NEIL ARNOLD: Some Kent Snippets

G. Howell’s A Kentish Notebook of 1891 records the following stories:

The Gravesend Mermaid
‘Real Wonders!’ At Gravesend – Exhibition August 1825 – ‘A Gravesender visited these wonders (in relation to beautiful dolphins, a learned pig etc) in company with his children and saw the Mermaid, which, he says, “was about 2-ft high”, and had one arm, the other having been cut off and sold. The woman who exhibited it, declared to me it was no imposition that it had been inspected, very minutely, in London, by professional gentlemen and that it was pronounced to be a Mermaid.

A Kentish Swordfish
November 10th 1888 – Capture of a swordfish at Sittingbourne – Long Reach, Milton Creek, caught by a bargeman , 5-ft, 2” from tip of tail to tip of sword. Possibly in pursuit of a whale seen at Gillingham – trying to find its way to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic.

A Sea Eel
1761 – A sea eel, 6-ft long, 20 inches round and weighing 30lb was lately taken in a shallow water, where it had been left by the tide at Whitstable…

A Conger Eel
October 1760 – A conger eel was lately taken in the River Medway near Romney Marsh, which measured 7-ft, 6 ½ inches, and in circumference 2-ft 9” and ¾ with a weight of 56 lbs.

Sperm Whale
February 1762 – Sperm whale 61-ft in length at Broadstairs.
December 1764 – A Spermaceti whale was thrown ashore on the flats at Seasalter, nr Whistable – 54 ft in length, 38-ft in girth at its broadest point.

Autumn 1854 – forty to fifty young whales at the Thames at Gravesend – proceeded until (?). One struck by steamer paddle. All travelled down river.

More monster fish stories to come…

NEIL ARNOLD: The Furry Demon

I have known Neil for fifteen years now, since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippy who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years; we are just both a tad older....

In the annals of ‘big cat’ folklore in the UK, reports of attacks on humans are often dubious. However, consider the legend of Gypsy Wood, a dark stretch of woodland in Warrington. Here originated the tale of the Furry Demon, a ferocious cat-like entity still in existence up until the early 1980s.

Many at the time considered the legend to be a hazy campfire spook tale, but not the two lovers who stopped off in the shadows whilst travelling home from their date at Earlestown British Legion. Whilst having a kiss and a cuddle in the vehicle, they were both startled by a face at the window, of grotesque and hairy appearance. The creature had fangs and scurried off into the darkness. The frightened man assured his date that the creature had gone and went out to inspect the car where he found huge scratch marks on the paintwork.

This incident echoed a similar assault by the beast, this time from the 1940s, when a sergeant who’d taken his girlfriend to her home at Earlestown, decided to walk back via Gypsy Wood, in the vicinity of Winwick. The area had an eerie ambience to it for the place had been under the threat of an air raid and the sky had been illuminated by German parachute flairs, which were trying to trace the R.A.F. base at Burtonwood.

The sergeant was strolling along a tight lane when suddenly he was leapt on by a strange creature, which clung to his back. The beast clawed at his face savagely; his uniform had been torn and the teeth of the monster had sunk into his face. Bravely he tangled with the creature and managed to throw it to the ground. Luckily, a car came by and the driver stopped to aid the sergeant. However, as soon as the driver saw the bloody mess the ‘thing’ had made of the sergeant’s face, he cowardly drove off. The sergeant hobbled back to the barracks, always peering over his shoulder. But there was no further sign of the beast. With wounds tended to he told the tale of the demon cat; over four feet in length, with large fangs; how it had sprung onto his back in the still of night. But the medical officer believed that maybe the sergeant had had a violent row with his girlfriend.

Maybe the ‘Winwick demon’ still lurks around Warrington, waiting to sink its fangs into its next victim.

BEAR ATTACK: STRANGE STORY ON NEIL'S BLOG

http://kentmonsters.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-papers-say.html


The Sheerness Times Guardian of Thursday 25th June 2009:

From Our Files

50 years ago...A Sheerness man attacked by a bear as he slept was refusing to talk to reporters. He was humiliated by the deep scratches to his head, hands and face, which were caused by a honey bear, the same size as a child's teddy bear....

NEIL ARNOLD: The Curious Case of the Kentish Carcass

I have known Neil for fifteen years now, since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older....

