THE LAPIS GROUP
LAPIS (Lancashire Anomalous Phenomena Investigation Society) is based in Blackpool and has been investigating strange events on the Fylde coast for over 20 years.
The group has been involved with many exciting cases over the years, some of which have attracted the attention of the national media. Since 1989, we have also held a series of highly acclaimed conferences putting on many respected speakers including a former astronaut!
The club meets on the 3rd Thursday of every month at The Guards Club, 37E Whitegate Drive, Blackpool, FY3 9DG.
The Club has a cheap bar with a wide range of beverages and is open late on most nights. Everyone is welcome to attend our monthly meetings, whatever their views on the subject. Come along and relax in like-minded company!
THE LAPIS HARDCORE
MAUREEN RODWELL
Maureen is one of the group's longest standing members having joined the group in 1990 due to an interest in crop circles. She thinks there might be a paranormal explanation for the discovery of certain phenomena associated with some of the circles.
She regularly helps Janet out with her many tasks. Her name is sometimes mistaken for Roswell when she is on her travels. Quite appropriate for a member of a UFO and paranormal group! She is a frequent traveller and regularly goes on trips to the Pacific Ocean area, having most recently enjoyed a cruise around Hawaii.
She originally hails from Kent and is not amused when people mistake her for a cockney and ask her "d'you want any air force on yer jockies luv?!" She further adds that she has never ever heard the sound of the Bow Bells!
JANET WALKEY
Janet is our head honcho and events organiser and also our club treasurer despite the fact she is hopeless at maths! She first joined the group (as did Rob Whitehead) after coming to our 1996 conference and has stayed ever since.
She is our media star, having recently appeared on national TV discussing one of our famous cases for a Sky TV documentary called "The Real 4400s". She is currently busy planning our 2008 conference which promises to be our best conference yet.
She is originally from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, but we don't hold that against her here in Lancashire!
JOHN NUTTALL
John is our webmaster and also our technical geezer both at our conferences (so you know who to blame if things go wrong!) and on our expeditions where he uses a dazzling array of gadgets to get us from A to B when he’d be much better off just using a map!
He is the group's longest standing member having joined way back in 1989 when he was just a lad. Unlike the rest of the LAPIS hardcore, he is a true sandgrownun having been born and bred in the town although he now lives on the outskirts of Bury and regularly enjoys a spicy black pudding with his pint of real ale.
Outside of the group, he is one of the country's leading aficionados of fine ales!
ROB WHITEHEAD (FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT)
Rob was the head honcho of LAPIS and master of ceremonies at LAPIS events and conferences before he emigrated to sunny Cyprus in 2007. However, unnamed information sources have revealed that he recently came back from Cyprus and currently resides in sunny County Durham from where he gives regular updates on paranormal events from his side of the coast.
We have been asked to point out that people from County Durham are NOT Geordies. However, they are often mistaken for such and are frequently given plastic glasses by terrified bar staff whenever they go down south!
CASES AND CONFERENCES
These are dealt with in their own sections.
Please click for the LAPIS case files to view details of our most famous cases.
Please click for details of our events and conferences held over the last 19 years.
JASON X
Jason is our undercover agent and a keen hockey fan. He joined the group in 2000 and has been on many secret reconnaissance missions for us since then. We are not authorised to tell you much about him but he has a keen interest in astronomy and is an expert on all things sci-fi.
He organises most of our skywatches throughout the year and is about to become incredibly popular by setting up a micro brewery in his garden shed!
BRIAN FRISBEE
Brian joined the group back in 1989 a few weeks after John. Brian is an electronics and engineering wizbo with a keen interest in anything that flies and also a keen sense of adventure. He is an expert on the history of spaceflight and his ambition is to go into space himself one day.
He originally left the group for other interests during the early 1990s. Local historians looked back on his time with the group as a golden period packed full of action and adventure and tagged it “The Frisbee Era”. The characters and tales of the Era were originally believed mythical by Janet, Jason & Rob (who all joined the group much later) until suddenly, on the day of the 2006 conference, Brian returned to the fold. He has been a regular since then and “The Frisbee Era - The Second Epoch” continues to this day.
And, yes, his surname really is Frisbee!
CONTACT US
© 2008 LAPIS
