The 25 Year Haunting On Petts Drive, Lincolnshire

Today I am bringing you one case which I think stands out when it comes to Paranormal investigation. The case of an ordinary family who through serendipity are brought to a place by fate. They see, hear and experience many things we would call Supernatural or Unexplained. Most teams would immediately shout ‘demon or demonic possession’ which in my opinion is very far from the truth. They miss the fact that hundreds of families go through this. Sometimes it’s connected to a home they move into. The land that homes on. Or an object brought home and displayed. There are so many reasons that activities can take place at a home or around a person. And I strongly believe this is a natural happening. Beneath all the noise and uproar we have ordinary everyday families seeing paranormal activity happen for generations. We need to normalise speaking about this. We have to make it easy for people to speak out on the events happening around them. Without being sprayed with holy water or marked as possessed. 

Our case today takes place at the mouth of the River Nene that flows through the east of England. At 105 miles long, it is the tenth-longest River  in the United Kingdom. The river rises from three sources in Northamptonshire and flows into the North Sea via The Wash. From the west, it flows through Northampton, Wellingborough, and Peterborough. Along the river there are several homes, Inns and farms that have their own local fame due to the ghosts and spirits that call them home.

Krissy and her family have lived in the home for close to three decades. They are aware of spirit and up until now the activity has been positive and in some cases a little mischievous. Items will go missing for no reason and suddenly turn up in other rooms or at other points in time.

I would like to read to you from an ongoing conversation we have had over the last few weeks. I asked Krissy if the activity had been consistent over the years. 

Krissy: “We live on Petts Lane and Yeah this house has always been active, it was built in the 1830’s. I put the cameras in to monitor one of my children who has autism as he gets up way too early and I want to keep an eye on him and make sure he is safe! When I fitted the cameras I never thought I’d see something like this! I don’t feel anything negative in my home at all but I’ve never gone into or near my garage at night in all the years I have lived here. That garage gives me the heebie jeebies! The camera’s audio has picked up some sounds that are coming from the garage and they have creeped me out. I don’t like that noise. You can hear that it sounds like chatter. 

I heard a loud bang outside earlier so I hit record as fast as I could and again it sounds like it picked up a noisy spirit but I also heard running water! Then it goes quiet again at the end but that sounds like water? I know I live right next to a riverbank and there was an old pump house here back in the day as we live on the coastal estuary. The voice I believe is being carried by the water. We’ve tried to debunk this audio and we have ruled out radio interference as the cause. There are no homes around us or workshops or anything that would have a cb or long wave radio. It’s not noise from the Port or the ships etc. And sometimes it sounds like it’s trying to say something, like people talking? 

The audio was captured on a camera mounted on our garage watching over my drive. I live rurally next to a river bank so my nearest neighbours are far away. And I can promise you it is silent all day long here! The night this happened I was expecting my Tesco’s delivery so my dogs have been barking on and off recently. This is a newly installed camera system. So I kept thinking the dogs were barking that night at the Tesco man as he had pulled up but he hadn’t and they weren’t barking at him at all and this was what I recorded on the audio capture. 

“I would say my house is very haunted anyway. But they are kind spirits and I’m respectful. I have seen many things when I have been out there on my drive and I’ve ran back into the house to be honest. I’ve lived here for over 24 years. So I’m not easily scared but this I do not like. If the audio captures were not bad enough, now the cameras have caught some strange dark mists in the house. Those mists were captured and I wanted your opinion of them. In one video where you see the dog there’s a hand that comes from an orb towards the end of the film. You can see it clearly at the end of the hall on the right side. That’s my bedroom and no one was here apart from me and my middle son who I was talking to in my kitchen at the time. We were nowhere near my room or the hall.

I asked Krissy what she meant when she said she has seen things when she is out on the drive and she said: “Once at the top of my drive I saw a dark hooded figure just standing there. It was a quick glimpse maybe 10 seconds long. I was staring at it and it just vanished.  

I should add my family history and some strange coincidences about this house. I was born here. It was my 1st home when I was a baby. I didn’t know this as my parents moved out of the property when I was 2. My Mum hated it here and said I was a problem baby, I was always screaming and never settled. So about 20 years in fact myself and my ex husband were looking for a house that was rural as we had several dogs and we both hated living in town. So when we saw this place advertised, we came and saw it. It was extremely dilapidated and run down but we put an offer in and it was accepted. I wanted to tell my Mum and Dad the news and ask my Dad’s advice as he was an electrical engineer who had done up a lot of houses. So on Sunday lunch at my Mums I showed them the details. My Mum laughed hysterically and looked at my Dad and showed him where we were moving to. She then said “you silly cow you were born there that was your 1st house”!

So the lady I bought it from Mrs Moore was the lady my parents sold it to. She was reluctant to sell it to me as she said it had given her nothing but bad luck and we are a nice family. I just dismissed her. I said ‘it’s fine I was obviously meant to come back’. So she sold it to us. In the 1st year alone I saw that shadow thing and I hated it. I’ve also seen legs form in my glass double doors. I was pregnant with my son and I was alone. My now ex-husband worked nights so it was just me and my 3 dogs. When it was night time the dogs were going haywire! So I would let them bark out but there was nothing there. One night I came back in and went back to bed. Then there were very loud bangs on the old back door and the dogs started up again. I let them out again and nothing, that went on until 5 am.

Random stuff disappears only to reappear months later. It’s also freezing cold all the time. There was so much activity our doors would unscrew themselves often! The handles and hinges would also unscrew. I might add the door was sealed shut and we hadn’t ever used it and it is extremely hard to get to as the old extension was falling down. You’d have to climb over the rubble to get to the door to take it apart. My relationship broke down. I have suffered extremely bad luck here. I miscarried in that hallway and my parents died within 5 months of each other. Mrs Moore was right, her son was killed on his bike at the top of the lane. My partner has said this house is cursed. He hates it and just wants to get out.

My youngest child has had night terrors as did my eldest son. We constantly hear noises coming from everywhere. The one thing I don’t like is the chopping that my son hears when he’s in his bedroom that comes from the old cold store. The weird thing is I don’t want to leave from here. It’s like I’m its keeper. I said once to my partner, ‘I’m like the gatekeeper from ghostbusters, I’m not scared’! I just want to know why this happens and maybe even free it? My son drew what he saw climbing up his bedroom wall once, it was a horrible black thing in the corner. That’s where all the orbs appear from.

My Nanny Prothero talked to me once when we were in an old church. I had my hand over my ears and she said..”can you hear that?! Obviously I couldn’t hear what she said so she took my hands away from my ears and said can you hear that? I said yes what is all that singing! She said ‘ah so you can hear them like me’. 

It’s like this house can be a bit of a portal sometimes. I honestly believe my family do come back here from their graves from time to time and check in. So that’s why I’ve never felt like I should run away and never look back! I know I’ve got a spiritual back up. It’s just this one thing that isn’t nice, that is mainly experienced outside but if I don’t do my sage and protections etc it creeps back in.

You can tell everyone all about this house and me it’s more my partner I’m concerned about bless him. It does affect people who aren’t born to this land more I think. It’s a hard thing to explain but I have 2 ex partners I believe for that reason. My husband was a very lovely caring man but he changed so much when we came here. He became extremely depressed, irritable and a shadow of the man he was. Now he’s not here, he’s lovely again. In my 2nd relationship he became physically abusive and I asked him to leave. I have seen it drain the fun out of my current partner but it was the 1st thing I spoke to him about! So he knows and is prepared but he will admit it’s very hard living here. And we have no luck with anything. It’s like the house is constantly battling him.

I honestly believe that! We both have good hearts and obviously are very open to it all. He is open too which I think helps him here. He’s said many times “I’ve never known a place like it!! ” I do feel for him. To be honest I think there is something in that garage. I think it’s that dark nasty one trying to tell me something. It’s the water noise as well that gets to me, there have been a lot of deaths in this river! And this house was the only one for miles around with it being built in 1830. It was the only bit of above ground water for miles around when I looked at old maps.

I know my relatives who have died have visited. My Dad did always say if there’s anything to this afterlife I will come back and prove it to you Krissy! He never was a believer. But I know he’s got my back! Plus my partner has seen him and it made him jump! My Dad was a prankster in life and he wouldn’t hurt my boys. Not like this other thing. The amount of orbs I see on my camera now, I do wonder if my family are on patrol looking out for us lol. Thanks for listening Deb, It really does help just sharing it all.

I wanted to interject at this point as I have a strong feeling about the house and what it was built from. Intuition tells me that some of the timbers in the home could be from one or more of the old ships that would wreck or wash up here. People in coastal areas all around the world use the timbers of old ships in their homes and buildings. They are often used as lintels for windows and doors or for ceiling joists. I know many old homes that have floors and doors made from old ships, small glass windows from the cabins or have an old beam as a fire mantle. Let’s be honest when scuttlers were involved not a matchstick would be left on the beach. Every part would have been vital, picked up and whisked away. Krissy mentioned to me that her partner does not like the attic in the home. And I think this could be a possible reason why?

I don’t know about you guys but it seems to me that Krissy is meant to be in this home, I also feel like she is its guardian in some way. I think it has something to do with her bloodline. Her grandmother heard the voices, as did Krissy and her boys. She is out there on the coast line like a literal lighthouse, shining for any spirit, entity or energy to see. Hundreds of people have died in the wash, in the River and out at sea. It’s an area with a long history of ghostly horsemen, hooded monks, and sailors long dead and gone. People report hearing voices crying out for help, maidens singing like sirens to bring in boats on stormy nights. I would imagine there are lots of local families who have their own stories to tell along the coast and further into the farmlands and woodlands upstream. 

I am going to use my online sources to scour old maps, archives and history articles to see what I can find out about that section of the coast. I think finding out if there are any wrecks in the area, or people who have perished there due to tide and time or at their own hand. There could be many souls looking for a place to share their truth with the living. Or we could be looking at something to do with the land. The house itself as we know is very old but what was on the land before that home was built? Was it Priory land or owned by the Church or other Sects secret or not? All of this information needs to be collected before we will know any answers. 