I omitted a couple of excellent cases for my Mystery Animals Of The British Isles: Kent book and the case of the Greatstone ‘serpent’ was one of those tragically neglected stories. It didn’t come to my attention until reading Karl Shuker’s The Beasts That hide From Men and after that he sent me the original cuttings from the Kentish Express newspaper as he’d covered the tale in his Alien Zoo column for Fortean Times.

Greatstone-on-sea in Kent is a village on the east coast of the county, which sits close to the cinque port of New Romney. On the 14th April 1998 two boys, Neil Savage and Peter Jennings, stumbled across the remains of a strange animal. The skull, a series of large vertebrae and a mass of tissue remained of the creature. The carcass seemed to measure around eight-feet in length and resembled a small sea serpent. The Kentish Express of 19th April reported that the boys reported the find to their neighbour, a Mr Fender, who told the paper that the creature was, “…dark yellow, and has stripes running the length of it.”

He didn’t believe the beast was a conger eel as its spine appeared too thick but it seemed as though the carcass had been there a while as it gave off a rank odour. The newspaper, along with the Folkestone Herald (23rd April), pictured the boys with their discovery. Fortean researcher Paul Harris sent the cuttings to Karl Shuker who concluded that the creature was most certainly a basking shark, a fish, which when found decomposed on beaches, has often been confused with possible sea serpent forms. Shuker wrote in his column, ‘I realised that the carcass was strikingly similar to the famous Hendaye sea serpent corpse of 1951 – conclusively identified by Dr Bernard Heuvelmans as that of a basking shark. All of the tell-tale features were present – the cotton-reel-shaped vertebrae, the long triangular snout and most distinctive of all, a pair of slender curling ‘antennae’ projecting from the snout’s base. These are, in fact, the rostral cartilages, which in life, raise up the shark’s snout.’

Still, a fascinating find and a discovery that would not have been out of place in my book in the section ‘From The Depths’ where I document several eye-witness reports of huge sea creatures. Whilst many corpses found on beaches can be identified as known species, eye-witness testimony seems to suggest that there are still unknown beasts which roam the coastal areas of the UK.

NEIL ARNOLD: Sussex Spook Lore: Phantom hound or black leopard?

I have known Neil for fifteen years, now; since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older.

From Richard Jefferies Wild Life In A Southern County (1879):

‘Near by the hollow, where the stream crosses the lane, is another spirit, but of an indefinite kind, that does not seem to take shape, but causes those who go past at the time when it has power to feel a mortal horror.

A black dog may be seen in at least two different places: the wayfarer is suddenly surprised to find a gigantic animal of the deepest jet trotting by his side, or he sees a dark shadow detach itself from the bushes and take the form of a dog. The black dog has perhaps more vitality, and survives in more localities than all the apparitions that in the olden times were sworn to by persons of the highest veracity. They may still be heard of in many a nook and corner. I have known people of the present day who were positive that there really was “something” weird in the places where the dog was said to appear.

It is supposed that horses are peculiarly liable to take fright and run away, to shy, or stumble, and break their knees, at a certain spot in the road. They go very well till just on passing the fatal spot a sudden fear seizes them as if they could see something invisible to men; sometimes they bolt headlong, sometimes stand stock-still and shiver, or throw the rider by a rapid side movement. In the daytime – for this supernatural effect is felt in broad day as well as at night – the horse more frequently falls or stumbles, as if checked by an invisible force in the midst of his career. This, too, is a living superstition, and some persons will recount a whole string of accidents that have happened within a few yards; till at last, such is the force of iteration, the most incredulous admit it to be a series of remarkable coincidences. These last two, the black dog and the dangerous place in the road, are believed in by people of a much higher grade than carters…

The carters have a story about horses which had spent the night in a meadow being found the next morning in a state of exhaustion, as if they had been ridden furiously during the hours of darkness. They were totally unfit for work the next day. Instances are even given where men have hidden in a tree with a gun, and when the horses began to gallop fired at something indistinct sitting on their haunches, which something at once disappeared, and the excitement ceased. But these things are said to have happened a long time ago.’

