What happens when history unfolds before you as if not even a minute has passed?
Hidden in the idyllic countryside of Suffolk, the village of Kersey looks like something out of a medieval fairy tale — with wooden cottages, cobblestone streets, and a charm that seems untouched by time. However, in 1957, three young sailors claimed that they entered a village that did not belong to the present era — as if they had slipped through time, into a different age, into a world of silence and eternal calm.
The incident, known as The Kersey Timeslip Incident, remains to this day one of the most mysterious phenomena of parapsychology and raises questions about the nature of time, memory, and reality.
A quiet walk that became strange
It was a Sunday morning in October 1957, when three naval cadets, 15 years old — William Laing, Ray Baker, and Michael Crowley — set out for a simple orientation exercise as part of their training at the Royal Navy.
Their goal: to reach, using a map, the village of Kersey and return. But how close they came to the village, everything changed.
The birds stopped chirping. The sounds faded into silence, even the bells of the church, which they later said they had heard before. The same village now seemed… out of place and time.
There were no cars. No wires, no televisions, no people. The houses looked old, neglected, with wooden beams and no modern additions. From one window that seemed to belong to an old inn, they saw – or thought they saw – green, dimly lit curtains, the interior faintly illuminated. No movement, no sound. Just stone walls and absolute stillness. And as if this wasn’t enough, they felt that someone – or something – was watching them. A strange fear. They left the village hastily. As they walked away, the village sounds returned. The birds sang again. The wind blew again. It was as if they had just come out of a dream. Or from a trap.
The mystery reappears
Decades later, in the 1980s, Laing contacted Crowley again and they reached out to researcher Andrew MacKenzie from the Society for Psychical Research. MacKenzie traveled to Kersey with Laing to examine the case.
Surprisingly, the building they thought was an old inn did indeed serve as one in the late 18th century. This gave the story an eerie, almost chilling truth. MacKenzie suggested that the young sailors may have experienced what is called retrocognition — a mysterious experience in which someone sees or “records” the past.
Was it really a slip in time?
The so-called timeslips are not rare. From a similar incident in the Versailles Gardens in 1901 to modern experiences in places such as Liverpool and Kent, many people have reported similar events, where they seem to be momentarily transported to another time period.
Skeptics, of course, offer more grounded explanations: illusion, hypnosis, psychological pressure, or even the unique architecture of Kersey itself, which preserves a medieval aesthetic without modern elements.
Interestingly, one of the three cadets, Ray Baker, later denied having experienced anything unusual that day. This raises doubts about the reliability of the story.
A Mystery That Remains
More than 65 years later, the Kersey incident remains a debated mystery. For some, it’s a window into the past. For others, a misinterpretation of reality. Whether true or just a strange example of vivid imagination, the story continues to fascinate researchers and enthusiasts alike. And perhaps somewhere among Kersey’s cobblestones, the winds of time still whisper.
* What is a Timeslip?
A timeslip is the phenomenon in which a person or a group believes they were momentarily transported to another time period — often the past — without any warning. Unlike simple “phantom” appearances, timeslips involve entire environments: architecture, sounds, even smells. Although not scientifically proven, they remain highly popular in mystery and paranormal literature.