Kerry allowed me to share several of the captures with a number of investigators. They listened to the audio captures and studied the videos and have given their expert opinions on what they see, feel and sense. The evidence analysts did not know where the house is situated other than the county. They know nothing about the family other than it is a Mum, two sons and her partner. I did not give them background context, historical history or the names of any family member, or ex tenants at the address. This was only revealed to them, after they had handed in their analysis of the audio and video footage. Like me you will all be amazed at just how close some people were to the truth. 

As many of you listening at home will want to see the footage and hear the audio I have added a link to the video’s with all that information included and a link to a website where you can read the transcript of this conversation. I am really keen to hear what you guys think. And to see if we have any EVP captures or captures on camera I may have missed. I would also be interested in any psychic messages, automatic writing or intuitive thoughts. Here are some of the cases and information we have collected so far.

Chad K – On the audio clip you sent over I see something is trying to manifest on the left side of the screen. Then something almost body-like flashes on the screen but ‘I’m not sure what it is as it goes past so quickly. I’m inclined to say all of the activity has something to do with the river. I think some of the audio sounds like something trying to speak underwater? It sounds like someone is saying “help me”? Then it goes into more like the sound of drowning noises, do they walk or live near the river?  I also hear a very clear high pitched “I’m drowning” I have a strong feeling to ask “Has the boy seen anything physical“?

Sam – I’ve watched all the clips and also the original which shows far more. I can see what looks to me like something transparent is at times in front of certain books on the book shelf. Then I see something dropping to the floor or what could be a see through foot placed behind the drawers in line with the books. There are at least seven shadows and see through shapes shooting from the area where the seethrough thing is. I also see something that is seethrough by the glass doors, a white vertical panel that is separate to the shape in front of the bookshelf. 

Susie – I watched all the videos and I see several dark shadows, orbs and a hand that appears on the door. The hand looks tiny to me. The audio sounds like chattering. I would say it’s also different voices. I hear two, possibly three. I think the sounds are elemental and to do with water. Water has memory and holds onto it. It’s something I have done a number of talks about over the years. I am really interested in this case and will look forward to updates.

Now let’s look at a possible shipwreck that may be possibly connected. https://www.lincsonline.co.uk/spalding/news/weekend-web-the-boat-with-a-tragic-back-story-1-8195752/

Significant loss of life happened at the mouth of the Nene on August 22 1893, when nine people drowned in a boating accident at Sutton Bridge. A group of anglers from Sheffield had hired a small sailing boat at Sutton Bridge to take them on a pleasure cruise which included some fishing and a trip to forage samphire on the marshes.

There were two families and an engaged couple on board the boat that day. The weather was windy and there were some rain showers, but the boat was in the capable hands of the local river pilot Edwin Burton and his son Bernard. The party set off before lunch and sailed down the river to the lighthouses that guide shipping down the channel into the river mouth.

Everything went well and the happy sailors set off back to the bay when the boat was caught by a sudden squall and apparently capsized, throwing all its occupants into the river. Some children collecting samphire near the lighthouse saw people in the water shouting for help and they ran as fast as they could and raised the alarm. Despite the efforts from many of the locals in the community there was only one survivor named Mrs Smith. Edwin Burton (41) and Bernard (12) were buried in the same grave in Sutton Bridge the following Friday. The victims from Sheffield were buried in their home cities. 

The boat they set sail in appears to have had its own spooky mysterious past. It had been bought by Edwin Burton in King’s Lynn after the boat had been found drifting at sea with the corpses of three sailors on board. Where the boat had come from and the identity of the sailors was never established.

In fact there are still the remains of another small wooden boat that had been wrecked in the area. The rusted remains sit on the salt marsh of The Breast Sand to the west of the island in the Wash between The River Nene and the River Great Ouse outfalls.

The river gave its name to a boat named Nene of Wisbech, one of whose crew was drowned in the river in 1830. A very quick search led me to information that may be good going forward as I found so many people had perished in the water around the area.

Four men’s lives were lost when The barque Nene Valley sailed from Gravesend on the 27th

June 1854, bound for Portland Bay and Port Fairy, with nine passengers and a general cargo onboard. In October of that year the vessel ran aground when they mistook their bearing due to a fog bank hiding the shore line.

But the reports of deaths on the river or the river’s mouth continue into the present day.

Another soul was lost to the river on 11th and 12th January 1978, the North Sea storm surge caused extensive coastal flooding. Higher water levels were reached than during the devastating North Sea flood of 1953. Flooding affected both banks of the river at Wisbech. A 70-year-old woman drowned in her flooded home in Wisbech after the Nene burst its banks forcing 1000 people to evacuate their homes.

The death of an Oundle man whose body was found in a river was so badly decomposed that pathologists couldn’t explain his death, an inquest has heard. Lindsay Prior, 45, known commonly as Bert, disappeared from the house where he lodged on January 21st 2016 .

An extensive police search followed to try to find him, but his body was not found until the morning of March 25 in the River Nene at Water Newton – some 10 miles away.

On the 13th October 2021 The body of a Cambridgeshires woman was found in River Nene.  Lina Petkiene, 42, from Peterborough was found deceased in the river at North Bank on Sunday, April 3, 2022. Ms Petkiene was last seen leaving her home in Aldermans Drive, Peterborough before 7pm on March 21, 2022, when she had “told others she was going shopping and then to Nene Park.”

The body of a man said to be in his 80s was found in a lock on the River Nene Navigation through The Lakes Business Park, near the River Nene, at around midday on Saturday, November 25th 2022. 

A paddle boarder in his 40s died after he got into difficulty on the River Nene in Peterborough in August 2022.

In May 2023 in the area known as Whittlesey a man’s body was recovered from the River Nene at North Bank Road.

Officers searching for missing man David Stacey 71 have discovered the body of a man. The body was discovered on Wednesday, December 20th 2023 in the River Nene. 

An inquest was opened into the death of Raymond Dean, 77, who died at North Bank, Whittlesey after he entered the River Nene.

Very recently on the 17th January another soul lost their lives in the River Nene and I am unsure if it is connected. Detectives have been working at pace to establish the circumstances of her death and following formal identification and she has now been named. Katherine Corrie, aged 49, of Northampton, also known as Katy, was found in the River Nene near Mill Lane in Kislingbury shortly before 8am on Sunday, February 11th 2024

Sadly as I dug deeper into this case I realised over the last three centuries the body count for the River Nene, The Nene Washes and out at sea number into the hundreds. So many people have lost their lives there. I can only go back as far as records allow, but I would imagine if we searched back to the earliest time we could, the Nene has taken many men, women and children. 

https://linktr.ee/bbrinvestigations

She Ran Out In Front Of My Car 12/3/2024

A new Report came in to BBR from the aptly named Skinflats area of Falkirk when a man who was driving shortly after midnight on 12/3/24 saw a female run out from the dark fields and head straight in front of his car. 

I spoke with him shortly after the event as I had worked a case with him previously when he had been out at a similar time of night and experienced an event he is still coming to terms with from several years ago, We speak from time to time so he reached out to me and we chatted about what happened and how I believed when he is out driving the roads at night, thinking things over is the time he experiences activity. I’ll go into that a little more later but first let me share his experience with you.

She Ran Out In Front Of My Car 12/3/24 – BBR Witness S: “Hi Deb, thanks for getting back to me, I have just had a really strange experience and I’ve pulled the car over to get myself together as it’s really shook me up. I was out at a place called Skinflats in Falkirk just driving as I couldn’t settle myself to sleep for the last few nights so I thought I would just go for a drive to clear my head. I used to come out here with my mate and we would always be out looking for rabbits. Everything was fine until something ran out of the darkness and ran straight into the road as I was driving. I really thought I had hit someone. It looked like a woman.

I was driving about 20, maybe 25 mph and there was no one else out there. These roads are derelict after 10pm so that’s not that unusual. There is a little junction you can take close to the Dutch Inn and I took the right hand road when it happened. I could tell it was a woman because I remember seeing long hair. She wasn’t dressed in a long dress or anything that stood out to me. She just had ordinary clothes on and in the politest way possible she was clearly female. I honestly thought I had hit her. I stopped the car and got out to look and she was nowhere to be seen. It has really shook me up Deb, I had a panic attack and had to pull off into the layby and collect my thoughts.

Sighting Accounts From Cannock Chase and in the Areas Close By.

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I Don’t Know What He Was, He Was Hairy & Huge in Size. I Think My G’dad Harmed It?

The experience I am sharing with you today took place in the 1980’s in a small village in Cheshire. It was shared with me by the witness himself and the event took place when he was around 7 years old and playing in the fields at the edge of his village. It culminates with his grandfather going into the woods looking for the creature and there is the possibility he may have ‘persuaded’ it to leave’?

This is something he has kept to himself for almost four decades, now his need for answers far outways and trepidation he has about sharing what happened to him that day and in his pursuit of answers it led him to me. I am elated that he did, he shared one detail that I feel is incredibly important. It is, I believe the only report we have to date where a giant creature is seen purposefully manipulating an orb of energy. But I’ll explain more about that later, for now let’s hear what happened to him that day:-

Witness Paul: “I have never shared this with anyone before other than my grandfather on the day that it happened. Back then I had no idea what I saw or what to do with the experience. It’s only now that I’m an adult and looking for an explanation led me to a channel on Youtube called How to Hunt. Steve who hosts the channel shares people’s unexplained experiences and he tells how important it is to come forward as by doing so you may be helping someone to come forward. Sharing what’s happened helps you to get over it and I think he is right. So with that in mind I looked for someone in the UK who could take my report and that led me to your map.  