NEIL ARNOLD: All Bizarre Creatures Great & Small Part Two

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy modwith ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday July 19th 1831 Number 539 (Extracted from the Stirling Journal)

ENORMOUS SKATE – A skate of extraordinary dimensions was exhibited here on Saturday last. The gross weight was no less than 126 lbs, length measured 6 feet 8 ½ inches, and in circumference 11 feet 2 inches. It was captured in the stake nets off Hopetown House, a few miles on this side of Queensferry. The natural history of the skate presents a variety of singular facts, and not the least remarkable of its properties is that it can be preserved for an indefinite period without the application of salt…’

From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday November 1st 1831 – Number 554 (Page 2) Extracted from the Kendall Chronicle

A SINGULAR CREATURE – On Sunday last, as William Musgrove, resident in Kirkland, was raking a stroll with one or two friends in the vicinity of Whitbarrow Scar, accompanied by a couple pf famous vermin hounds (we have his own authority for saying they are the best in all of England!) one of the dogs took the drag of what Musgrove thought at the time might be a martin or perhaps a fox. They ran this drag to about two miles when coming to the Scar they halted, and from their motions, which were as well understood by their master as if they had spoken the Kings English, Musgrove was convinced that the game was at hand, of whatever description it might then turn out to be. He and his friends therefore proceeded forthwith to assist their quadruped allies, and after some little difficulty succeeded in dragging the object of their pursuit from his romantic hiding place, when strange to say, it turned out to be a racoon! The captive stranger was in capital condition and was brought home by Musgrove in high glee. From appearances the animal had been in the neighbourhood of Whitbarrow Scar for a considerable time, to which seat of freedom he probably found his way from – caravan of wild animals, or from the caresses of some travelling foreigner.’

From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday November 15th 1831 – Number 556 (Page 3)

‘The king presented to the Zoological Society the entire contents of his menagerie, now deposited in the Tower. They amount to almost thirty in number and include four lions, three bears (the large bear is an extraordinary animal), one black wolf, three blood hounds, five leopards and three hyenas.’

NEIL ARNOLD: All Bizarre Creatures Great & Small Part One

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

A SEA MONSTER?
From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday January 12th 1836 – Number 460 (Page 2) – extracted from Enniskillen Chronicle

‘The huge monster of the deep that recently cut the fishing-boat across, whereby three men met an appalling death off St. John’s Point, on the Donegal coast, has been since thrown ashore dead. It’s said to be one of the largest ever seen in this country, and our correspondent adds that on being opened, a young one, measuring 10 ft in length was found inside. Its death is said to have been occasioned by a part of the boat which it may have swallowed at the time, but this is to be questioned as the gullet of the animal is not sufficiently capacious to admit a large portion of timber. We expect to hear further particulars next week. It is to be hoped the produce of the fish will be applied to the relief of the families of the unfortunate sufferers.’

AN EAGLE!
From the Rochester & Weekly Gazette Advertiser, Tuesday February 16th 1830 – Number 465 (Page 4).

‘A large eagle was washed ashore at Deal (Kent) a few days ago, and has been presented to the Canterbury Philosophical Institution.’

A MONSTER!
From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday May 3rd 1831 – Number 528 (Page 2)

‘On Saturday April 16th, a ewe, the property of Mr M. Lawson, of Fullford, nr York, yeaned a lamb of perfect conformation and healthy appearance, and which is alive and well; together with it was also produced an animal of the following singular malformation. Its head assimilates with no genus or species of the animal creation that we are acquainted with. Its forehead is arched, and the top of the head covered with a greyish hair, resembling that of a dog. It has cheek bones, high and prominent, like those of the human species, and only one eye of diamond form, remarkably large, and fixed in the middle of the brow, being projected over by a flesh protuberance somewhat resembling the ears, which are fixed in their natural position. There are no nostrils, and the mouth is wide, the upper jaw projecting considerably beyond the upper part of the mouth. The tongue, which is large, is thrust out so that the top extends over the jaw. The body partakes more of the form of a dog. Altogether it forms a curious object, when viewed in front and in an upright position, the countenance, from its unnatural association with some human form, reminds one of the fabled Cyclops, of mythological note. This curious freak of nature has been presented to Mr Phillips for the Yorkshire Museum.

