When you hear “mysterious island,” your mind probably jumps to ghosts, ancient curses, maybe some weird sea monsters, right? Mine too. Especially when that island is the Isle of Wight, which seems to have more haunted pubs per square mile than anywhere else in Britain. But I recently tumbled down a rabbit hole looking for something other than spectral matters, and that’s how I found myself face-to-face with the baffling story of Sam the Sandown Clown. 

Our story – if it’s folklore or truth, that’s for you to decide – kicks off in Sandown, a British seaside town on the Isle of Wight. Think sandy beaches, a classic pier with arcade games, little shops, and even a dinosaur museum. For centuries, it was a military stronghold, then it became a bustling Victorian resort, and today it’s exactly what you’d imagine: busy in the summer, quiet in the winter, full of families building sandcastles. It’s the kind of place you go for a nice, normal holiday. Not, you know, to encounter a seven-foot-tall, neckless, robot-clown-thing.

Now, before we dive into the deep end, we need to address that yes, the sources for the Sandown Clown vary here and there. The most quoted source I could find was linked to the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), in the January/February 1978 issue of the BUFORA Journal. The cover has a drawing of a tall, strange humanoid with a microphone, meant to depict our clown.

The year is 1973, it’s a Tuesday afternoon in May, and two children are playing near Lake Common in Sandown. Around 4 PM, they hear this “weird wailing” sound. Naturally, because they are children and possess the survival instincts of such, they follow the noise across a golf course and towards a swampy area near Sandown Airport. The wailing stops. Mind you, I know this comes 17 years before the first IT movie came out, but seeing a clown wailing near me in some isolated area would trigger something primal in me. 

Speaking to Sophia Shields, who grew up in Isle of Wight, she said: “I heard about the story all the time when I was growing up. It definitely kept me away from the airport and any forests or lakes or isolated areas. 

She told me, “I had a family friend who used to tell me that story. I think it was more intriguing as a kid, but obviously as an adult now, it’s pretty unsettling.”

“It’s like one of those stories you hear as a kid that deters you from doing dangerous things, like ‘don’t go into the woods, or there’ll be a bad man out there’. But I just don’t understand why someone would make up a story about a clown who didn’t do anything terrible, to scare kids. For seemingly no reason.”

“There definitely are some people who swear it’s real, and people around town who tell stories about spotting him. I don’t really know if I believe it, personally. And obviously for some, it’s just a weird story.”

The story says the children claimed he was “carrying a black-knobbed microphone”. When they stuck around the area, the wailing sound continued, and frightened the boy into running away. The clown then ceased the screeching noise and said: “Hello, are you still there?”

This brings up a few questions. Does it speak English? Is it human? Why would it ask if the children were still there, in “what sounded like a friendly tone”, according to the BUFORA journal?

Descriptions varied slightly, but the Sandown Clown is generally depicted as a figure in full clown attire including a painted face and exaggerated features. The sculpture (built by David Jones) in the Isle of Wight, inspired by the clown, paints a pretty uncanny picture. 

Online sleuths braver than I started poking around to look for any signs of the jester. Reddit user Key-Bullfrog3741 said: “There are/were a lot of actual clowns in the isle of White/nearby mainland areas such as Portsmouth. I trawled old photos of clowns and clown conventions back in that era in the mild hope I might find a clown style that resembled our beloved Sam and as you can imagine: no dice. Who knows…Maybe one day we will find the original tellers of this story, other people who encountered a similar entity or a clown-type resembling Sam. Clowning is apparently a surprisingly serious business and Clowns often register their look and name, a bit like a patent. So who knows, maybe the answer or further breadcrumbs are ‘out there’…”

Unlike the menacing clowns of 2016, who, for some reason thought it was fun to chase people around, this one was said to simply watch from a distance before disappearing without confrontation. In the original story, the children noted that the figure didn’t engage in threatening behavior but instead maintained a pretty silent, unobstructive presence. What’s worse? Having a clown that is chasing you, or having one just…watching? 

The Sandown Clown has not been linked to any harm or criminal behavior, and it remains an ambiguous part of the area’s folklore. Maybe it’s just because it’s creepy, but the story shows up on niche Reddit threads every now and again. 

As a general rule, I’d suggest sprinting at full speed in the opposite direction if you ever see someone or something dressed as a clown, trying to talk to you.