The Hollinwell incident refers to an unexplained event in July 1980 when around 300 children suffered fainting attacks, nausea and other symptoms. The incident happened at the Hollinwell Showground in

Kirkby-in-Ashfield Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in the Ashfield District of Nottinghamshire, England. With a population of 25,265 (according to the 2001 National Census), it is a part of the wider Mansfield Urban Area. The Head Offices of Ashfield Distr ...

, in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, England, and the exact cause has never been determined. The two leading theories relate to

mass hysteria Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria, or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for c ...

and the use of pesticides in nearby fields.

Background

In 1980, the Hollinwell Show, an annual event at the Hollinwell Showground near Kirkby-in-Ashfield, took place on Sunday 13 July. As part of the event the Forest League of Juvenile Jazz Bands decided to hold a charity show, creating a Junior Brass and Marching Band competition, with entrants coming from across the East Midlands. Around 500 children from 11 marching bands were in attendance, many of them brought-in by coaches from up to away. With the show scheduled to begin at 9am, many of the children were tired from their journeys and nervous about performing.

The incident

At around 10:30, band members began to collapse without any apparent explanation and the fainting seemed to be contagious. Children began " allingdown like nine pins" according to one witness and soon the numbers of ailing children reached into the hundreds. Symptoms also included vomiting, sore eyes and throats, and dizziness. One girl described her symptoms: "My legs and arms felt as if they had no bones in them and I had a bad headache". The estimated number of victims was around 300, including children, adults, and babies, and 259 people were taken to four nearby hospitals including the

Queen's Medical Centre The Queen's Medical Centre (popularly known as QMC, Queen's Med or Queen's) is a teaching hospital situated in Nottingham, England. Until February 2012, when it was surpassed by the Royal London Hospital, it was the largest hospital in the Unit ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, with nine children kept in overnight. A ''

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2 ...

'' investigation reported that several horses were also taken ill, but admits that any link to the incident is conjecture.

Cause

The exact cause of the widespread illnesses is still disputed. Initial investigations by Ashfield District Council looked into a variety of possible causes, including contaminated water supplies, food poisoning, radio waves, and crop spraying of the nearby fields. The use of pesticides became the favoured explanation, with a 2003 episode of the BBC news and current affairs programme '' Inside Out'' revealing the local use of the pesticide tridemorph. Banned by the British government in 2000, tridemorph was discovered to be a harmful substance described by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

(WHO) as "moderately hazardous". However, these investigations took place over 20 years after the event and disagree with the official findings. The official inquiry did reveal the use of Calixin, a pesticide that contains tridemorph, but it was not considered to be dangerous at the time. The official inquiry ruled that mass hysteria was the likely cause, with the symptoms experienced by the children demonstrating some of the characteristics of such an outbreak. People present at the event were adamant that the symptoms were real and not the result of imagination or hysteria. They also expressed their frustration at never having received a satisfactory explanation. In 2003 the council had no plans to revisit the incident or reopen the inquiry. An episode of ''

Punt PI ''Punt PI'' is a fact-based comedy radio series on BBC Radio 4 in which Steve Punt investigates mysteries in Britain. Format Each episode is 30 minutes long and there are three or four episodes in each series. Starting with series two, every ep ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, in which

Steve Punt Stephen Mark Punt (born 15 September 1962)Mr Stephen Mark Punt
company-director-c ...

investigated the incident, was broadcast on 24 August 2013. Prior to the broadcast, radio researchers had reached out through the Mansfield local newspaper appealing for any locals to come forward at their expected visit into the area on 25 June. They also confirmed that an official report into the incident was produced but could not be traced afterwards. This was followed by a further examination during the second episode of ''Mystery Map'' on ITV on 27 November 2013. On the 42nd anniversary of the incident at "the Fainting Field", a BBC local radio reporter created a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

recounting the events, and investigating what could have happened by consulting a forensic science lecturer from Nottingham Trent University, who hypothesised that different cleaning products could have been used in a temporary toilet block. When combined, these could have created chlorine gas, which can produce similar symptons to those reported.The Hollinwell Incident: What lay behind the Fainting Field?
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 4 July 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=https://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/news/local-news/collapse-mystery-solved-at-last-1-678294 , title=Collapse mystery solved at last , publisher=Johnston Publishing Ltd , work=Hucknall Dispatch , date=18 September 2003 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905202641/https://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/news/local-news/collapse-mystery-solved-at-last-1-678294 , accessdate=16 August 2013 , archive-date=2013-09-05 {{cite web , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmidlands/series4/holinwell_incident.shtml , title=Hollinwell incident , publisher=BBC , date=22 September 2003 , accessdate=16 August 2013 {{cite web , url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/3128402.stm , title=New theory on 'mass hysteria' , publisher=BBC , date=23 September 2003 , accessdate=17 August 2013 {{cite web , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2003/09/hollinwell_incident.shtml , title=The Mystery of Hollinwell , publisher=BBC , date=September 2003 , accessdate=17 August 2013 {{cite web , url=http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/4237/all_fall_down.html , title=All Fall Down , publisher=

Dennis Publishing Limited Dennis Publishing Ltd. was a British publisher. It was founded in 1973 by Felix Dennis. Its first publication was a kung-fu magazine. Most of its titles now belong to Future plc. In the 1980s, it became a leading publisher of computer enthusia ...

, work=Fortean Times , date=August 2010 , author=Rickard, Bob , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140919210755/http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/4237/all_fall_down.html , accessdate=17 August 2013 , archive-date=2014-09-19 {{cite web , url=http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/cmzng9/punt-pi--episode-2-the-hollinwell-incident , title=Punt PI: Episode 2. The Hollinwell Incident , publisher=Immediate Media Company Limited , work=Radio Times , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205540/http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/cmzng9/punt-pi--episode-2-the-hollinwell-incident , accessdate=17 August 2013 , archive-date=2016-03-04 Mass psychogenic illness 1980 in England History of Nottinghamshire Unexplained phenomena