NEIL ARNOLD: Crypto Stories From The Illustrated Police News Part 3

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

From 1877 – FEARFUL ENCOUNTER WITH A BOA CONSTRICTOR: ‘A very terrible story reaches us from Texas. A lady, the wife of a merchant named Wilkinson, was, while on the borders of a forest, attacked by a huge boa constrictor, which wound itself around her body, evidently with the intention of crushing her to death. Mr Wilkinson was aroused by his wife’s piercing shrieks, and hastened at once to the spot. Happily, he did not lose his presence of mind, and he at once proceeded to attack the hideous reptile. At such a time moments seem ages. Mr Wilkinson severed the head of the reptile from its body, besides inflicting other injuries. Mrs Wilkinson, during this double encounter became insensible, and it is anticipated that the shock to the system is of so serious a nature that a long time must necessarily elapse before she can hope to recover from the effects of the trial she has undergone.’

From 1876 – A GIRL SEIZED BY A GORILLA: We have received a short report of an incident which occurred a short time ago in Western Africa. Our correspondent gives the following account :- ‘Mr and Mrs Osgood, a Canadian merchant and his wife, have been travelling through several parts of Western Africa. Mr Osgood had betaken himself to the woods, accompanied by a guide and native servant, his object being to shoot wild fowl. His wife and daughter were left on a spot upon which the party had encamped some hours previously. While Mrs Osgood was engaged in domestic duties, her little girl Clara, who was chasing butterflies, uttered a loud scream and her mother was horrified at seeing her clasped in the arms of a monstrous gorilla who was about to bear off. The unhappy lady was perfectly frantic and luckily her husband, who was not far distant, was attracted to the spot by her cries. One barrel of his gun was loaded, he took steady aim, and the whole charge of shot entered the back and posterior of the gorilla, who dropped the child and scampered off, howling in pain.’

NEIL ARNOLD: Crypto Stories From The Illustrated Police News Part 2

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

From 1876 – MURDEROUS ATTACK BY A GORILLA: ‘A brief report has reached us of a fearful adventure at Famber. It appears that Madame Cartinet and her sister Mdlle Proche, wife and sister in law of an African merchant, have been residing at the above named place for some weeks past. M. Cartinet was always away in the day-time and indeed for some days in succession. Mdlle Proche and her sister occupied the same sleeping apartment during the absence of the latter’s husband and had just finished their toilettes when the window of the room was flung open to admit a monstrous gorilla. The hideous monster rummaged through the drawers and eventually laid hold of a razor which he flourished and chattered in evident delight. He sprang suddenly forward and attacked Mdlle Proche, the poor lady struggling to free herself from her assailant. The gorilla inflicted severe wounds on the throat and neck of his victim who had by this time fainted from loss of blood.

A gentleman, a soldier, went to the assistance of the two ladies, having been aroused by the piercing screams of both ladies. Upon arriving at the scene the terrible situation of the inmates of the room became apparent. The soldier levelled his revolver and fired three times in rapid succession. The gorilla fell at the third shot and died some few hours afterwards. The ladies wounds were treated and it is hoped they will not prove fatal. This, however, it is not possible to tell at the present.’

NEIL ARNOLD: The Living mermaids

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy mod with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

As mentioned by James Lloyd, in My Circus Life, 1925. A truly wondrous exhibit being a lady and a gentleman, who, for great novelty, sprang into a glass tank, measuring ten-feet in length by eight-feet in width, and consisting of four-feet of water. The individuals, able to sit and play cards, perform somersaults and even drink milk under water for five minutes, were labelled as ‘The Living Mermaids’. However, this peculiar couple were drunkards about town, and so, unable to find a place to stay, it was arranged for the tank to be drained and the performers to spend the night in the tank (still in their mermaid costumes), which had been bedded down with straw and covered over in rugs which acted as a roof.

After one long and tiresome journey, where the couple had indulged upon a bottle of finest whisky for warmth and fallen asleep, the village the wagon arrived at became one of hysteria. Several people had crowded around the tank, for the spectacle before them was one of mystery and fantasy. Beneath the bed of straw and rugs were two ‘mermaids’ lying peacefully, embraced in slumber. Many local folk were afraid to approach the exhibit for some believed that bears or even monkey’s were housed, whilst an Irishman believed that whatever lay in the tank was dead. A small boy approached the tank, only for a women to scream at him, “Come out of that, ye devil. Do ye want to be eaten alive ?”.

