Soldiers from the Past: a Time Slip in the New Forest

Thanks to David Dwyer of the UK for this submission:

My own experience happened in late Sept. 2020, near the town of Brockenhurst, in the New Forest. I had moved to Winchester a couple of weeks previously in order to start a short term job to keep me going until I got my visa and left the country. It was a nice day so I looked up a walk in the New Forest using a phone app called New Forest Walks and settled on one to a spot called Buckland Rings, about a 3 – 4 hour walk. I parked in the railway station car park and set off at a leisurely pace. Enjoying the scenery, the old church etc., I spoke to a couple of people as I passed them and stopped several times to take photographs. I wanted to get used to using my DSLR camera before emigrating. After a couple of hours - at about 1 pm approximately - I walked off the track, found a tree stump to sit on and eat my pack lunch. After finishing that, I starting walking back and took a few more shots.

After a while walking I became aware of some movement in the trees to my left and looked over to see a group of soldiers moving at a jogging pace, spread over about 50 – 60 meters moving across my path. They were dressed in old fashioned uniform, khaki, not camouflage, tin hats, some with twigs and small branches, carrying old fashioned rifles, not modern rifles. Prominent at the front, leading them and encouraging them was a soldier carrying a pistol and blowing a whistle. The group moved across my path; I was aware of some being behind me, but I did not turn around. The noise and sounds of them grew until I felt in the midst of it. But just as quickly the group moved about 30 meters to the right, the sound went, and the group disappeared. 

I assumed the group were reenactors or similar due to the old style clothing and rifles, and I made a mental note to find out who they were when I got home. I completed the walk, got in the car and drove home.

In the next couple of days I emailed the New Forest authority and asked if they could let me know who the group was. They replied that they had no idea and suggested I contact Brockenhurst College to see if it was the army cadets etc. from there.  Once again, the response was that they had no idea who it was and it was nothing to do with them. I still have the emails.

 

I left it at that until recently finding out about time slips and have become more intrigued by what I experienced.