HAUNTED WIRRAL: The Park Road East 'Reptoid'

In this latest story, Tom explores the mystery behind the Park Road East Reptoid...

In October 1978, a 25-year-old Birkenhead printer Duncan Nevis inherited a small fortune from his oldest aunt when she passed away in a West Kirby nursing home.

Duncan was strongly advised by his father to invest the little inheritance for a rainy day but the sound advice was not taken and Duncan blew most of the money by purchasing a Datsun 280Z import.

He drove the sleek orange 3-door coupé to Hoylake where he cruised in a circuit, passing up and down Avondale Road, hoping to see an old flame named Laura.

He had met her in the summer of 1970 when he was eighteen and she had just turned seventeen, and as Laura was a tennis buff, Duncan had proposed to her that July day after taking her to the Hoylake Tennis Championship to see Patti Hogan beat Virginia Wade and Karen Krantzcke in straight sets.

The wedding was to have been held at St Andrew’s, Bebington, followed by a reception at Poulton Hall, and the illustrious owner of that stately pile – Roger Lancelyn Green – would hopefully write a wedding masque to music composed by Laura, just as soon as she could buy the music manuscript paper from Rushworths.

These castles in the air came crashing down when Laura started her job in Liverpool’s Lewis’s store, where she met a co-worker named Jimmy who looked like her crush of the year – Paul Newman.

He swept Laura off her feet, and after six months he dumped her.

She went crawling back to Duncan, but he didn’t want to know.

Now, in 1978, he realised Laura was the one.

He must have performed about twenty laps, orbiting Avondale Road, when he finally saw Laura trudging along through a thin drizzle near the corner of Hoyle and Dovedale Roads, and he beeped his horn and pulled up by her.

"What are you doing round here?" she asked, eyeing the flashy car.

"Do you fancy going for a spin? It’s my car, like." He said.

"You must have come into some money if you’re telling the truth," she said, and crouched to look into the plush interior. "All legal is it?"

"As legal as eating – get in!" Duncan leaned over and opened the door and she deliberately took her time getting in, not wishing to appear easy.

He advised her to belt up and she told him she couldn’t stay out long as her mum wanted her to go and collect catalogue money from customers.

The Datsun took off, and Duncan said, "Hey, do you fancy going down to Heswall? You used to like that place – Hugh Foulerton – they sell like cutlery and decanters."

"Er, no thanks, and I’ve got to get back soon," Laura reminded him, but she did enjoy the drive.

He asked if she was with anyone, and in a roundabout way she said she was single. He took her over to Liverpool, and then in the late afternoon he headed back to his home off Grange Mount when Laura asked him if she could ‘have a drive’ of the Datsun.

Duncan said he’d only just got the vehicle insured and said he was worried she’d crash it and that it was a left-hand drive set up, but she reassured him she’d been having driving lessons from her brother, and so Duncan reluctantly drove the car to Park Road East and pulled over.

It was surprisingly quiet, and the couple swapped seats.

"Look Laura, this car cost me a fortune. You can drive it about 200 yards and then that’s it," said a worried Duncan. She gave him a peck on the cheek and said, "I’ll surprise you; our Tony said I’m a fast learner."

She started the car and took off smoothly, and then she turned to Duncan and said, "See?"

"Keep your eyes on the road Laura!" said a very anxious Duncan. Laura got cocky and bombed along at sixty - then she turned to Duncan and said, "James Hunt eat your heart –"

"Laura!" Duncan cried out, his wide terror-stricken eyes fixed on something beyond the windscreen, and he tried to seize the wheel.

There was an almighty bang and the car shuddered.

The windscreen was spattered with something green and slimy. Laura braked, and in shock, she gasped, "What did we hit?"

Duncan got out the vehicle and saw the body of a man lying crumpled about twenty feet behind the Datsun.

He ran to him, noticing the green trail of sludge, and an old woman and a young man of about twenty came over.

What they all saw was very strange indeed.

The ‘man’ lying on his back had a face that was yellowish-green with scales, and the half-closed eyes were reddish.

Hanging in threads from this ghastly reptilian head were fragments of a flesh-coloured mask of some sort and a wig.

Laura came over sobbing and several cars passing by halted and their drivers got out and came over to look upon the bizarre scene.

Within minutes the law turned up and an ambulance.

A detective (who never identified himself) later took Duncan and Laura into custody and warned them to say nothing about the strange inhuman or they could be imprisoned for two years for breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The Datsun was thoroughly cleaned by someone and returned to Duncan after almost a fortnight.

Duncan and Laura received phone calls for months after the strange incident from people reminding them to say nothing.

What was that thing which seems to have been masquerading as a human?

It might be declassified one day...

Haunted Liverpool 30 is out now on Amazon