I am fascinated by time slips, those alleged temporal phenomena in which an individual – or group of individuals – experiences a sudden, unexplainable dislocation from the present moment into the past or, less commonly, the future.

Unlike traditional ghost sightings, which typically involve seeing a single localized phantom, a time slip is characterized by an immersive, environmental shift where the surrounding landscape, weather, architectural features, soundscape and clothing of people temporarily transform into those of a bygone era. Witnesses often report specific sensory “triggers” immediately preceding the shift, such as an eerie and sudden drop in ambient noise, a change in light or atmospheric pressure, a feeling of unnatural stillness or a sudden disorienting mist before the environment snaps back to modern reality.

Two famous time slips are:

The Moberly-Jourdain Incident (1901), where two female academics visiting the gardens of Versailles claimed they walked into 18th-century France and saw Marie Antoinette.

Bold Street in Liverpool, a modern location with frequent reports of people briefly stepping into a 1950s or 1960s version of the street.

I can’t say I’ve experienced a time slip myself, and I’m going to sit firmly on the fence as to whether they are ‘real’ or an illusion. When reading books about time or hauntings (two of my favourite topics), I try to keep a note of every time slip I come across. This page is my attempt to create a catalogue of time slips for other people to enjoy puzzling over. It will be a selection: I’m not going to attempt the impossible task of listing every time slip that has been written about.

Joan Forman’s 1978 classic ‘The Haunted South‘

The Haunted South (1978), while somewhat dated in its prose style, remains an outstanding read because Joan Forman treats supernatural anomalies with the quiet discipline of a field investigator rather than a sensationalist.

Focus on Witness Psychology: Forman prioritizes the human experience, carefully cataloging the strange physical “triggers” – sudden silence, unnatural silvery light, drops in air pressure – that witnesses report right before their environment shifts.

Geographical Grounding: By tying accounts to real, visitable locations across England’s southern counties, she gives each case a vivid sense of place and historical texture.

Analytical Rigour: Rather than dumping every ghost story into the same bucket, she actively categorizes phenomena, distinguishing between lingering emotional imprints, physical hauntings and true environmental time slips.

Grounded Tone: Her prose is calm, respectful and open-minded, allowing the unexplained facts of each case to speak for themselves without forcing conclusions on the reader.

Here are all the time slips from the book, in the order they appear:

Canterbury Cathedral Crypt Chanting (1939)

• Location & Region: Dark Entry / Infirmary Ruins, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent
• Era Experienced: Estimated 13th Century (Medieval plainsong era)
• Witnesses: Mr Ralph Dawson & Mrs Phyllis Dawson
• Sensory & Atmospheric Triggers: Stiff tension/silence, sharp clean-cut black silhouettes, metallic/silvery light, glittering windows.
• Pages: 27-28

Narrative Summary

In the early days of World War II (1939), Ralph and Phyllis Dawson lived opposite the Archbishop’s Palace in Canterbury. During a late-night stroll through the cathedral precincts under a near-full moon, they walked past the Deanery toward the ruins of the old infirmary via the Dark Entry.

Suddenly, both stopped in their tracks as a distinct sensory shift occurred. The surrounding environment appeared abnormally sharp and high-contrast, with trees looking like crisp black silhouettes and window panes glittering intensely. Mrs Dawson recalled an unnatural silvery quality infusing the light and foliage.

After holding a frozen silence for over a minute, the psychological tension lifted. Upon comparing notes, both witnesses confirmed hearing the exact same phenomenon: unaccompanied plainsong chanting echoing from inside the locked and empty cathedral crypt. Forman notes that if the couple experienced a temporal resonance of medieval monks or pilgrims at Thomas a Becket’s original tomb site, they were hearing sounds silent for approximately seven hundred years.

The Biddenden / Appledore Billeted Soldiers (WWII)

• Location & Region: Appledore, Kent
• Era Experienced: World War II (1940s)
• Witnesses: New civilian owners (reported via Mr and Mrs P. Man of Biddenden)
• Sensory & Atmospheric Triggers: Auditory distress (intense screaming and shouting isolated to the front rooms).
• Pages: 44-45

Narrative Summary

During World War II, troops were billeted in an old house in the village of Appledore, Kent. Soldiers from one unit occupied the front rooms, while another unit took the rear. After being deployed to active combat in France, the entire group billeted in the front of the house was killed in action, whereas the men stationed in the rear survived.

