MIKE HALLOWELL: Going to Cleadon are you? (I thought you might)

As most Geordies (but hardly anyone else) know, South Tyneside is the smallest Metropolitan /borough in the United Kingdom. It never fails to amaze me (but hardly anyone else) that this proverbial spot on the landscape is the repository of literally hundreds of myths, legends and folklore tales regarding ghosts, UFOs, cryptids and other forms of wackiness.

Over the years I've written over one thousand newspaper and magazine articles (1,158 to be exact) and ten books, the majority of which have been devoted to the strange goings-on within this teeny-weeny place. One would imagine that a borough that contains just three small towns and a handful of villages would be relatively short on mystery animals, but the truth is just the opposite. South Tyneside plays host to a sea monster (the Shony), at least one mystery big cat, a giant lobster known as the Terror of Trow Rocks, a terrifying Brag, a weird humanoid called Old Blue Eyes and a big, hairy hominid known as the Beast of Cleadon Hills. You just couldn't make it up.

Cleadon Village, which is the posh end of our borough, is well blessed when it comes to cryptids. Cleadon Hills were formerly only famous for two ghost stories: the Red Woman of Cleadon Mill and the Water Tower Ghost. Now, however, visitors to this idyllic spot may also want to watch out for the Cleadon Big Cat and the afore-mentioned Beast. Cleadon Hills, it seems, has become a one-stop shop for all things Fortean.

My colleague Darren W. Ritson and I have both written up Cleadon-related weirdness, and decided that an expedition was in order to see if we could spot anything for ourselves. The expedition – which admittedly does not quite compare in grandiosity with CFZ trips of a similar nature – is scheduled for Sunday, 28 March.

Firstly, we plan to visit the Water Tower to see if there really is a shrieking, banshee-type spectre in residence there.

Secondly, we'll visit the old WW2 gun emplacements where, some years ago, I took some very strange pictures.

After the gun emplacements we'll move on to the old mill house – allegedly home to the Woman in Red – and then finally have a scout about the hills themselves to see if we can spot the Beast or the Big Cat.

The results of our foray will, of course, be posted here for all to see.

Cleadon Hills are beautiful, but also somewhat eerie. Although they aren't far from civilisation they are wrapped in a mantle of seclusion, which insulates them from the workaday world next door. When ambling across Cleadon Hills it really isn't hard to imagine that there may be a critter or two of uncertain provenance lurking behind the trees.

Watch this space….