It happened in 1986 when I lived in Moulton which is a small village close to Winsford in Cheshire. It was during the long summer school holidays. I can still remember every second of what happened vividly. I remember how frightened I was and how even at that age my brain was trying to process what it was seeing. What happened to me is completely impossible and I’m sorry sometimes that it did. But at others I wonder why I saw him? What was he? And how I felt at the time.

I lived with my grandad and my best friend Matthew lived across the street from me and we would play in the farm fields and the woodlands all day and only come home when it started to go dark. We would do all the normal things that kids did back then, making dens and the like. Although we would always call them bases for some reason. Matthew was a year below me in school. That morning I left home and went across and knocked on Matthews door, his mam answered and I asked if Matthew was playing and she said he was at his nana’s house but when he was back he ​would be out to play. So I told her to tell him I would be down at the base that was down on the land next to the farm. 

The base was a huge tree that at the time I thought had fallen over but now as an adult I think it had been hit by lightning as there was a huge split at the top of the trunk that went all the way to the root ball exposing the white inner wood. You could see that white colour like a landmark as you crossed the fields to go to the base. We used the split part of the trunk as our cross beam and used other bits of sticks, branches and logs to make the den. 

Because Matthew wasn’t out I decided to go myself and wait up there for him, so I set off for the top of the village and walked down the dirt track. This is old mining land and is mostly green belt farms and fields. Everyone used to call it ‘the tops’ . I don’t know what its real name was. I went past the tops and you had to walk through the middle of two bits of waste ground and two huge fields. I’m not sure if they were the farmers’ fields as I had never seen them worked. They were just full of tall grasses and natural plants. I remember using the green sticky grass as darts and we would chuck them at each other. The fields didn’t have fences separating them, they had ditches lined with trees and undergrowth. There was a certain part of the ditch that was easier to cross as it was narrower and that’s where I was headed. In the next field was the base.

You couldn’t see the base from the field but as you got nearer you could see an opening in the tree line that led to the base.  What you could see was the white wood from the break in the tree as it was so pale it stood out like a large landmark. But this day it was different. It looked dark as if the bark had grown back overnight. At first I thought that was really cool as it was still white yesterday and I was the first to see it, I couldn’t wait to tell Matthew all about it. I was about 30 ft from the opening at this point. I was still looking at the bark as it held my interest and I suddenly realised it wasn’t bark that I could see, it was hair. My 7 year old brain went straight to one of those long haired bulls and that was really scary. I was in the middle of farm fields so I presumed it had gotten out and was standing in the gap to the base. My mind started racing as I wasn’t sure I could make it back across the field and over the ditch before it caught me. Without fully realising it at the time, it was already too late, I was routed to the spot. Fear held me there paralysed. The idea of that bull turning and seeing me was all I could think about.

It had to be that breed of long haired bull standing sideways blocking the opening to the base and yet it was still tall enough to cover the light coloured bark that usually contrasted white against the dark of the canopy. My mind just started racing, trying to come up with an escape plan. It was at that moment that everything went deadly silent. As if someone had pressed pause or mute on nature. It was windy enough that the trees and grasses were moving but I couldn’t hear anything. At that age the long grass came to about my waist and I had been able to hear it moving up to that point, then, complete silence set in. And I’m just standing there trying to get my legs to run. I’d never experienced this before and it made it even more alarming. I had no idea how to act or even what was happening in the present, my mind was scrambled. Everything tuned into what was standing in the centre of the gap.

I think I did start to cry a little bit as I was so confused and scared and I was in the field on my own with no mates around me and I had a horrible feeling something wasn’t right. Like I’d done something bad or forbidden. Or like when you are found somewhere you’re not supposed to be. As if I was about to get the telling off of a lifetime from an authority figure. It was that intense. I told myself to run, my head said to leg it, but I couldn’t move. I was stuck to the spot. I think someone once said that what we call, flight or fight syndrome is really flight, fight or freeze and that’s exactly what I was experiencing at that moment. I couldn’t get my body to move in any way. I was just glued to the spot staring at the side of a huge animal that at any moment could turn and see me. I was looking at it so intently I realised it was breathing, I saw it in and exhale. But not in a horizontal way that a cow would, like a human would? Then it dawned on me what I was seeing was part of a chest and stomach of something huge crouching down on its haunches. It was a hair covered chest from the top of a set of shoulders and I could see the mid section to about the height where a human naval would be.

I saw the stomach and chest move as it breathed in and out deeply and that intensified the fear a hundred fold. This thing had to be huge. I was there once when a dog came running into the base and its owner had to come in to get him. He was an average sized man, under 6 feet and he had to duck to come into the foliage and tree cover around the base. So its chest and stomach were over 5 feet in length and about 4 feet in width? And then I realised it was facing me. Its direction of view was right at me. And I didn’t know where its head and face were. That terrified me, the thought of its face filled me with dread. All this is happening in nanoseconds but at the time it was like time had slowed right down. My senses had concentrated everything on that gap in the foliage. 

I think with hindsight I started to shut down at that point. I was beyond crying, I reached the stage where you’re gasping for air and sobbing as you struggle for breath.You wouldn’t think a young boy could experience that much fear without breaking down completely or passing out from fright. I don’t know how I coped with this. When I look back and remember how I felt while this was happening I can still feel the weight of that fear. I was absolutely petrified, I didn’t know what it was, or why this was happening. I had never been in a situation like this before and I had no reference for it to fall back on. It just shouldn’t have been there, its impossible. But it was there, it was facing me and I was frozen to the spot. 

When I was a kid I was into comic books, and I had read the Marvel episodes that featured the hulk. If you used his size for reference and turned his skin from green to a chocolatey brown colour and covered him in hair, that’s probably a good fit, as close as I could get to what it looked like. A huge torso covered in hair. I didn’t want to look at it, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I’m a grown adult now and it was way bigger than I am now. So you can imagine how small I felt as a 7 year old boy confronted with this thing. And thinking back it never made a sound. 

I was in shock, completely flustered. And then it started to move. It stretched its hands out in front of me. Its arms were fully extended and they were huge and full of muscle. His hands were less hairy than his body and his nails were human-like and dark in colour. You could see veins and how coarse his hands were. His palms were down to the floor, he turned his palms inwards with his thumbs touching and he made a sort of triangle shape with his hands by touching his index fingers. Sitting within that triangle was an orb or globe of light. It was illuminating onto his hair and it was in front of his solar plexus area. Its movements were very slow and deliberate. Slow, almost fluid. I was able to concentrate on the hands and arms and the glowing orb of light. It was suspended by itself. He wasn’t holding it, it was just there in the triangle V of his hands. It reminded me back then of a bright silver ball. It seemed to be getting slightly bigger and slightly brighter as I was watching it. 

At that point the creature moved its arms back towards the forest and away from the orb. In the same way it had moved them together. It was the same motion, fluid and flowing. And the orb just hovered there. They were not connected in any way, it was levitating there. So at this point my mind is about to break, I was so upset and struggling to breathe while crying. It was like a million thoughts running through my mind and my body was still refusing to move. It definitely had hands, it had thumbs and fingers. Its hair was shorter on its wrists but it was hairier as its arms raised. You could see its muscles. It had nails not claws. Then it started to stand up. As it stood up the orb was still connected as if it was attached to him.  

In a matter of two or three seconds, it was standing up. What scared me more than anything was the thought of seeing its face. If it was taller than the canopy I would have to look at its face and that was terrifying. I couldn’t stop looking at it. As it raised itself it moved deliberately slow. And then from my left shoulder I heard a growl. It was like everything around me was in a bubble, I couldn’t hear anything but I could hear growling.

Thankfully I recognised that growl. It was my granddad’s dog Hobo. He was a big ginger Irish wolfhound and I know I had locked him up carefully before I left. I once made the mistake of letting him escape and my granddad was none too happy about it as he had to walk around the village to find him. As he is so big, people are scared of him. He is a big softie and I’d only ever heard him growl when we were playing. But today he meant everything he put into it. He was staring intently at the rising creature and not moving an inch. In my peripheral vision I can see Hobo right there, profile to profile with me. And he is inching slowly forwards putting himself in harm​’s way to protect me. This part still upsets me as I know he was trying to protect me. He is growling, and still looking intently at the creature in the trees. At that point his back leg was against my shoulder. 

I remember seeing his face and he looked evil. I had never seen him like that before. He was bearing his teeth and slobbering. His hackles were up and he was completely on point. He never took his eyes off the gap and he didn’t look at me or turn his head. I slowly turned to look at his tail and it was straight as a die. He was ready to fight. Now I know he was making himself look as fierce and as big as he could. That’s what dogs do. He saw the danger I was in and he put himself between us without thought. This is one of the hardest things I find to share, because it makes me so upset to know Hobo was protecting me. How he knew I was there I will never know. But he saved us both that day. He started to bark ferociously and those barks snapped me back into reality. All the sound came rushing in at once and I could move. At that point I heard a voice.

I say heard, but it was in my head, so technically it was a thought. It wasn’t a man or woman’s voice, or my voice. I still couldn’t think straight, but it was a clear thought. It said clearly and vividly ‘Run now or you will never see your home again’. All this happened in a couple of seconds. Hobo’s barks were so loud you could feel them. And I turned and ran. He stayed behind, keeping himself between me and it. I legged it over the field, across the ditch and I kept going in the direction of home. I was going that fast. I don’t remember running. I don’t remember most of the way home. As I got halfway across ‘the tops’ thank god Hobo caught up with me. He was ok. I kept going till I got to the gate. As I came to a halt I realised I had wet myself. I don​’t know when that happened but I remember realising it. I couldn’t get in the house quick enough. I was in a right state. Both me and the dog went barrelling into my granddads house.

He could tell by the state of me something significant had happened but I was in such a state it probably took a good half hour before I started to make sense. I was trying to relay what had happened but it was going out in stunted sentences. Finally I managed to explain it to him. I don’t really remember how I explained it. But I remember his reaction to it. He was furious with me, he got really angry and was shouting and he gave me a good hiding. The worst hiding I have ever had in my life, he absolutely leathered me and I never found out why. I don’t think any less of him for it but that​’s how he reacted to what I told him. He took me to my room and he said ‘stay there. Do not move, I’m going out and you better be in your room when I come back’. He left and it was a good few hours before he came back. It was still morning when I went into my room and it was after tea time when he returned. I don’t know why he reacted like he did or where he went. He never explained that to me.

