In 1943, four young boys out poaching in Hagley Wood came across a large witch-hound, a broad spider-like tree.

While the boys began climbing the tree to look for bird eggs, and upon reaching the topmost branches, looked down to the tree to look for bird eggs and upon reaching the topmost branches looked down to find

a tree was curiously hollow. Inside the inky blackness of the broad trunk there was no trace of any bird's nests. Instead he saw a human skull staring blankly back at him.

This is dark histories where the facts are worse than fiction. On the 18th of April,

on the 18th of April, 1943, four young boys from the local town of Stowbridge,

Robert Hart, Thomas Willets, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne were poaching in Hagley Wood,

part of the Hagley Estate owned by Lord Cobbin, deep in the

West Midlands County of Worcestershire.

It was wartime Britain and as such food was heavily rationed.

It was not uncommon for people to stretch the boundaries of the law for a good meal.

They approached the large witch-helmin, thinking it a good place to find birds' nests for eggs, Bob Farmer scaled the branches and peered down inside the hollow trunk of the tree.

Spotting bleached white bone and thinking it to be the skull of an animal, he reached in and pulled it out.

Devoy do any flesh, aside from one small patch above the left temple which also left the

matted patch of hair draped across the skull.

Farmer was horrified as it became apparent that the skull was that of a human.

He took a piece of material that was in the tree's branches, wrapped it on a branch, wedged it into the skull's mouth and pushed

the skull back down into the hollow. The four boys were now in a difficult position. They had

discovered the remains of a human, a disturbing discovery that should be reported to the authorities.

However, they were poaching and illegally trespassing on the land.

In fear of reprisals, the boys decided to keep quiet about the skull and keep it amongst themselves.

It was a plan that was doomed to fail, and the thought of the remains quickly became too much for the youngest of the group, Thomas Willits, to keep to himself.

He told his father of their grim secret shortly after returning home.

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