I was contacted by a lady who lives in the Chesterfield area of the UK, The lady wished to report strange wood knocks coming from the wood line adjacent to her property, This is her account in her own words: “On Thursday of last week I went outside to clean hoover part, it was quite late at about 2am in the morning. I’m not a very good sleeper and I am usually up most of the night, so I catch up on odd jobs or the housework in the hopes of tiring myself out. I had taken my vacuum apart and I was tapping the hoover part to clean it, when I stopped I heard 3 very quick taps copying what I had just done, they came from in the wood line next to the house. I was puzzled by this but not scared, so I tapped again and got a similar reply.
The weird thing was about 5 mins before this tapping had happened all three of my cats came flying past me altogether heading straight into the house, not one of them went back out that night and they stayed within the house which is something they never do. I know I’m in the UK but I have never heard this before, and I’ve lived here for several years now. The wood line is about 150-200 feet from my home and there is also a railway that runs through the wood. I looked on the uk bigfoots sightings map and it seems that I live in one of the most reported sightings areas. I wondered if anybody else had this kind of experience and could it be bigfoot related? I would love to go out and check it out but really I wouldn’t know where to.
In a small woodland just to the West of the home there is another report of strange noises that may be connected.
Knocks and Whoops at Linacre Woods – A man who lives local to the area reported that he has been told about a place just outside Chesterfield Derbyshire called Linacre woods and reservoir. It’s a place where people have heard knocks and whoops while out walking their dogs.
He said: “It is a wonderful place, and although it is used heavily by the public (especially in the summer months) you can feel very isolated in some parts of the woods with some areas being very dark in the middle if the day! It’s surrounded by farmland with a couple of villages close by. The woods are commonly associated with the Green Man.
Our final case comes from about a mile north of these strange woodland experiences.
The Howler of Barlow Woods 1989 –
Witness GH: “It was around 1989 when this happened to me, i was 17 at the time. I was just killing time and I went into the wood for a look as it’s all pine trees. I’m just wandering around and everything was normal, i could hear the birds, just a good day up to that point. I was about 100 yards in when went all quiet, silence not a sound even the birds stopped. There was nobody around at all just me. The wood was so quiet I just stood there looking around and then I heard the strangest sound! A loud Whooping noise and knocking sounds from all around, then everything went silent again.
Just like that, complete quiet, no birds nor car noise, no animal sounds just complete silence, I didnt see who or what made the noises, but I could tell I was being watched i could feel it, I’m looking around everywhere but I can’t see anybody at all. These woods are thick and the trees are large, I couldn’t make out anybody or anything around me.
I headed down towards the small stream and got down to look, and I saw nothing. I lay there for ages I did some knocks back and the whoops started again, louder this time my cheeks where puckered now, I was so spooked. I looked back into the thick woodland and my eyes saw loads of shapes in the sun light but nothing I could pinpoint. Then ‘Bump Bump, Crack’ in the distance I could not take it anymore and I was off, I went back to my bike as fast as I could and all the way out I could feel I was being followed. I was so scared I kept turning around but I couldn’t see anything or make anything out in there, and then quiet came again, as i left the woods I could hear the natural noises return, the birds and stream noises. It was over, I have never returned to the wood but have passed close many times.
The Wood itself is in Peak District National Park an area of outstanding national beauty and importance, and is at the Southernmost point, mostly uplands its highest point being kinder scout, it’s vast habitats vary from moorlands to marshy bogs to an expanse of mixed woodlands.
Deborah Hatswell - BBR Investigations 