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British Bigfoot?

Interesting to see the news story came from the Horrabridge Times. I spent a weekend in Horrabridge some years back and have a little fortean story to relate.

Mrs DT and I had booked into a B&B, that had been converted from what was the Victorian built village school. The room we were given was in what was the attic space, and there were no windows to open in the room, the only source of fresh air coming in was a skylight in the roof, which was so high up it had to be opened and closed by a remote control – similar to a small TV remote.

Quite late one night, we were in the room debating whether or not we should go downstairs and into the old school yard for our last cigarette of the night, or have an elicit smoke in the room (it was the B&B policy to not smoke anywhere in the building)

Just as I said sod it we’ll stand on the bed and blow the smoke through the skylight, the skylight which was fully open closed immediately and it's blind pulled down all of its own accord.

The remote control however was literally on the other side of the room with neither of us near it.

We just looked at each other and said fair enough we’ll go downstairs then. :)
 
Interesting to see the news story came from the Horrabridge Times. I spent a weekend in Horrabridge some years back and have a little fortean story to relate.

Mrs DT and I had booked into a B&B, that had been converted from what was the Victorian built village school. The room we were given was in what was the attic space, and there were no windows to open in the room, the only source of fresh air coming in was a skylight in the roof, which was so high up it had to be opened and closed by a remote control – similar to a small TV remote.

Quite late one night, we were in the room debating whether or not we should go downstairs and into the old school yard for our last cigarette of the night, or have an elicit smoke in the room (it was the B&B policy to not smoke anywhere in the building)

Just as I said sod it we’ll stand on the bed and blow the smoke through the skylight, the skylight which was fully open closed immediately and it's blind pulled down all of its own accord.

The remote control however was literally on the other side of the room with neither of us near it.

We just looked at each other and said fair enough we’ll go downstairs then. :)
On a timer, maybe?
 
Very possibly Myth. Just odd that as soon as I uttered the sentence sod we’ll smoke in the room the bloody skylight closed.
Hidden microphone in room, second remote?
Don't stay there again! :eek:
 
Hidden microphone in room, second remote?
Don't stay there again! :eek:
That did cross my mind to be honest Myth. Oh and have no fear, we won't be going back.
Although picturesque Horrabridge did have some very…….Ahem interesting inhabitants.

Strange pub by the river. The London Tavern I think it was called. It went silent as soon as we walked in, and then we were stared at for a full 10 minutes until we knocked back our drinks and fled to the safety of the B&B :worry:
 
That did cross my mind to be honest Myth. Oh and have no fear, we won't be going back.
Although picturesque Horrabridge did have some very…….Ahem interesting inhabitants.

Strange pub by the river. The London Tavern I think it was called. It went silent as soon as we walked in, and then we were stared at for a full 10 minutes until we knocked back our drinks and fled to the safety of the B&B :worry:
Yikes! It sounds like you visited Horrorbridge instead!
 
Used to take my old mum out to Powderham Castle for an outing (the farm shop is amazing). Then we'd buy an ice cream and sit and watch the deer in the park. We always used to look out for the deer on the train to Dawlish too. Never saw anything untoward, hairy men or wallabies or anything.
 
Just remembered another Powderham Castle estate tale from Jon Downes' excellent book 'Monster Hunter'. The gist of it is as follows (buy the book...!).

Happened back in the late 70s or early 80s at a time when one could afford to sit in the local pub all day at the weekend. Indeed, it was a social norm in the UK at that time (no satellite tv and internet) and which has diminished over the years as alcohol prices have risen, wages stagnated and irregular working hours becoming the norm. Now people increasingly drink cheaper take-out alcohol at home in front of the widescreen tv or in their gardens with a bbq.

On the Sunday lunchtime in question Downes was ensconced in his Starcross local when one of the locals burst in, breathless and wide-eyed. After gathering his breath he announced that he had seen a giant rabbit as he cut through Powderham woods on his to the pub, a rabbit as big as a human child...! Well, this being different times Downes and some fellow pub goers pilled into a car and head for the woods. Following a poacher's trail they did indeed find the giant, child-sized rabbit -------

------ or rather a living, breathing wallaby in those Devon, UK woods...! Unimpressed with the attention, the wallaby legged it and they were left to muse over where it had escaped from.

