officer called Frank who was shopping in Liverpool’s Bold Street in 1996. He was planning to meet his wife in Dillon’s bookshop when he was nearly hit by a small 50s type van with the word Caplan’s written on the side.

Ordinarily at that time, the road was pedestrianised but when Frank heard the van driver toot his horn, he suddenly realised he was in a road.

Bizarrely, Dillon’s had turned into Cripps and people were dressed in 40s or 50s style clothing. Frank went into the shop, following a girl who was dressed in modern clothing. The shop then turned back into Dillon’s, and the girl – who actually featured on Uncanny to recount her experience as well– looked confused and complained to Frank.

Later when the case was aired on radio, people called in to confirm Dillon’s had indeed been Cripps in the 50s – and that there was a Caplan’s firm around at the same time.

Spooky… now do you believe?