When he came back he was so different with me, he asked if I was ok and I daren’t say no, you just battered me, so I said yes, I was fine. He comforted me, he gave me something to eat and a hug but we never discussed what happened or where he went. I went up to bed that night and slept like a log. You would think I would have been too scared to sleep but I went out like a light and slept right through. I didn​’t dream, didn​’t have any nightmares. I slept like a baby. When I got up in the morning as I was headed downstairs I could hear my grandad talking to someone in the kitchen and I realised it was another male but I couldn’t see him so at that point I didn​’t know who he was. I stayed where I was on the stairs and listened.

I caught my granddad as he was saying ‘yes it was’ and the other man said ‘bloody hell Eddie what are we going to do now’. My granddad answered him and said, ‘you don​’t have to do anything about it, it’s gone and it’l not be back, that’s the end of it’. When the man got up to leave I moved downstairs to the kitchen and living room and looked through the window as he left. I heard the door go and knew he had to walk down the path and I’d get a good look at him. When I saw him I realised it was the farmer who owned the land all this happened on.  I don’t know if it​’s his correct name or a nickname but everyone called him Royston and the fields was called Royston’s fields. My granddad came in then and asked me if I had slept well and I told him I had, he asked if I was hungry and I said I was. So we sat and had something to eat. 

As we were eating he said ‘that thing’ and my stomach dropped. I knew we were going to have a conversation about it and that made it real and so frightening. I knew he didn’t doubt me, I know he believed me but I was confused after his reaction yesterday. He didn’t try and explain it away or ‘say’ are you sure it wasn’t this, or that’. He clearly knew I was being honest. So I said ‘what was it grandad’ and he said ‘it doesn’t matter what it was, it won’t be coming back, you’re not going to play down ​there anymore. and we are not going to mention it outside the house’. I really wanted an answer so I tried to ask him again and he just kept saying ‘no’ we weren’t going to talk about it again. He was adamant about it. I kept asking and he just kept getting angrier. He finished by saying ‘that’s it, we are not going to talk about this any more, that’s the end of it, no more, that’s all’. I didn’t push it, and I have never spoken about it with anyone else until I spoke to you Deb. Right up to the day he died we never spoke about it again. Never once”. 

I asked Paul if he thought there was the possibility that his granddad knew what the creature was and if he thought his grandad may have seen it when he was a kid? 

He said “I don’t know if he saw it as a kid, but looking back on it now he definitely knew what it was, so he probably did. It was like he had seen it before or seen something like it before. But the other thing that got me was what he did when he left. I stayed in my room as he told me to do so I don’t know what happened that day or where he went. But the next day when he was talking to Royston it seemed clear that they both knew it would not be coming back. I don’t know what he did to it, or even if he did anything, but his comment about it not coming back seemed to be understood between them. Did my granddad do something to it? I don’t know, and I don’t think at this stage I will ever know. My granddad passed on over two decades ago. I even tried to find the guy who owned the farm, I looked under the name Royston but never came up with anything. That​’s why I’m sharing it now, maybe someone remembers something about the area or the man who owned the farm?“

At this stage of our chat I was able to explain to Paul that the feeling he had when he was frozen is a natural primal instinct for us humans. The brain is constantly picking up on millions of signals from your environment. It does this without thought, when fear or high emotion happens the brain narrows down and pinpoints the ‘danger’. Our sight and other senses narrow down and fix on the object of our fear. Just like a victim of a crime, they narrow in on the gun rather than the subject holding it. The creature Paul saw that day was manipulating the ground energy somehow? What was it doing? This is the only account I know of, in my 40 years of research where a witness sees a creature actually interacting with energy. 

There are lots of reports where a person sees the creature and the ‘orb’ together in the same area, or where a globe or orb entices a person into the woodland and then a creature is seen. Paul remembers listening to an American podcast where the creature was running along a ditch and it had a globe of light that was tracking it, or moving along with it. That’s probably the closest account to what Paul is describing. 

Paul remembers going to the farm to play with his mates, there was a huge hay filled barn and they would jump down into the hay until the farmer found them. Every year in November the farmer would give them use of the straw and burlap sacks to make a guy. The kids would push it round the streets collecting pennies for it. Then at the top of the village there was an old playing field. And everyone would make a huge fire and throw their ‘guys’ onto it and watch them burn. This happens in every town and city in the UK and I remember doing the same myself. Paul explained that sometimes if you weren’t lucky the farmer had some big dogs chained up protecting his property and he remembers a time when he and his friend were sneaking to the barn to jump in the hay when both himself and Matthew realised one of those farm dogs was not chained up. Paul said “It was loose and it stood in the middle of the farm lane just staring at us. We were both really scared and we turned and ran away from it. That was scary but nothing compared to how I felt when I saw that creature. I don’t think anything in my life to this point was scarier than my experience at the base that day. At least with the farm dog I had the ability to run and leg it. There was a bit of distance between us. With the creature I was frozen solid to the spot, even if someone had paid me, I wouldn’t have been able to get away. It was a completely paralysing experience. I couldn’t move a muscle“.

“I am just glad I didn’t see its face, that would have been too much for me and even to this day I am grateful I never saw it. I don’t know what would have happened if Hobo hadn’t shown up and protected me”

It Was 8ft Tall With Yellow Eyes. Poole Dorset September 2018

Witness Report: “Hi Deborah, I wrote to you as I am a listener and I live in Dorset. Although we are not a major hot spot for strange things (very few sightings) I have had two strange encounters recently myself with something I can’t explain. I work as a mechanical engineer, so my life is spent on the road mostly which has me leaving home for work in the very early hours of the morning. The first thing that took place that I can’t explain happened when I was in my hometown at around 4.45 am on a misty morning in late September 2018. I was driving my freelander along Herbert avenue in Poole Dorset when I encountered yellow/orange eye shine in the road, now this not uncommon as you see local foxes around, except this eyeshine was around 3 feet  above the road and there was nearly a foot in length between the eyes that I could see.

I slowed down rapidly to get a better look at whatever was crossing the road in front of me. As I came around thirty feet away from it I expected to see a large dog on the road! But there was no body with these eyes, just two large eyes staring fixed on my approaching vehicle. The eyes behaved exactly as you would expect them to, if they were part of some large animal. As I passed them in the car they disappeared into a driveway.

My second brush with the strange happened on the A338 Ringwood road close to the sewage treatment works. It was around 04:15 am and that day I was leaving for London, it was in October 2022. I was driving my van out of Bournemouth, when something crossed the carriageway just on the edge of my headlights. I say something because I only saw it for a few brief seconds as it was leaving the opposite carriageway jumping the barrier in one step. 

Now this in itself would be a little strange, but not unheard of. If it was some homeless person or a late night party goer trying to get home that wouldnt have surprised me. But that wasn’t what I was looking at as for the briefest second I caught eyeshine as it turned to look at me. And also the fact this thing has a head and its head was level with the carriageway signs, which are around 8 feet high. 

I have been a background researcher into the strange and paranormal for most of my life and I have encountered quite a few interesting things in 50 years. I follow your channel and enjoy hearing the reports that you share. I feel that we may be looking at this experience with a paranormal eye and not a scientific one. I have looked into The conjunction of Ley Lines crossing some hot spots and their connection. 

But may I present another interesting idea. Places like Raf Bempton and Dynes Dyke are situated quite close to RAF radar stations, and drone transmission trucks are seen in those areas. If you add to that the increase of local cellular towers, beaming microwave signals all over the country. you may find a connection to the increase in paranormal activity. 

I would suggest you and your members may be interested in the experiments carried out by John Hutchingson into the effects of signal inter-modulation and its effects on matter and gravity. Is it a possibility that the effects of signal inter-modulation, could be affecting the natural energies of our planet, or this effect is somehow causing a breakdown, between barriers with our world and some other reality. 

Allow me to impart a little more information you may find interesting. During the early days of WW2 we took our first steps into the world of radar, also for Germany. Both beaming radar across the channel. In fact during that time several other nations were trying to build radar stations across the globe. And you will all remember that it was the time Foo fighters first appeared. Strange balls of light trailing allied aircraft, seemingly under intelligent control. Perhaps that was the first time we witnessed wave inter-modulation and its effects. 

Although I believe our ancestors also understood wave modulation and harmonics, especially when it came to stone, bodies of water and crystalline rock structures. I say bodies of water because in Eastern text, it would be a source of Prana. You see our brains, like all other creatures on this planet, are able to receive electromagnetic signals. This is how birds navigate and other animals behave like they have a sixth sense. Some people may get a bad feeling about a place, or others may be affected physically. But some people still have that ability to read the wave forms like a computer reads ones and zeros. We perhaps call them psychics. 

Whether it is UFO’s, crop circles, ghosts or ancient lost civilisations, Wave forms, harmonics and electromagnetic inter-modulation all seem to keep popping up somewhere in the study.” 

Whilst I was investigating this case I was contacted via Youtube by a who had some local information to share.

Simon Linford: “I lived in Dorking for over six years. I worked as a postman so I know the area quite well. It’s very heavily wooded, and some of the surrounding villages like Cold Harbour look like they’re from another era. There’s also the story told locally of witnesses who were seeing people in the fields in old 17th century garb bringing in the crops with scythes. I was on Box Hill one day and it was silent, not a bird singing or anything.

I wonder if the people in the fields were finishing the last sheaf of hay. Called ‘Crying the Neck’ or ‘Crying the Mare’, Dorset customs surrounding the cutting of the last sheaf were very similar to those found in neighbouring Dorset and Cornwall. In the majority of places cutting the last sheaf was seen as an honour but in some areas people were fearful of being held responsible for making the Corn Spirit homeless. 

To prevent being cursed with bad luck often groups of reapers would take turns in throwing their sickles at the sheaf. To be even safer sometimes the reapers would sweep their scythes back and forward across the sheaf whilst blindfolded. In this way the blame was shared.

When the sheaf was felled a shorty ditty was sung. At harvest the last sheaf of corn was sacrificed along with an animal, often a hare which was found amongst the crops, to the gods and goddesses to ensure soil fertility for the next year. Eventually this evolved into the corn being plaited to represent a figure symbolising ‘the goddess of the grain‘. This became known as a ‘corn dolly’ and was usually hung in a farmhouse’s rafters till the next year.

It Stood Over Me and I was Enveloped in Pitch Darkness, Then I was Fighting For My Life

Five decades ago I thought I was the only kid in the world who experienced horrible things in their bedroom at night that became so difficult to deal with and to never be understood or believed was so confusing and frustrating. The events themselves are hard enough to live with and impossible to explain but to be constantly disbelieved over and over has an effect on any child’s inner growth and self worth. So many of you know what it’s like to get ready for bed and be terrified of what was to come. As a Parapsychologist my experiences personal and professionally enable me to empathise with anyone who has suffered and endured this endless nightly torture. 

Everyday I meet someone who has a tale to tell me about something they saw at home growing up. The lucky ones only see things once or twice while others endure 24/7. Each witness and case are unique with the common denominators being Fear or Attention, and in some cases abject Terror. 

Witness Report V: “Hi Debbie, First of all I would like to say thank you so much for giving me your time in reading my email. I know you’re a very busy lady! I listen to all your podcasts and I think you’re amazing. and a great narrator. You give great comfort to people as you’re never judgmental of any one. I feel comfortable reaching out to you. Since I found the paranormal community online I have felt so much less alone with my own experiences. Most of my friends don’t have an interest in the unexplained or they have had no paranormal experiences, so it just does not resonate with them as it does with me.

I will tell you my experiences chronologically. I think my experiences are pretty bland compared to what others have  been through, especially from listening to other peoples experiences.

My first strange experience happened when I was a young child. I think I was 5 or 6 years old at the time. I was brought up in the village of Snainton and we lived up at Lairs Crescent which is near Wydale woods. I remember one time distinctly, I was waking up in the middle of the night and found myself looking over to the opposite side of the wall across from my bed where all my toys were. For some reason I felt  very afraid and really wanted my teddy. I ran over to where my toys were and put my hands out in the dark searching for it. I remember very clearly something grabbed my wrist firmly and it  would not let me go. 

I was so scared, I felt unseen hands around my wrist gripping me. I tugged and pulled my wrist away. Eventually whatever it was let go of my wrist. I turned on the light but there was nothing there, just boxes of toys. I ran into my parents room and got into bed with them. That would become a nightly routine for the next few years, I was always waking up in the night and running to their bedroom and jumping into bed with them. I remember telling my mum about the monster in my room but she just dismissed it. I’m 48 years old now but I still remember it clearly.

My teenage years and twenties were a difficult time and my two experiences in those years reflect this. I think I attracted more negative energy as I was unhappy and mixed up. I was a young teenager 12 or 13 yrs old when a group of my friends thought it would be fun to play on the Ouija board. We had no idea of how dangerous it was to do that. It was just giggles and fun at first. We would do it regularly and just thought it was a game thinking one of us was pushing it. When you’re that age you’re so silly and like being scared. I remember never believing it was real. It was just a game.

For some reason I then decided to play on the Ouija board by myself in my brother’s bedroom. I was alone in the house. I remember the cold to the bone horror, shock and fear I felt when the glass started to glide aggressively and erratically round the board with only my finger resting slightly on it. I WAS NOT PUSHING IT. This was no longer a game. This was REAL!! I can only describe it really like there was a magnet under the board suctioning the glass down on the board as it was moving with purpose and force. Gliding fast and erratically across the board in straight lines towards the letters trying to spell something out to me. 

I stopped doing it immediately and took the glass outside and threw it in the garden.  I know without any doubt this is real. Looking back at the experience I do believe that I opened the door to something negative. Whatever was pushing that glass was coming through me as the glass moved with force when my finger was near it, barely touching  it. I was really shaken up and never touched it again.

A Holographic Figure Standing Over Me Tried to Kill Me – My next experience happened when I was 20 years old and I was staying at my boyfriend’s ‘at the time’ parents house in Stourbridge in the West Midlands. I was staying in the spare bedroom by myself. His parents’ bedroom was downstairs. I don’t think it was a really old house, maybe a 1960’s build but I’m not sure. One night I woke up in the middle of the night. I have no idea what time it was but I was definitely wide awake. The moonlight was shining in the room and it was  very cold. I saw in the corner of the room a figure of a human. 

It was tall and muscular although I could not see them clearly it was like a black and white hologram almost static. I remember clearly thinking “Am I dreaming ? is this real? I scrunched my eyes up and turned to the wall then turned back again. I was fully awake. The figure was still stood there staring at me. I was absolutely terrified and in shock. I remember clearly being terrified as it started to walk towards me in an almost almost robotic way. I saw its legs and arms moving almost like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz film. It was in the form of a human but it was not human. It had no face just darkness. Whatever it was, felt very evil. It stood over me and I was enveloped in its pitch darkness. The next thing I remember is I was fighting for my life . 

I remember that my soul lifted out of my body and I felt myself bouncing down onto the floor with this thing over me. I was fighting it off with everything I had. But I eventually could not fight anymore and I gave up. Once I just accepted it, I felt myself enveloped in light and pure love. I felt my body, my soul lift up away from this thing of pure darkness and evil and I astral projected away from it and floated out the bedroom and down the corridor. 

I then came to in my bed. I must have lost consciousness when it spiritually attacked me. I sat up in bed. The stifling suffocating atmosphere had gone. The room was normal again. I know it sounds like it was a bad dream but I know 100% I was wide awake and what I saw was real. I have told people before but they just dismissed it as a dream. I do think I lost consciousness and my soul was taken from my body when it attacked me. I’ve never really known what happened to me or what that was. I never experienced anything like that again. 

My other experiences involve seeing orbs. Orbs that are electrically charged and lit up part of the room. I will email you again with these experiences.  Thanks for listening Debbie

Kindest Regards V”

A Snouted Werewolf or Ape man? Autumn 2022

Witness Report NN: “Hello I was passed on your contact details from Seb who I was put in touch with by my sister in law. He said you’re the queen of the weird world which to be honest I was a bit worried about how people would take hearing about what happened to me. I told my mum and brother and they both laughed! My brother pretty much said it was probably a weird creep and my mum said it was a tramp who was probably living under the bridge.

I have lived in the area all my life and I was even best mates with the girl who lived in the house with the back garden that has the canal at the end of it. And the bridge is in full view of the house, so no tramp is going to live under there. It’s one of those places that is always wet and pools of water drip from the ceiling above and I don’t know why I even tried explaining these things because I know full well what I saw and it was not a man. On the day it happened I was walking along the canal as it’s a shortcut that runs behind the Pendeford estate between Pendeford and Marsh Lane, the walk leads to where I live. Anyhow on the day I saw him I’d cut through the alleyway and went onto the canal track. It’s dark but I only have about 30 metres of canal track to walk and then the bridge is right there. There is a street light at the far end of the bridge to show the canal path but it doesn’t light up anything but the path under it.

I was just on the grass hill between Padbùry and the bridge and I could see someone sitting on the canal bridge to my left as I approached it. The first thing I thought was it had to be someone dressed in one of those camo army ghillie suits. The person was sitting with their back to me and when I was obviously approaching them they turned slightly and at the same time they launched themselves down from the bridge and I heard them land in the shrubbery and trees that are at the canal track side the bridge. I could only really see the front of one side of this thing as it turned from the bridge. As it did that the light illuminated enough for me to say that I was not looking at was not a person at all. In fact it looked like something with a monkey typeface.

I’d say it wasn’t a suit, it was covered in dark black hair. When It was launching down from the side of the bridge I saw the shape of the face but I could only see the profile. I couldn’t see the face head on but from the side profile I would say this thing had a bloody great muzzle!! I thought to myself and this is what my mum and brother think I’m barmy for because it looked like a Werewolf at that moment and not a Monkey or whatever. I honestly don’t know what to make of it but I knew I had to get over the bridge to go home and I was right at the edge by then. I held my breath and just walked the few steps staying close to the middle of the bridge because I kept thinking I was going to be grabbed by this thing and taken over the side. I’d just reached the metal gateway that you walk on one side then around the other to the opening and I was just about to get a sigh of relief when I heard what I can only describe as demonic laughter or a taunting cry of some kind. I know it was coming from the side of the bridge where this thing jumped and it was the most frightening feeling knowing this.

To be honest with you the way it made me feel has never left me. Just writing this out to send to you gives me chills. The thing is I’ve always been interested in creepy things and the paranormal but I have never seen or experienced anything and certainly would not have ever considered myself sensitive or drawn to anything like that as I know many people who see things are. I’ve always been into hearing about other people having weird stories but in 38 years I have not had any odd things happen to me, not even an off feeling of some kind. And I mentioned that because the way that thing made me feel at the time as if I knew some things somehow that I don’t quite understand. Like I knew it was pure dripping evil, I didn’t just think that from its look or the sound it was making. Somehow I knew without doubt it had bad intentions. I’m not religious in the slightest. I just know whatever it was, it was through and through evil and the other thing I knew without a doubt is that it was somehow enjoyable the way it was terrifying me. Like it knew what I was feeling.

It’s truly affected me and I don’t even like going to the shops on Harrowby road anymore as across the road is the field leading to the Marsh Lane side of the bridge. I have never told my friend who lives in the Pendeford estate and was not going to be telling someone else after the reaction from my mum and brother definitely. Then my brother had obviously told his wife because she rang me and was actually genuinely listening. That was when she asked if I’d speak to someone who teaches a class at her university that turned out to be Seb. The weight lifted from me after speaking to him. It was like a relief, like I was about to sigh again. Since the night of the laughter I’ve felt bundled up in my stomach. Seb told me to read your books on Amazon and I did. I’m so grateful to know there’s so many others out there who have felt that and seen whatever these things are. I’ve met with Seb and as I told him I am happy to share with you and your followers, honestly I admire you for all you guys do. I don’t think you know how much it can mean too people and if I can help by sharing what happened to me I will.“

I understand completely how this witness feels as do many of you out there. Why was that creature waiting on the bridge? It would have heard and smelt her coming long before she reached the hill, let alone the bridge. BBR Investigator Seb, “Do you recall that time in the chat during your live show that you did a good couple of months back and I told you about the time I was walking along the path from the canal up to the bridge with my fishing gear after a day’s fishing. And I heard something that was obviously trying to mimic the sound of a baby crying. Hopefully you do, because it was THAT VERY BRIDGE. The same bridge Nikki saw her creature. This is something I haven’t shared with Nikki yet as I always find it best to get all the information from the witness on their experience before sharing things like that.

Even without intending to or without realising it can influence certain details which is why I want to make sure everything she can remember is established before sharing that. There is something very wrong going on in that area. Bear in mind that bridge is literally a third of a mile from Pendeford Mill lane, which becomes lawn Lane, and that is the road that the nature reserve is on. This lane is where I saw something run across the road in front of me. And it was running on four legs very awkwardly. It reminded me of the awkward robotic way the tall alien things walked around when they first attacked in war of the worlds, the movement was just so unnatural. And I’d felt something was very wrong all the way from when I got on the lane, to cut through Coven coming back from Penkridge one night.

The entire atmosphere was different and my senses were reacting to that abnormal atmosphere. I know people say this sometimes but nothing describes it better when I say the atmosphere was electrical. I braked when this thing crossed and I saw it at the opposite side of the lane before it went into the field and out of view, it had stopped moving and just stood upright. I could see fairly well from my headlights but not like you would if it had been directly in front of me. But I saw it clearly enough to know it had stood upright and was actually standing at the opening of the field at the gap between the tall hedge line that runs along the lane on both sides. It was an opening leading into a farmers field, with a wide wooden gate with those panels going across then one diagonally each way. It stood with one hand on the gate, turned slightly and I could clearly see it was looking at me from the side of its eyes but not facing me. That’s the part I cannot process because when it ran across me it was obviously moving all wrong but it was animalistic and when it stood up its like it had changed completely. It had no snout but it did have pointed ears and tufts of fur on its elbows and shoulders, and it had like a hyena type mane. It looked more like a piggy shaped nose but human too. Its arms and legs were hairy but I could see skin, it had really long hair, and random tufts of hair.

The hand I could see had long fingers and long sharp nails, not claws. It took its hand off the bar and jumped over the gate from a fixed position. There was no preparation for the jump. There was no taking a run up or a leg up to assist itself. It just bounded over the gate and was off and into the darkness. I don’t know what that thing was There’s no way that’s a coincidence Deb”

The Beast Awakes. It Rose From The Ground Before My Eyes.

Witness Report Christian: “As you know Deb I am a devote christian and Easter sunday is a very important day for me. I was writing a christian message in chalk at the side of St Simon’s church when everything changed. As I wrote “Jesus has risen.” I heard the holy spirit command me to ‘stop and wait’. I obeyed, stopped and waited. I could see in the street lights that no one was around.

It was then that my attention was drawn further up the road about 3-400 metres and as I watched the tarmac began to peel open up in the centre of the road and a Beast of no name came forth. I could see its hands then arms as it pulled itself out of the floor.It seemed to pull itself from the hole in the ground as it rose up. It was in a sort of slanted position and on all fours then it proceeded to walk up and down the road on all fours looking left and right and as it began to look down the road towards me I could see its eyes tinting in the light. They were an almost yellowish orangey red in colour and similar to cats. It circled the hole it came out of still down on all fours.

It was moving like a Gorilla or Ape and was covered in black hair.I presumed it was hair, to be honest it could have been skin but due to the distance I couldn’t be certain. As I was standing there watching it, it stood upright onto two legs and took off down the road running to the right at a quick pace due to its large 6 foot strides. It was heading in the direction of Waverly Grove. I dont know if the whole event was in slow motion or it moved at a high speed, or if it was the long strides it took that made it cover a large area in a short amount of time? Then the tarmac closed back up and resealed itself.

It was incredibly tall, I would say at least 8ft in height. Iv been back and looked in the daylight and I do think it was really tall compared to its surroundings. I waited maybe 30 seconds or so and the holy spirit told me ‘everything was ok now and when I looked the Beast was nowhere to be seen.

There is something ‘off’ about the area it has a doom and gloom kind of feel and locals have reported strange things. Another thing to note is that below the road there is a massive drain which leads from Portsdown hill about 8 miles away. They are victorian flood drains that could fit a double decker bus inside as they are so large.

I used to have a garage in Wimbledon park, there was a murder there one day and I asked the officer who was looking for the knife if he had checked over by the garages and when he did thats where he found the murder weapon. I think the guy got 28 years in the end, but the strange thing is, the murder took place right in the spot where I saw the ground open up in the middle of the road.

Once many years ago the caretaker at the local school told me that the whole school playground began to flood with water and the school started to sink. They had to get a company to come out and do a ground survey and the whole school is sitting on a huge hole in the ground. You can see a good dip in the ground there. 

Mystery at the Shelter Stone. What Stalks the Night Unseen?

The Shelter Stone, is a place most climbers here and abroad have shelter over night against this vast boulder that sits high above the corrie at the western end of the Loch. Below the stone is an area of shelter that has helped many climbers survive the night in one of the UK’s most exposed places. There is ample space for a small group of folk if needed. Nestled in the Cairngorm mountains that are said to be the home of the Big Grey Man the stone has some strange stories attached to it, and one of the most interesting accounts was shared with me by a BBR member and I knew you would all would be interested in this article. I have also included a number of other strange reports made by people who have sheltered at the Shelter Stone. 

This experience centres around a group of climbers and it was shared by Tony Marr when he explained a terrifying encounter he had with a mysterious presence at the Shelter Stone in 1977. Tony said: “This happened to me and two of my close friends during a bivouac in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland in August 1977. Despite this mysterious incident occurring more than four decades ago, the story, until now, has only been shared with my family and close friends. However, over the last few years I have been encouraged to record and share my story with a larger audience, some of whom may hopefully find it as mystifying and intriguing as I still do.  

Our team that weekend comprised John Chadwick, Alan Taylor and me. We had first met and became close friends a few years earlier through our common passion, rock climbing. As keen climbers we were well aware of the best and hardest rock climbs in Britain. On one such weekend we planned to test our skills on a climb called The Steeple, a route on one of Scotland’s finest rock faces, the huge Shelter Stone Crag in the Cairngorm Mountains. The climb had a fearsome reputation.

We were already experienced climbers with a long list of similar difficult climbs behind us. John and I were both in our late twenties, but between us we had already amassed more than 30 years of climbing experience, both in the UK and the Alps. Alan was our youngest team member at just 17, yet despite his tender age he was already a very talented and skilful climber with an impressive list of hard climbs to his credit. We were under no illusion just how difficult this climb would be. 

Leaving our homes in Middlesbrough after work on the Friday evening, we embarked on the long drive north. Sometime in the early hours of Saturday morning John, our driver, declared he needed some rest and promptly pulled into a quiet layby just outside Aviemore where we managed to snatch a few hours’ sleep. After enjoying a hearty breakfast in the town, we drove the remaining few miles to the Cairngorm chairlift car park. Stepping from the car into chilly moist air was an unpleasant shock. Dark clouds sped overhead propelled by a strengthening wind. The car park was virtually deserted apart from two small groups of walkers, yet it was mid- morning! Why was it so quiet, did people know something we didn’t?

We sorted and packed our rucksacks with equipment for the weekend; food, stoves and fuel for three days, cooking gear, ropes, climbing gear, sleeping bags, spare clothing…our rucksacks were heavy but we still managed to overtake a group of walkers that had set off before us carrying their small day packs. We made it to the plateau and set off on the normally pleasant downhill walk to Loch Avon and the Shelter Stone. This became a real physical battle, the wind was blowing with such force that we had to lean against it and drive ourselves forward. It was not until we began the final descent to the loch, that the terrain began to offer some shelter from the icy blast, allowing us to unzip our jackets and wipe watering eyes.

“There it is”, shouted John, pointing beyond the loch. Our eyes were drawn to the Shelter Stone Crag. The path led into the boulder field beneath the crag where we soon found some refuge for the next few days. We were relieved to find the shelter was empty and  unoccupied; in fact, it suddenly dawned upon us we had not seen another human being all day. We began unpacking our rucksacks and making ourselves comfortable.    

The day was nearly over with darkness fast approaching. Inside it was quiet and peaceful, totally insulated from the outside world. We settled ourselves on the flattest ground we could find with our feet pointing towards the entrance. We ate our meal and settled in for the night. As soon as our torches were out it became absolutely pitch black. You could just make out the open entrance in the blackness. I think we all fell asleep quickly, the day’s strenuous activities had tired us all.

Sometime later, I was woken by sounds that were coming from our cooking pots. I could hear scratching, rattling noises that I figured were just mice, searching for scraps of food. I drifted back to sleep. Later still I was again roused from my slumbers, this time by another, more unexpected sound. This time it was the distant rattle of sliding stones! I really didn’t want to be disturbed again so I just closed my eyes and listened, wishing that whatever was making the noise would GO AWAY and let me sleep. The sounds were coming from the scree slope above the shelter and they were becoming louder. Given the time of night I thought it unlikely to be a deer, but it could possibly be other climbers or walkers looking for this shelter. I lay quietly with my eyes shut, but fully awake, listening, expecting to hear voices, but there were none. I rolled over in my sleeping bag so I could look toward the approaching sounds, trying to see a glimpse of torch light through gaps in the shelter’s dry-stone walls, but there weren’t any!

