Sunday, August 27, 2017

The Horsingdon Transmissions No.239: Ultimate Press


One of the reasons for Roland Franklyn's visit to Horsingdon in the late 1960s was to facilitate the relocation of Ultimate Press, from its prior location in the Severn Valley to the premises shown above (located in a rather grubby industrial estate). As well as specialising in the publication of rare occult monographs - including Franklyn's own We Pass From View - Ultimate Press apparently had a very successful sideline in publishing works of fetishistic, sadomasochistic and occult-inflected pornography (it is rumoured that Franklyn himself penned a number of titles for this line).

The reasons for Ultimate Press' relocation remain unclear, but at there time there was talk of a scandal involving its unnamed owner, who was apparently questioned by the police regarding the disappearance of a number of sex workers in the Severn Valley region - although it seems that no charges were brought against this mysterious individual.

Ultimate Press was finally forced to close its doors in the early 1980s after it moved into video production and distribution - subsequently becoming the focus of the public and media backlash against 'video nasties', even being investigated once again by the police in relation to allegations of its involvement in the distribution of snuff films. According to an unverifiable account, one of these films involved some kind of orgiastic occult ritual, the instigator of which was seen to transform into a bloated, headless entity which subsequently feasted upon the celebrants using leech-like maws which opened in the palms of its hands. Curiously, this account mirrors reports which began to surface in the early 1970s of a bloated, headless figure seen lurking about Horsingdon cemetary at night. More recently have been occasional reports of the silhouette of a bulky, seemingly headless humanoid figure seen framed against the upper floor windows of Ultimate Press' one-time premises.

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