When one of the mer-beings flinched, startled observer almost leapt out of his skin and yelled, “What kind of baste it is at all ?”.

The dozing couple then woke, yawned and stretched themselves, without knowledge of their audience. Wishing to visit the nearest public house, they climbed a ladder, and removed their costumes by the time they had reached the pub. One witness exclaimed to Mr Lloyd, “I have studied natural history. Bedad, I never saw nor read of such animals, for mermaids have tails.”

Mr Lloyd replied, “Yes, but these misbehaved themselves, so I cut their tails off.”

The man replied, “You did right, sor.”

When looking back on the drama caused by the ‘mermaids’, Lloyd wrote, ‘This was the big advertisement for me.’

NEIL ARNOLD: Wolf Struck

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

P.T. Barnum, an American showman in the 1800s, obtained, or at least attempted to obtain a true cabinet of curiosities for his travelling exhibitions. I’ve recently seen sketches of his ‘sea serpent’, ‘giants’, ‘monster python’ and of course, been intrigued by his ‘cherry-coloured cat’ fiasco, Siamese twins and Albino family.

In Kent, George Sanger, who had a menagerie at Margate, in Kent, was often as eccentric in his plots and plans. In Seventy Years A Showman (1926) he writes of a strange tale which he was behind, involving twelve fully-grown wolves, which had been bred at the Hall-by-the-Sea. The wolves were due to perform at his London theatre, he writes, “…and in due course the large den containing them was placed by itself in a thirty-horse stable with plenty of centre room for my purpose. Then, I sent for my slaughterman from Margate. When he arrived I said, ‘Now, Jim, here’s a quid for you’, at the same time, to his gratified astonishment, handing him a sovereign. When he had done thanking me, I said, ‘Now Jim, I want you to go into the stable at eleven o’clock tonight, and you will see an old, worn-out cream horse, whose life has become a misery, tied up near the wolves’ cage. When the audience have left the theatre, kill him quickly, and leave him where he falls. Be sure you don’t say a word to anyone for six months, and I will then give you a tenner.”

Sanger had an associate at the time named Taylor, but whose professional name was Alpine Charlie. He would play a major part in Sanger’s strange plot and would become the hero at the end of the plan. And so, with only the secret known to Sanger, Jim the slaughterman, Sanger’s agent, Sanger’s son-in-law, and Mrs Sanger, George Sanger set about his fiendish scheme. After supper, he sneaked out into the theatre, bereft of any watchman etc, who were enjoying a drink. In the dark, Sanger slunk into the area, checked that the horse had been slaughtered by Jim, lit up two jets of gas, let free the wolves, which were in fact as tame as dogs but without food for two days, and casually returned to the bar. Once there he told all in his attendance, “Okay lads, time to lock up.”

Of course, when they arrived at the theatre, at Palace Road, imagine the shock when Mr Sanger screamed convincingly, “There! What’s this ? Call the fireman and tell him to turn off the gas, Why is it burning there to waste like that ?”

As soon as the fireman turned up, a Mr Wells, the shrieks of, “Oh my God, the wolves are loose! They’ve killed one of the horses”, rang out across the theatre. Scotland Yard were informed of the chaos and those who were already in attendance, and not in on the scam, his their eyes as the wolves tore at the carcass of the horse.

“Where is Alpine Charlie ?” asked Sanger. It didn’t take long for several searchers to locate the man, and as thousands circled the theatre, all seeking a quick glimpse of the escaped wolves, the local press soon buzzed the area, eager for a story.

Sanger wrote: ‘The excitement was intense. I had achieved my sensation. Next day the papers, not only in London and the provinces, but all over Europe were full of it. They were quite wolf-struck. The Lord Chamberlain and the wise men of Parliament swallowed the bait, and the Prime Minister was asked if he was aware that, “Wolves had broken loose in London, killed a horse, and jeopardized the Queen’s subjects ?”.

The wolves had been safely caged by a plucky performer named Alpine Charlie. What he did not know, and what he was not likely to learn, was that the terrible animals had slunk without protest into their den when Charlie, with a rattan cane, had appeared amongst them and said, “Get in there!”.