Following the war, the property was purchased by new civilian residents. When local acquaintances Mr and Mrs P. Man later inquired how they were settling in, the owners revealed that they had been forced to have the property exorcised. During their initial weeks in the home, they were disturbed by terrifying screams and shouts originating specifically from the front section where the deceased soldiers had stayed.

Forman categorizes this as a complex crossover between a traditional haunting and an emotional time slip. She posits whether the dying soldiers’ intense final memories of their last peaceful billet projected their battlefield terror backward in time to the house, or whether the site retained an energetic imprint of pre-deployment nightmares suffered by the men who knew the dangers awaiting them in France.

The Avebury Stone Circle Phantom Fair (WWI Era)

• Location & Region: Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire
• Era Experienced: Mid-19th Century (c. 1860s)
• Witness: Miss Edith Olivier (Wiltshire author)
• Sensory & Atmospheric Triggers: Dusk/fading twilight, auditory transition (distant fairground music dissolving into the sound of the wind).
• Page: 140

Narrative Summary

During World War I, Wiltshire author Edith Olivier was driving past the ancient stone circle at Avebury as dusk was settling over the landscape. As she approached the monument, she observed what appeared to be a lively fairground set up among the massive sarsen stones, complete with glowing lights, side-show booths and the distinct sound of festive music carrying on the evening air.

However, as her vehicle drew directly level with the stone circle, the entire spectacle instantly vanished. The grounds were completely deserted, the music stopped and nothing remained except the silent monoliths and the wind blowing across the open landscape.

When she later made inquiries, Olivier learned that holding fairs inside the Avebury Ring was an old local tradition, but the final fair had taken place roughly fifty years prior. Forman highlights this incident as a classic temporal dislocation, where the witness briefly slipped into a nineteenth-century sensory layer of the landscape.

The Phantom Lorry of Dartmouth Park Hill (1938)

• Location & Region: Dartmouth Park Hill (off Junction Road), near Highgate, Middlesex / London
• Era Experienced: 1930s (Pre-encounter temporal recording)
• Witnesses: Mr Victor Worrall & his son
• Sensory & Atmospheric Triggers: Autumn dusk, clear visibility, physical sensation of an impending crash without mechanical impact.
• Pages: 180-181

Narrative Summary

On a clear autumn evening in 1938, Victor Worrall and his son were driving up Dartmouth Park Hill towards Highgate. As Mr Worrall accelerated to maintain speed on the steep climb, an immense lorry suddenly materialized directly in front of them on a collision course.

With no time to swerve, both occupants braced for a fatal head-on impact. Instead of crashing, the massive vehicle passed straight through their car. Looking back through the rear window, the driver and his son saw the road behind them completely empty. Both men were left uninjured but severely shaken by the sensory reality of the phantom vehicle and its side lights.

Forman notes that rather than a conventional ghost, this incident functions like a visual recording or projection of a past traffic accident superimposed onto the road. The event represents a temporal dislocation where witnesses briefly intersected with a recorded moment from an earlier timeframe.

Maidlea Cottage Battle Resonance, Berkshire (early 1970s)

• Location & Region: Maidlea Cottage, Windsor Great Park, Berkshire
• Era Experienced: Ancient / Romano-British Period
• Witnesses: Mr & Mrs Wakefield-Smith
• Sensory & Atmospheric Triggers: Sudden localized thermal wall (intense heat), abrupt transition into sensory chaos, rapid return to tranquility.
• Page: 204

Narrative Summary

While walking near the boundary of their garden at Maidlea Cottage, Mr and Mrs Wakefield-Smith suddenly crossed an invisible threshold into an intense pocket of heat and violent noise. Both witnesses experienced the sensation of being caught in the centre of an active battle, hearing the clash of metal armour and weapons alongside the chaotic clamour of physical combat.

Just as abruptly as the event began, the sensory chaos vanished, leaving the garden in its normal state of quiet stillness. Local traditions in the area point to a historical battle between Roman forces and native Britons on that site.

Forman notes that this case highlights how temporal dislocations often function as environmental recordings rather than traditional hauntings. Instead of seeing an individual apparition, the witnesses briefly passed through a localized energetic imprint anchored to the land itself, experiencing a multi-sensory playback of an ancient combat scene.

A used copy of The Haunted South can be found easily online. I do recommend it, especially if you have links to the southern counties of England.