The legendary Solway Spaceman photograph taken by Jim TempletonThere is so much 'High Strangeness' surrounding the now famous 'Solway Spaceman' photograph, that one could be forgiven for thinking it was all some kind of cryptic puzzle dreamed up by an overly imaginative novelist stretching credulity to its limits. I for one had thought, with over 20 years of researching the subject, I'd uncovered everything there was to know. More fool me. With the British Govt's release of previously secret documents this week - the whole Solway Spaceman/Blue Streak Missile case takes a twist not even Nostradamus could have predicted. In the realms of High Strangeness this one has me in a spin.

For those who are new to Jim Templeton, The Solway Spaceman and The Blue Streak Missile project, I'll try to summarise as briefly but succinctly as possible. On the 23rd of May, 1964, the photograph on the left was taken by a Firefighter from Carlisle, England, by the name of Jim Templeton. When taking the photograph of his daughter holding flowers no one else was in the image, no one behind her, no one nearby. When developed however the image shows what appears to be a 'Spaceman' standing behind her at an awkward angle.  Three pictures were taken in all but only the middle image showed this 'Spaceman'. Kodak later, after analysing the image, confirmed it was genuine. Was it a Bee-Keeper? A Jogger? All of these were discounted not least of all because Templeton who has always been described as an honest and trustworthy man swore no one else was in the vicinity of the image. Things then became very strange indeed.

After the image appeared in a Local Newspaper, Templeton claims he was visited by what would now be referred to as 'Men in Black' - though they described themselves as being representatives of 'Her Majesty's Government'. They questioned Templeton at length about the image whilst referring to one another not by name, but by numbers. They asked him about the weather conditions on the marsh when and where he took the image and they asked about the local Bird life there. Eventually they drove him to the marsh where they tried to coerce him into admitting it was a passer by or jogger he had perchance photographed. When he refused they became angry and drove off from the marsh leaving Templeton stranded.

That same day some 10,000 miles away at a rocket launch site in Woomera Australia, the countdown had begun to launch the latest in the Blue Streak series of rockets manufactured in Britain. The countdown was aborted when Technicians reported that two 'tall figures' dressed in spacesuits, could be seen on monitoring cameras, walking across the launch pad. At the time a search was made for them, nothing found, and the launch date rearranged. 

The Templeton photograph however started hopping its way across nations as newspaper after newspaer published the strange 'spaceman' picture. When the technicians at Woomera spotted it in a local newspaper in Australia they were stunned when realising the 'spaceman' was dressed in the same garb they had witnessed being worn on the launchpad. But what's the connection apart from those obvious similarities? Well, the Blue Streak missile was manufactured just a few miles from where Templeton took the photograph of his daughter before being shipped to Australia for launch! The 14 minutes of film which shows the men wandering across the launch pad appears to be missing from several reels of film which exist of the attempted launch.

Jim Templeton as has previously been mentioned, has always been regarded as honest and trustworthy - to such an extent that he was recognised by the Queen for his services to the community. He has never profited from the reproduction of the image and has never tried to profit from the reproduction of the image. Now, what of the newly released files let loose by the British Government earlier this week? That's where a highly personal 'High Strangeness' comes in and why this article appears in the first person. Amongst the papers released there is a request from a TV producer for information relating to the missing 14 minutes - something I too have been keen to uncover after 20 years of researching the matter. What I saw in those files stunned me - addresses of the general public are normally 'blacked out' yet this one had been left in. The request came from 213 Chelsea Cloisters, Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London.

In 1985, I lived there. I did not make the request and it was obviously made by someone some twenty years before I moved there.