The following week the wolves appeared in conjunction with the circus and the pantomime and everybody came to see them and their marvellous tamer, Alpine Charlie.’

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: The one that got away

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

Whilst researching my new book MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT, I was amazed to uncover several stories pertaining to a large creature lurking in the River Medway. After the book was published I got in touch with Peter Cook at the Kent Messenger who spoke of a legend from the early 2900s regarding the stretch.

On April 16th 2009 Peter wrote of ‘Jack’s tales of chasing mystery river monster’, in his column, THE WAY WE WERE, stating:

‘Fishermen are well known for tales of “…the one that got away”. But arms cannot be stretched wide enough to describe the monster chased by Tom Pocock and his sons Jack and Thomas junior.

The tale was often told at The Old George in Globe Lane, Chatham which Tom Pocock kept until his death in 1947 at the age of 77. It was also a frequent topic debated in the New Inn, Chatham High Street, kept by Jack, and at the Three Brothers, another Chatham pub, kept by Thomas junior.

Before they became publicans all three were fishermen, having served seven-year apprentices to become Freemen of the River Medway. The story goes that Jack Pocock was aboard his boat near Sun Pier one day, when he looked up to see a creature lying on the surface a few yards away. It was said to be about 40 ft long, and lying motionless like, “…a monstrous eel”. The creature had a hump on its back and a long snout. Its colour was said to be “greyish-white”, the hair along its back resembling that of a hog.

When Thomas Pocock senior arrived on the scene in his bawley boat, Thistle, he had with him a 12-bore shotgun, which he fired at the monster. But according to news reports at the time, “..he might as well have been firing an airgun at a battleship”.

Next day he loaded the gun with ball bearings. A shot from this caused the creature to shudder and leap, but it got away. News of the monster reached the national newspapers. Soon crowds were congregating on the banks of the Medway in the hope of spotting it. A week after it was first spotted, the creature broke the surface in Gillingham Reach, just under the bowsprit of Tom Pocock’s boat. He had a big game gun with six-inch cartridges, and got in a shot at Pinup Reach, but the creature dived and resurfaced out of range.

Speculation was rife about what the creature could be. Some said it was a whale. Feeling unwelcome, no doubt, it left the Medway and has never been seen since.’

Of course, reports more recently suggest there is something incredibly long and elusive in the waters of the River Medway. And it has no intention of leaving.

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: London ‘Things’!

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

One of my favourite authors is Elliot O’ Donnell. Sure, he leans more towards the supernatural with his yarns but the atmosphere he creates and the stories he unearths are often quite bizarre.

On July 24th 1898 Elliot had a peculiar encounter in Greenwich Park, London. He was perched on a park bench admiring the scenery and within the shadows of a diseased elm tree, when suddenly something caught his eye. Something had fallen, or dropped, from the tree. It was no leaf or piece of rotten bark but in fact a creature, half-human, half-animal, which, he recalls, “…was stunted, bloated, pulpy and yellow”, and moved sideways like a crab. Mr O’ Donnell was so scared of the form that he fled the park, and when looking back on the encounter simply spoke of it as a ‘nature spirit’. Just what had he seen ? Mere insect, or something akin to a fairy, or something far weirder ?

A freaky form was encountered by two psychics in 1921 as they investigated the allegedly cursed Exhibit 22542, at the British Museum. The item was a mummy discovered in Egypt in the 1800s, and such was its awful reputation that not many were brave enough to even look at the body. The psychics attempted some kind of exorcism to lift the curse, but were confronted by a floating monster said to have resembled a jellyfish!

London hides many mysterious monsters, and they are the subject of my next book!

NEIL ARNOLD: Strange stories

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

I had to leave a lot of information out of my new book MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT, otherwise it would have been a ridiculously bloated bible of Kent animal weirdness. Among some of the strange and quirky stories I left out include, the gardener named Cyril who, whilst strimming an overgrown patch at Joyce Green Hospital, was confronted by a great beast. The creature, a three-feet long Bosc monitor lizard sprang from the undergrowth and terrified the witness.

