Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Neil Arnold on the Creatures of Hampstead Heath

Neil Arnold provides an entertaining, short piece on some of the stranger creatures lurking in Britain...

9 comments:

cryptidsrus said...

Spiders are cool. Weird, but cool.

Emma said...

Oh no! My Mum just told me she was off to meet a friend there...Should I call her mobile?

Actually more worrying are the very real biting turtles in the Ladies Bathing Pond

Thanks for that!

Nick Redfern said...

Emma:
LOL, yeah Hampstead Heath seems to be full of hazardous critters. Tell your mum to watch out for the spectral Bigfoot too!

Emma said...

Nick:
Is there really a spectral Bigfoot on Hampstead Heath? Blimey!
Do you have a link?

I thought it was just the Highgate Vamp we had to worry about on the hominid front

Nick Redfern said...

Well, I call it a spectral Bigfoot, but the story (which was given to me a few years ago by one of the members of the now-closed-down Staffordshire UFO Group) revolved around someone seeing a hairy thing there back in the 70s that they apparently couldn't decide if it was a monkey-like animal or a bear.
Of course, there shouldn't be ANY bears in the UK; however, from time to time sightings of "upright bears" and other mystery bear-ape like animals do surface.
The Hackney Marshes bear is another odd one.
I still speak to some of the people from the Staffs. UFO Group, so I'll see if I can find more and make a post of it, as I don't think it's been the subject of a feature/article before re the Hampstead story.

Emma said...

With my serious Fortean hat on, I wonder where on the Heath it was?

So many areas there have quite creepy histories, but very different characters - if you need me to check anything out locally I will give it a go

Interestingly, in East Finchley where I am (very near the Heath)used to be where the circus went to winter - complete with animals

Nick Redfern said...

Right now, I know very little about this story. But if I can get more from the Staffs people, and find the original source, I'll forward the info on, in case you want to research it further.

Neil A said...

Hey Nick,
I'd like to know more about the Heath 'Bigfoot' ! I've previously written on a spectral ape seen in the area, but this concerned an explorer who went to some jungle and received a curse and when he returned to his Hamsptead home he was plagued by the apparition of a gorilla which was exorcised. The case was mentioned in Elliot O'Donell's 'Dangerous Ghosts' (Consul 1954) and I'll be mentioning it in my MYSTERY ANIMALS OF LONDON book.

Nick Redfern said...

Hi Neil
Wow, that's very interesting! I didn't know of that one re the curse.
As I recall, it was like a lot of the UK ones: seen for only a few seconds, large, dark, glowing red eyes. Then vanished - literally.
I'm hoping, as I mentioned to Emma, that the Staffs people can still put me in touch with the guy; and if so I'll get all I can and send it on.