How I wish I was there that Sunday lunchtime and makes me pine for rather simpler times (or maybe its just me getting old).

Go on, buy the book:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Mons...287279?ref=grid-view&qid=1626705258555&sr=1-1

:)
In the 80s we did a couple of re-enactment events there and camped in the castle grounds. (I think we stayed for free for a whole week, as well, at least once). No hairy men (well not unfamiliar ones) or giant bunnies/wallabies, sadly. But myself and another woman, in 17thc costume (or what passed for it in the 80s) were creepily followed about by a local with a camera, who claimed he was photographing us for postcards. He had a very Missing Link kind of air to him.
 
In the 80s we did a couple of re-enactment events there and camped in the castle grounds. (I think we stayed for free for a whole week, as well, at least once). No hairy men (well not unfamiliar ones) or giant bunnies/wallabies, sadly. But myself and another woman, in 17thc costume (or what passed for it in the 80s) were creepily followed about by a local with a camera, who claimed he was photographing us for postcards. He had a very Missing Link kind of air to him.
I know a couple of people who live that way, but neither of them are particularly Missing Link!
 
The Daily Star has an article with Lee Brickley claiming new evidence in Cannock Chase:

Daily Star

"I got an anonymous email from a man saying he had been flying a remote control plane over Gentleshaw Common at Cannock Chase who said he’d seen something unusual. With his description of the location, I went out there straight away, and found the footprint."

Cutout = cobblers.

maximus otter
 
The Daily Star has an article with Lee Brickley claiming new evidence in Cannock Chase:

Daily Star
Lee has been fascinated with Bigfoot ever since he was a child.

He said: “I remember watching Bigfoot documentaries with my dad when I was young.

“All the famous sightings were in America, so when I was a bit older I started researching any UK sightings I could find.

The cynic in me is thinking he got a bit carried away as a kid and a fertile imagination led to his fantasy operating in the nearby woods.

I would be tempted to categorise his book as fan fiction.
 
Perhaps the Cannock Chase black-eyed kids have grown up.
 
I read Brickley's UFOS, werewolves and the pig-man a long time ago. Poorly written, paranoid, no grasp of science at all, but with some creepy stuff. I wouldn't buy another of his books.
 
Used to call at a pub out in the middle of nowhere, at the time it was only locals, now likely changed,
anyway they put up with us as the wife didn't mind acting as sheep bouncer and we were unfazed
by having to ford the stream that ran across the bar floor if it was raining.
It was worth calling as they did a hotpot that was well up to the name, how they got it so hot without
it bursting into flames I will never know.
Anyway one day I happened to look in the back room, there were about 6 local farm lads playing billiards,
they all looked the same, well over 6ft don't think any of them could stand straight without hitting the ceiling,
hairy as a bear and looked like there was at least 25% bovine in the mix, could only wonder at the breeding
practices that went on out there, stopped me dead in my tracks that's for sure.
This is over 40 years back So I would not be surprised if a breeding colony of what peeps are reporting as big foot or
what it as metamorphosed into are alive and well out there, so avoid the moor when the forces of darkness
are exalted, you never know what or who you may meet.

:omr: :reyes:
Has anyone here read The Siege of Trencher's Farm - Gordon Williams's thriller from 1969? The film Straw Dogs was based on it. I can tell you nothing of the film but the novel is very much premised on the idea that the long-term rural inhabitants of Devon/Dorset or wherever* are a sort of race apart of inbred yokels. That might be unfair - racist even - but I got the impression that the author knew of what he spoke (although he was writing a good half a century ago now, of course).

Do I believe? For me, it's not flesh and blood, no. But there is strong evidence for something paranormal. I find it curious that as the reports of UFO occupants have withered away* we are now presented with alien black cats, werewolves/dog men and huge hairy hominids.

