A Staffordshire Beast of the 50s

Although this blog is chiefly devoted to all-things of a Bigfoot nature in Britain, as I have mentioned before, other types of hairy man-beasts get reported in the British Isles from time to time - and here's the latest story to reach me: a previously unknown werewolf sighting from the 1950s...

Sussex Man-Beasts

Here's a new post from Neil Arnold on hairy man-things in the English county of Sussex:

"The county of Sussex is saturated with strange beastly folklore; from reports of dragons, to ‘big cats’, and from phantom bears, to even Bigfoot.

"One such tale that did the rounds a few years ago took place at Friston Park, in East Sussex. The sighting occurred near Newhaven on November 18th, 2002, at 2:30 am, as a Phil Hayman had parked his lorry up to stretch his legs when he spotted a large figure in the woods. The form was illuminated by a red light situated on a forestry machine in the woods. Mr Hayman was unsettled by the presence and hurried back to his cab but still had time to shine his torch at the being as it rushed off into the darkness. Phil claimed that the creature wasn’t human because he saw no skin colour reflected in the flashlight beam, and suggested it may have been covered in hair for it was dull in colour.

"The above report probably doesn’t prove that an unknown bipedal creature haunts Sussex woodlands, but the following encounter is one that will make you think again!

"In the summer of 1948 E.J.A. Reynolds, a young boy, had a bizarre encounter whilst setting rabbit traps in a wooded area of Horsham. Whilst he was hiding in the undergrowth and keeping watch on the traps, a small man no more than two feet in height appeared a few yards away from the thicket. The being was covered in hair except for its face. Its nose was pointed and it had incredibly long arms. It did not notice the terrified youngster. The figure then turned and headed back into the woods. Even weirder, the youngster claimed to have seen the creature again a few days later. He was travelling on a bus in the area and noticed the hairy being walking across the lawn of a large garden."

And be sure to check out Neil's new blogs on big-cat encounters in Britain. Here's the links:

them out!

http://www.surreypuma.blogspot.com/

http://www.sussexbigcats.blogspot.com/

http://www.bigcatsinkent.blogspot.com/

http://www.bigcatsinthesoutheast.blogspot.com/

Irish Spectral Ape

Neil Arnold has an interesting new post over at the main Centre for Fortean Zoology blog, in which Neil states in part:


"There is nothing like a chilling ghost story at this time of year. And one of my favourite ghoulish tales comes via Rev. Archdeacon St. John D. Seymour, and concerns a bizarre entity once said to have haunted an Irish castle. Certainly, a handful of reports of phantom ape-men, and spectral monkeys litter world folklore, and in the UK a scant few exist. Such a tale is mentioned in True Ghost Stories by Marchioness Townshend and Maude Ffoulkes, who comment that 'the truth of this story was vouched for to Mr. Reginald Span by the Vicar of the Anglican Church, Arizona, as it happened to some friends of his when they once rented a picturesque castle in the South of Ireland.'"

And here's the link to the complete article. Check it out!

The Cleadon Big Hairy Man

Mike Hallowell has a fascinating new post online at the Centre for Fortean Zoology's main blog on the subject of a "big-hairy man" encounter in the village of Cleadon. The report is a preliminary one; but contains a lot of interesting data. Hopefully, Mike will be able to update us on this affair in the near future.

Here's the link.

The Man-Monkey & Haunted Canals

As readers of this blog will be aware, of the many and varied "British Bigfoot" reports that have come my way, certainly the one that fascinates me most of all is the January 1879 incident on the Shropshire Union Canal - in which a man was attacked by a large, ape-like animal with bright, shining eyes.

Well, none other than British Waterways have picked up on the story and have a new posting that reveals background data on the affair, as well as much more on the haunted canals of Britain.

Here's the link to the complete article.

Man-Monkey Parallels

Andrew Gable - the Center for Fortean Zoology's representative for the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Maryland - has a new post that, as you'll see, contains a number of intriguing U.S.-based parallels with the "Man-Monkey" of Bridge 39 on England's Shropshire Union Canal.

Here's the link to Andrew's post...

The Big Grey Man

In August of this year, Fortean researcher Andy Roberts delivered an excellent lecture on the phenomenon known as "The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui" to an audience at the Center for Fortean Zoology's annual Weird Weekend gig; at which I was also speaking.

Although some would describe the Big Grey Man as a definitive British Bigfoot, as Andy demonstrates, the story is not quite so clear-cut. The CFZ have now posted Andy's lecture on-line, and it can be viewed below: