Another British Bigfoot ?

Cannock Chase, in the Midlands of England has a history of reports of sightings of strange things dating back to 1883. It has had reports of it’s own bigfoot since 1879.Dozens of eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot have been recorded in the area in recent years.

In Shropshire Folk-Lore Charlotte Sophia Burne writes, “A very weird story of an encounter with an animal ghost arose of late years within my own knowledge. “On the 21st of January 1879, a labouring man was employed to take a cart of luggage from Ranton in Staffordshire to Woodcock, beyond Newport in Shropshire. “He was late in coming back. His horse was tired, and could only crawl along at a foot’s pace, so that it was ten o’ clock at night when he arrived at the place where the highroad crosses the Birmingham and Liverpool canal. “Just before he reached the canal bridge, a strange black creature with great white eyes sprang out of the plantation by the roadside and alighted on his horse’s back. He tried to push it off with his whip, but to his horror the whip went through the thing, and he dropped it on the ground in fright.” According to Mrs. Burne, when the man recovered from the fright, he returned home and excitedly spread the story.A few days later, a policeman appeared and told the man, “That was the Man-Monkey sir.”

More recently inn 1995 a sighting was reported by a woman named Jackie Houghton, who saw a huge and lumbering hair-covered creature in the early hours of the morning. Then in 1998, the following account from another witness:

"It was a star filled night, clear, but dark and we were all in the car driving home, happily chatting and joking. Suddenly we all fell dead serious, the people in the back sat forward and we all pointed to the same shape. It was a tall man-like figure, sort of crouching forward. As we passed, it turned and looked straight at us. In my own words I would describe it as around six feet eight inches tall, legs thicker than two of mine, very strong looking and with a darkish, blacky -brown coat. I just could not explain it and I still get goose bumps thinking of it."

In December 2003, newspapers in the area reported the story of a young man who said he had seen a large ape-like creature in a an area near Cannock Chase. Then in April 2004 Alec Williams was driving across the Chase late at night when he, too, saw a large man like beast,seven feet tall, near the edge of a main road in the area.And more recently in September 2008, a sighting was reported by a local resident, who said they had been chased by a beast whilst driving through Cannock Chase at 2am. “This thing was the shape of a human, but stood about seven to eight foot tall. As soon as it realised we had seen it, it stood up straight and ran towards us. This thing was definitely not human, it was huge! It wasn’t just tall, but broad and stocky, too. I don’t know whether it was flying or jumping or what.”

Do we have our own bigfoot or is it an optical illusion? Well the area also has reports of a hellhound, big cat sightings and even a crocodile and now a large snake .Nick Redfern ‘s website is full of info about the area and he has written a book about the British Bigfoot. see: http://monsterusa.blogspot.com.