*in the decades between 1950 and 1980, UK humanoid encounters in association with UFOs are many and varied e.g. the Welsh flap of the 70s. We simply don't get these reports anymore, but it does seem whatever IT is has evolved/altered its appearance.
Ufology looks here to stay, but Cryptozoology (in the Western world) is on it's way out. I predict that it will, quite soon, go the way of phlogiston, phrenology, table tapping and pyramid power and become something viewed as being a strange passing fad like them. For one thing, it's generation of proponents are dying out and not being replaced. For another, it doesn't suit a globalised world with satellites able to take pictures of everything and areas of wilderness becoming monitored eco zones.

Of course new insects will be found, and perhaps a subspecies of mole somewhere - but in an age where known species are becoming extinct, or in danger of such, to suggest that there is a huge lumbering man-ape or lake serpent squishing around North America, Japan Scotland, or - FFS - England! - seems increasingly egregious.

People will still see strange creatures, of course - but these will be attributed to ET or pigeonholed alongside paranormal stuff.

The usual caveat about loving to be proved wrong still applies here though.

* Sorry! Anywhere south of Northampton that isn't London is all just one place to me!
 
I read Brickley's UFOS, werewolves and the pig-man a long time ago. Poorly written, paranoid, no grasp of science at all, but with some creepy stuff. I wouldn't buy another of his books.
I have read all of Mr Brickley's books with the exception of the black eyed children one. I had previously read Nick Redfern's rather better and more convincing work on Cannock Chase.

I don't know what to make of it all really. His sources are allegedly local people who contact him to report their extraordinary encounters with ghosts, bigfoot and UFOs. The witness reports are compelling and often quite frightening, and I am someone who is 99% convinced that people do encounter paranormal entities who take the form of dogmen and bigfoot etc. But as far as I am aware Brickley's witnesses are all anonymous and pseudonyms are used, which for me is a problem, he needs someone to come forward and back up his claims.

Then there is the problem that some of his reported encounters do not stack up when you dig into them. I have posted on here before about the ghost on Cannock station of a man who killed himself "many years ago" and yet the original Cannock station was demolished by British Rail in the late 60's. Subsequently, in 1989 a new, basic station was built close to, but not in the exact same location, as the original; something which Mr Brickley - and the ghost - both seem unaware of. Then this ghost spooks a woman so badly that she apparently fell down onto the tracks. So that's a 3 foot fall backwards or sideways (one assumes) down onto hard steel and stones, yet we are told she was simply helped back up by a fellow passenger before the train arrived.

Also, all the witnesses who email him seem to have the same style of writing and vocabulary, which raises an eyebrow. Then there is an element of 'too good to be true' in some of his reports, especially the final report of his British Bigfoot book in which Brickley witnesses the creature in question for himself, which is a somewhat convenient ending. This latest report that begins with an anonymous sighting is frankly dubious.
 
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Has anyone here read The Siege of Trencher's Farm - Gordon Williams's thriller from 1969? The film Straw Dogs was based on it. I can tell you nothing of the film but the novel is very much premised on the idea that the long-term rural inhabitants of Devon/Dorset or wherever* are a sort of race apart of inbred yokels. That might be unfair - racist even - but I got the impression that the author knew of what he spoke (although he was writing a good half a century ago now, of course).


Ufo;ogy looks here to stay, but Cryptozoology (in the Western world) is on it's way out. I predict that it will, quite soon, go the way of phlogiston, phrenology, table tapping and pyramid power and become something viewed as being a strange passing fad like them. For one thing, it's generation of proponents are dying out and not being replaced. For another, it doesn't suit a globalised world with satellites able to take pictures of everything and areas of wilderness becoming monitored eco zones.

Of course new insects will be found, and perhaps a subspecies of mole somewhere - but in an age where known species are becoming extinct, or in danger of such, to suggest that there is a huge lumbering man-ape or lake serpent squishing around North America, Japan Scotland, or - FFS - England! - seems increasingly egregious.

People will still see strange creatures, of course - but these will be attributed to ET or pigeonholed alongside paranormal stuff.