The sound of sliding scree faded away, only to be replaced by the distinctive “clonking” sound made when granite boulders knock together. Someone was picking their way through the boulder field toward us. I could make out the sound of a single set of slow, heavy footsteps getting ever closer, there were no other sounds or voices. Once again I turned my head towards the approaching sounds, trying to catch sight of torch light or movement, but again there was nothing!

I began wondering how anybody could negotiate that boulder field on a pitch black night without some form of light. The previous day, we had crossed the same rocky terrain, in daylight, and found we all found it required great care not to slip or fall. The footsteps were approaching the rear of the Shelter Stone with a slow, regular, and very heavy, thrump….thrump…..thrump then they suddenly stopped. And then there was total silence.

Whatever was making the sounds was now within ten feet of where I was lying. I was beginning to feel tense and uneasy, the hairs on the back of my neck bristled. The footstep sounds I was hearing were unlike anything I had ever heard before. My brain raced through its memory bank, trying to match these sounds with others I had experienced over the years; those of humans, and all manner of animals, but there was no match! I was confused. This was my twentieth year as a rock climber/mountaineer. In that time I had spent hundreds of nights in the mountains, either under canvas or in some natural shelter. Never once in all those years had I ever felt frightened or threatened, until now. This was very different!

After what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds, the footsteps started again with the same slow, heavy rhythm; thrump…thrump…causing some of the boulders to “clonk” together. I could feel the vibrations from each footstep through the rock slab I was laid on. My nervousness was gaining momentum, fear churned in my stomach. I was outside my comfort zone, what the hell was happening to me?

The footsteps were moving around the outside of the shelter towards the entrance. Although I could not see any movement, each footstep was so distinct that I was able to track progress as they neared the entrance. I raised my head and peered past my feet. The entrance was barely discernible, a grey shadow amongst jet blackness. The eerie footsteps stopped at the entrance…still no torch light, no sound. I was breaking out in a cold sweat. Never have I experienced anything so frightening. My eyes strained to penetrate the darkness, trying to identify whatever was making my pulse race. But still nothing was visible. After what seemed like an eternity, the footsteps began again, slow and heavy, but this time they were heading away toward the loch, I listened intently, the sounds eventually faded. I breathed again. I lay for several minutes; my mind was in turmoil, what on earth had I just experienced!

My thoughts turned to my two companions. Alan lay a short distance to my left, and John a similar distance to my right. I listened for any movement or indication that they were awake, but both appeared sound asleep. I began to wonder if I had just experienced a really bad dream? Restless, but utterly exhausted, I finally fell asleep.

John was the first awake and he crawled outside to check the weather. Seconds later he shouted back through the entrance, “You are not going to believe this, we have a covering of snow”. Alan and I looked at each other in disbelief, then we scrambled outside to look for ourselves. Sure enough, only a few feet higher, the rocks were covered in a thin layer of wet snow and mist cloaked the crags. Our plans for the weekend had just been cancelled. We were all clearly disappointed, none of us spoke for a while. The weekend we had all looked forward to for so long was now in tatters. John broke the silence: “Breakfast anyone?” Friendly banter returned.

My two companions appeared to be their normal lively selves, yet my own thoughts kept returning to the previous night: had it been just a bad dream, was it just me? I was not sure, I needed to find out. John was standing next to me and I asked if he had slept OK.  He said he had slept well “Great night, slept like a log,” was his reply. I was shocked by his response and wondered how he could have slept through the mice clattering around, the sliding scree and “those footsteps”? Maybe I had been dreaming?                                 

I turned to Alan who was busy with a bacon sandwich. “How about you Alan, how was your night?” Alan paused as though he was considering his answer. “Not a good one”, was his initial reply, he then turned the question back to John and I. “Did anything disturb either of you two last night?” John answered quickly with a resounding “No, nothing.” Attention turned to me. “I had a dreadful night”, I replied. My response seemed to stir Alan’s attention and another question, “Why, what was the problem?” My reply was brief and guarded. “Mice in the cooking pots.” Alan nodded in agreement, and enquired “Anything else?” “Noise from the scree and footsteps,” I replied. Alan looked relieved and responded excitedly. “Yes, yes, I heard that as well, what the hell was it?” I shrugged my shoulders and said: “No idea; I have never experienced anything like it”. Clearly, Alan and I had experienced the same bizarre incident. For the next few moments we just stood looking at each other, both relieved that we hadn’t imagined it.

John said “are you two taking the piss?” I could tell by the expression on his face that he was clearly confused by what he was hearing, and obviously thought we were trying to wind him up. Alan and I reassured him that we were deadly serious and we spent the next twenty minutes or so recalling the night’s frightening experience.

I was keen to hear more of Alan’s thoughts and asked him to recall what he felt when the footsteps moved around the shelter and stopped at the entrance. “I was absolutely terrified”, was his instant reply. “Could you see anything?” I added. “No, nothing,to be honest as soon as I heard those scary footsteps, I reached out of my sleeping bag and picked up a rock. I was ready to throw it at anything that came through that entrance, I was petrified, what the hell was it?” he replied.

All three of us were confused by what had occurred and we decided to retrace the route taken by the “footsteps” to see if we could establish what had walked by in the night. Negotiating the wet and slippery boulders around the Shelter Stone made us aware that whatever had crossed that same rocky terrain the previous night, without a torch and at a steady pace, had been either very surefooted or possessed incredible nocturnal abilities. We searched around the boulders looking for footprints or any signs of passage, human or otherwise, but we found nothing.

As we stood at the rear of the shelter, it became disturbingly clear that the “footsteps” had come within six feet of where we had been sleeping. In an attempt to recreate the “heavy footstep sound” I moved about on the boulders while Alan listened. But, to our surprise, we found that my ten and a half stone weight was not sufficient to produce the sound! We turned our attention to creating the sound of “clonking boulders.” Again, we quickly discovered that to create a similar sound, required the combined weight of two of us to knock the boulders together. We were all confused. What on earth had passed by during the night? A sudden gust of icy wind caught me by surprise, making me shiver and focusing my mind. The weather was deteriorating rapidly. Snow began to carpet the ground, preventing any further investigations.

With no prospect of climbing, we packed our equipment up and set off back to our car. The trek over Cairngorm was uneventful, just hard physical effort in the fresh snow. The strong wind we had struggled against on the walk in was now on our backs, this time assisting us, like a giant hand pushing us uphill. As we walked, Alan and I continued to swap thoughts about the previous night. Poor John, still bewildered by what he was hearing, could only keep asking questions to try to understand what he had slept through. The ski lift car park eventually appeared through the mist, deserted apart from one vehicle which was ours! Not really surprising considering the weather we were experiencing was more typical of a bad day in January, than an August bank holiday! Sadly, our weekend in Scotland was over, but the mystery at the Shelter Stone remained!

Some days later, I was recalling the events of that terrifying night to some climbing friends when one spoke out. “That sounds like the story about the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui.” I had never heard this story before and I asked my friend to tell me more. He remembered reading the story in a book about early Scottish Mountaineering. Apparently, the “Big Grey Man” is a legend about a giant hairy figure that haunts Ben Macdui, the highest mountain in the Cairngorms.

The story goes that in November 1925, the highly respected climber and mountaineer, Professor Norman Collie, was invited to speak at the Cairngorm Club annual dinner. During his speech, the professor made public for the very first time an account of a terrifying experience he had 35 years earlier. The professor was apparently walking alone in thick mist, near the summit of Ben Macdui when he heard something other than his own footsteps. To his surprise he was hearing the crunch of heavier footsteps on the path behind him. It sounded as if something was keeping pace with him, but whatever it was only took one stride to every three or four of his. Collie kept looking back, trying to glimpse what was making the sound, but he could see only mist. He admitted that he felt a “presence” and became gripped by fear; “taking to his heels”, he fled the mountain without looking back. When closing his speech to the bewildered audience, the professor added: “I will never again venture back to that place alone.” The story from this otherwise sensible man of standing encouraged others with similar tales to emerge from the shadows and share their own experiences.

“The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui” story is now well established in popular folklore. These stories range from sightings of a huge, hairy ape-like creature, whereas others only report hearing heavy scary footsteps and become overwhelmed and fearful, just as Alan and I had. Unfortunately, despite the increasing number of so-called Big Grey Man encounters, no one has been able to provide any physical evidence to prove or disprove the Big Grey Man legend, yet.        

Although I have finally written this story more than four decades after it occurred, my memories of that night are still as vivid as if it were yesterday. I have climbed in the Cairngorms many times since that night, but I have never felt any desire to return to The Shelter Stone area! Alan and I are still active and climb on a regular basis. Over the years we have often recalled and deliberated our Shelter Stone incident, ever hopeful for a satisfactory explanation for what we experienced. When telling the story to friends or interested parties, I am often asked if I think we really had encountered the Big Grey Man. My reply is usually: “Possibly, but I can’t be certain as I didn’t see anything and have no hard evidence.” What I am very certain about is that whatever I experienced that night in August 1977 was very real and extremely frightening, and to this day remains a mystery.

Other reports at the Shelter Stone Include ~ 

A Tall, Stately, Human Figure, at the Shelter Stone – One night in 1942 while resting at the Shelter Stone and looking out towards Loch Avon, climber Sydney Scroggie suddenly spied: “A Tall, Stately, Human Figure, when it appeared out of the black night on one side of the loch. The figure was said to be clearly silhouetted against the water. The figure was described as having a strange gait, it walked at a pace with long, deliberate steps as it moved across the combined burns just where they enter the loch. Despite rushing over to the spot, Scroggie found no footsteps or any other evidence of the figure having been there. The experience caused Scroggie a great deal of unease. So he quickly returned to the Shelter Stone”.