The usual caveat about loving to be proved wrong still applies here though.

* Sorry! Anywhere south of Northampton that isn't London is all just one place to me!
I'm certainly convinced that dogman, werewolf and bigfoot et al. sightings are either paranormal in origin or we have to accept they are all hoaxes. No flesh and blood creatures could have made it this far into the 21st Century without being found dead on a road somewhere. However, the more we learn about quantum physics, the more possible that there are different 'realities' to our own, and perhaps these creatures occasionally slip into our reality from theirs ( I make an exception for the smaller and more feasible Orang Pendek of Indonesia).
 
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Yeah, okay - at the risk of seeming to immediately backtrack, I'm inclined to make an exception to some reports of the Russian/ Central Asian Alma, the Chinese willdman and the Himalyan yeti. I think it's conceivable that there is - or was -some kind of - heavily mythologised actual flesh and blood hominid around in those areas.

There is enough room there to hide something like that (or was, at least) and some of the evidence seems hard to explain away. As David Attenborough said (of footprints in the snow found on the mountains of Central Asia or somewhere (this is from memory):
`Nobody goes up 50,000 feet [or whatever] to make a joke`.

It's something I still cling to.
 
Yeah, okay - at the risk of seeming to immediately backtrack, I'm inclined to make an exception to some reports of the Russian/ Central Asian Alma, the Chinese willdman and the Himalyan yeti. I think it's conceivable that there is - or was -some kind of - heavily mythologised actual flesh and blood hominid around in those areas.

There is enough room there to hide something like that (or was, at least) and some of the evidence seems hard to explain away. As David Attenborough said (of footprints in the snow found on the mountains of Central Asia or somewhere (this is from memory):
`Nobody goes up 50,000 feet [or whatever] to make a joke`.

It's something I still cling to.
Then there is the thylacine, could it still exist in the 15.800 square km of Tasmanian wilderness...? There have been some credible witness reports amongst the hysteria and hoaxes.

Lord Mongrove may disagree with the cryptozoology is dead hypothesis :) Also, It does seem we are getting closer and closer to identifying Nessie and other lake monsters are some species of very large eel.
 
could be some errors and mistakes too? ALL hoaxes seems a bit harsh. Not necessarily untrue of course.
Yes, you are right. Ghillie suits must have fooled a few people over the years and account for a good few of the bigfoot reports. In fact, I doubt many people have seen a ghillie suit in the flesh:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ghillie-suit/s?k=ghillie+suit

Now add in poor light and a brief glimpse and bingo, you have a tall, hairy bigfoot...
 
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Yes, you are right. Ghillie suits must have fooled a few people over the years and account for a good few of the bigfoot reports.

nice example! A bit like people coming across historical costume events?
 
nice example! A bit like people coming across historical costume events?
I've posted here recently about stumbling across two Nazi stormtroopers whist out rambling in Devon - I had walked onto a film set at the South Devon railway, so its always a possibility.

That said, most time slip accounts have the scene returning to normality after momentarily glimpsing a Roman encampment on the Isle of Wight (for example)
 
I was once out in the wilds on horseback when Dylan the horse took a unusual
interest in a group of bushes, I rode over and a platoon of fully armed squaddie's
tumbled out, they didn't seem best pleased, we must have stumbled on some
exercise I would not have noticed but for the horse.
:omr:
 
I was once out in the wilds on horseback when Dylan the horse took a unusual
interest in a group of bushes, I rode over and a platoon of fully armed squaddie's
tumbled out, they didn't seem best pleased, we must have stumbled on some
exercise I would not have noticed but for the horse.
:omr:
Nick Redfern has written about a squaddie who related to him how his tank crew stumbled over a British bigfoot/man beast while on exercises on Salisbury plain
 
Hell of a place is Salisbury plain, I would not be surprised at what was running about in a area like that.
 
Nick Redfern has written about a squaddie who related to him how his tank crew stumbled over a British bigfoot/man beast while on exercises on Salisbury plain

@RaM ? was this you they saw????? :rasp:
 
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