The Shelter Stone Footsteps 1940 – Whilst spending a summer’s night underneath a huge block of stone on Ben MacDhui’s slope known as the Shelter Stone, Scottish author R. Macdonald Robertson and a friend were awakened by the sound of growls that were being made by Robertson’s bull terrier dog. Then they could clearly hear the sound of crunching steps approaching them along the gravel path that led to the Shelter Stone, until, suddenly, they faded away again, and the dog then was once again relaxed.

A Creature at the Window. The Thing/Monster in the Woods. December 2019

Witness Report: “We were staying at a holiday home cottage in Deeside, and at night after 1900 every evening for about a week we heard a very strange undulating siren like howling which went on for hours. The howling was really long, loud and happened repeatedly over several nights. We thought it was coming from the woods, then echoing weirdly from the opposite hill since there’s nothing to make that sound out there.

Listening to it was inexplicably unnerving, I’d even say creepy and the feeling has stayed with us ever since we left. I am certain whatever made the howling was coming up to the cottage and I think it was urinating up the walls by the back door. The smell it left behind was rank and in my opinion it smelled worse than a septic tank. it wasn’t a fox, I know what foxes smell like and this made your eyes water.

I also know what a septic tank smells like, my parents had one and this stench was much worse than one of those. The house had a septic tank, but it was down at the bottom of the hill, which was a bit of a distance away and the smell was also on the kid’s sledges and up the walls around the door. There were no leaks anywhere, we checked. The kids tried to pick up their sledges and their hands picked up this rank liquid. It was revolting.

The nightly howling that we heard came from the woods to the west of the holiday home. It was so loud we at first thought it was a siren going off. The siren or howling calls were of an irregular length, went on longer than we could (quietly) replicate it and we thought the sound was bouncing off the hills, since it’s just grouse and farms up there, nothing needing sirens. In hindsight, after hearing something on a podcast, we think we heard something almost identical to what is called the Ohio howl, which we came across by accident over a year later. We recognised it immediately as the same type of sound. We believe there was probably two of them, one replying to the other. Which is why the sound finished out the back before another started out the front, there was no echo to overlap. My husband went to check the car one night when the howling stopped.

During the previous visit he went for a late night walk to look at the stars and took one of the children with him every night. Not this time. When the howling was going, he had to force himself to move and he brought the poker with him and I watched for him and the torch with the doors locked the entire time. I’m not a fearful person, I grew up in the countryside miles from anywhere. I’d done late night walks by myself and it wasn’t even that late, it was before 2030 but this was creepy and unsettling.

It was not our first visit to the cottage as we were there the year before in 2018. On that visit we heard no howling and saw lots of wildlife in the garden, game birds, deer etc. That year (2019) There was NO wildlife to be seen, not even roadkill. We live 30 odd miles away and my husband works North of Aberdeen, so you get used to seeing roadkill on the roads. So it was very weird to see none at all, it’s the same council so it’s not as if anyone was gathering them up in that area in comparison to the north of the shire as opposed to the west.

During the visit I saw something huge. I don’t know what it was but it was hairy with green glowy reflective eyes and it was looking in the window of the holiday home. The sill on the window was higher than my head and I’m 5 foot 8 in my boots. So whatever it was it must have been tall. When I saw the eyes, ooh, it just emptied your thoughts from fear. I didn’t know what it was, I just backed out of the room and closed all the doors and said nothing to anyone. It then banged on the window a few minutes later, you could see this hairy mark like a hairy football had hit the window.

I saw the eyes, face and hand after I returned indoors five minutes after I’d been outside to the freezer, and I was terrified the whole time I was out there. I was convinced something was coming to get me. I was even talking out loud saying “it’s ok, my eyes were down”. I was even explaining “I’m not going to see you, I’m just out to get ice cream, I don’t mean any harm to you, you can get on with your business, I’m just going out to the shed there for ice cream. I’ll be as quick as I can. Right that’s me, I’m just going inside, I’m not looking up, you’re safe to do whatever you are doing, I’m going straight back inside”. I couldn’t hear a thing and I did not lift my chin from my chest nor look beyond the light from the kitchen windows. It was so hard to keep a slow pace, I just knew if I ran I was dead, and I don’t know how I knew that.

When I got to the steps I got too scared and I ran and threw myself inside, against the door then jammed my foot at the bottom to pin it shut to lock it. I was shaking and I still didn’t look out the windows, which had no curtains to close. I was not going outside again that night.

I served up the ice cream, and took an extra meal I’d frozen out to thaw so I could put the ice cream into the inside freezer, the tub was too big so I found another and put it in there, I told the kids and my Husband that if I couldn’t get it in there, they could just finish it. I wasn’t going outside cold or some excuse, but it was too creepy which I said only to my Husband. He had the feeling it wasn’t a great night.

I felt so scared out there and in the kitchen but I couldn’t understand why, it was insane, there wasn’t a peep of a sound outside, which was unsettling in itself. We should have heard wildlife and the sheep, which can be very chatty to themselves (not when the siren howls were going though). I was alone in the kitchen sorting out the last few things and my chin was deliberately on my chest, my eyes were on the floor so I couldn’t see out the windows. I was consciously keeping my gaze below the window level and not looking out of the windows in case I saw something. It was like I was breathing fear.

It knocked on the window, a double tap with its first two fingers. The hand on this thing looked strange, very close to a human hand but the fingers were very thick like a chimpanzee’s, hairy on the back and they weren’t the same proportion as a human’s and the thumb wasn’t the correct angle or articulation. The palm looked to be a different proportion, longer. The face was black, mostly hairless but the head was covered in black hair and it had a Homer Simpson protruding mouth that it gaped at me. The jaw was broader and more heavy than a human’s and the cheeks were more muscular. I didn’t see teeth but the mouth gaped at me and its eyes glowed greenish yellow but not sharp like a cat’s. The eyes did capture you. The eyes were watery and gave off a blurry glow. This thing was huge and it had to have passed two of the cottage windows at least to be right in front of me, so it could look me in the face and see into the lobby beyond the kitchen door. The lobby which led to where my family were sitting. If it came from the woods.

One of the kids laughed and I noped out of there. I dropped my gaze, switched off all the lights, backed out, and closed both doors into the living-room. I closed the living-room curtain, checked the front door and parked myself so no one could get past me. Then the bang sounded. I kept everyone indoors, saying my jacket had probably fallen off the hook. I put a film on so everyone else got into that and did not look at the small window by the fireplace with no curtains.

When someone wanted to go to the bathroom, which is beyond the kitchen, I escorted them, using my body to block the view through the glass door into the kitchen of who was beyond me. I even waited and hid behind the wall so I wasn’t visible until they were done. Then I blocked the view of them coming back into the living-room. I had no idea what was out there, I knew what I’d seen but I had nothing in my frame of reference to recognise it as anything known. I didn’t know if it was a physical creature I’d seen or some Yule ghosty thing. If it was real what could it be? There’s nothing like that in the UK and had I said to my Husband and he’d gone into the kitchen, he’d have gone with the poker in case it was violent. If it was physical it could have kicked off at that and my children were in the house. I switched off the lights, closed the doors, and hoped it would go away. Within minutes it banged on the window loud enough to hear and startle everyone.

That night I was up and down all night looking out the bedroom window, the sheep in the field were all in a cluster, horns out. Sheep are like gas, they fill a field and don’t tend to bunch up and they were strangely silent. They were all in a circle, horns out and staring down at the house with the ram out slightly in front. I never saw anything when looking out the window, but I heard gravel scrunching or a rock moving outside the kid’s bedroom. I was trying to figure out what I’d seen, was it a physical thing or some sort of Yule ghostly thing? I now know what I saw, and I think the bugger was outside the kids bedroom and it had been within five minutes of catching me outside. There was no howling that night, there was no sounds at all, other than the clack of the gravel.

The next morning there were watermarks (probably scent marks on hindsight) about the back door and that awful rank smell. It was over the sides of the door frame and on the kids sledges, we had to wash the kids hands then the sledges as it was so revolting.

We went to Burn O Vat on the 20th and the disgusting strange smell was wafting about and some stones were thrown at me, which also smelled of that rank smell. We were on a level bit of ground above the gorge and since we were trying to look down into the vat. My husband led the children down and I was to follow once they were down. Once they were out of sight I heard something, a crash stamp kinda sound I thought might have been deer. I looked over in the hoes seeing them and the stones sailed up high into the canopy, bounced in the heather and landed at my feet. This only happened once I was isolated from my Husband and children. I picked them up and they smelled rank, like the door did. Which was confusing, why did it stink like the door? I had to clean my hands with a wet wipe.

That day when we got onto the path to the vat at the bottom and we saw other walkers there were also having problems. They could not get their dogs to walk, everyone was struggling and they were having to keep the dogs on the leads and physically drag them around the walk. Many of them were friendly dogs, but the owners were telling our children, who plaster themselves to all the dogs every chance they get meaning we spoke to everyone’s dog, but here the owners were saying to not pet the dogs because they are acting weird and snapping at their owners, which we were assured they never normally did so it wasn’t safe for strangers to touch them. The dog owners were saying if they let them off the lead as normal they wouldn’t walk around, they immediately took off for the car.

We saw a few loose dogs just bolt back past us towards the car park. Or they were pulling to go back to the car park when on the lead, refusing to walk, or lying down and whimpering. You’re looking at a good two dozen sets of people saying they were away home early because the dogs wouldn’t walk. A few said it was strange how all the dogs were acting up. Some were usually out for 2-3 hours but that day they were heading back after 20 minutes having called it a day. A few were going somewhere else. Some gave up in the car park after their dogs lay down and refused to budge. It was, as everyone said, a strange day.

After that I made sure we were in before nightfall.

The locals in the shop were saying how they’d heard strange sounds again, and how the cattle were suddenly restless and bellowing all night, the dogs were upset. They’d have to take them in.”