And let us not forget recent rumours that a porcupine was on the loose down towards the Romney Marsh area of Kent. The animal was discovered by a mooching dog but disappeared down a fox hole of all places! And then there was the ‘monster’ of Greenwich, which found its way to the Eagle Heights Birds of Prey Centre in rural Kent, after it was pulled from the depths of the Greenwich Park Pond, London. The American Snapping Turtle, more at home in the swampy river bottoms, was destroying the eco-system of the pond by devouring ducklings, frogs, newts and fish, before it was captured. At the time a London-based RSPCA Inspector claimed that more than 400 exotics were picked up each year as unwanted pets around London alone. More than 50% of these ‘pets’ were large snakes!

One of the funniest tales pertains to an iguana which was seen running up Brixton High Street! And also the man who strolled into a London pub for a pint and came home with a ‘small lizard’, which turned out to be a caiman croc’!

In UK fishing circles the current urban legend doing the rounds concerns the possible dread that the Asian Snakehead fish, is prowling the depths of many a lake. This concern seems unfounded, but recently an angler fishing on a lower tidal stretch of the Thames, at Woolwich, came across a dead fish which he at first thought may be the all conquering Snakehead. He contacted the Environment Agency who stated it was in fact a walking catfish. A fish able to move across land with the use of its pectoral spines and a shuffling motion. This one certainly wasn’t one that got away!

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: Bodies!

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

If there’s one thing that irritates me, it’s when sceptical folk who harp on about ‘big cats’ in the UK, say stupid things like, “If there are big cats out there, why haven’t I seen one ?”, or, “Where’s the evidence ?”, and, “Surely there’d be bodies ?”

Of course, if we rely on the evidence which the newspapers obtain then those sad little sceptics have every right to so ignorant, but I’ve always felt that as each year more than two-hundred people report to me sightings across the south-east, in court this would be good enough voice to condemn a person for a crime. And yes, there have been bodies, as chronicled in my new book MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT. Evidence is in abundance - sheep kills (sheep dragged up into trees) – bloody dogs and their trampolines!, paw-prints, faeces, and in my case, personal encounters and film footage.

I recently spoke to an old mate who told that around 2000 he’d been driving through the marshes at Romney one night when he clipped the back end of a black, Labrador-sized animal which resembled the cat he’d never believed in. I’ve known of incidents where black leopards have been splattered over the road (M25 near Surrey), written cars off (Dover), and cats have also been shot dead (Sheppey & Higham). Of course, sceptics, perched behind their PC’s all day want a body on their lap, but would it still be sufficient proof ? Of course, not, the idiot brigade would soon say, “Well, maybe it was just a one-off escapee.”

Predators such as the black leopard are extremely elusive, mainly hunting at night on dark, remote roads. Foxes and badgers certainly turn up as road kill, but how many of them are out there in comparison to large cats ?

Other strange animals have also turned up on the roads. The most fascinating case comes from 1980 when a motorist and passenger were travelling through East Kent, when suddenly an Indian nilgai antelope leapt a hedge and came crashing through the windscreen. Both witnesses were killed instantly. I even spoke to the mother of one of the men that was killed.

More known cases have turned up dead crocodiles in Wales, and also a pond in London. A strange lizard was also found dead in a road in the capital, a leopard cat was shot dead in 1988 at Devon and in 1981 fishermen from Aberdeenshire were amazed to find a dead elephant floating in the sea of the Scottish coast. And these sceptics want bodies….

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: The Monster of Clapham Woods

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

For several decades Clapham Woods in West Sussex, has been the subject of many a dark whisper and wicked rumour. Tales of ghosts, murders and black magic often emerge from the ancient woods, and I’ve been stalking the shadows as part of research for my Sussex-based monster book.

My favourite and certainly, creepiest story pertaining to Sussex, and there are many, concerns a sighting of a truly dreadful creature. This manifestation even made the Littlehampton Gazette, in 1975 around the autumn. Even national radio and the popular topical BBC programme Nationwide, featured the story. At the time the area was caught up in a flap of high strangeness. News crews, journalists, UFO investigators, and paranormal enthusiasts flocked to the area, but rarely after dark.

Two dogs had gone missing in the area, and when researchers stumbled across a footprint measuring eight-inches long and almost four-inches wide, but showing four-claw mark indentations (and a fifth claw mark towards the rear of the main pad), it was clear that something bizarre was going on. Twelve inches in front of the print, was another, almost identical print. The investigators were equipped with a Geiger counter, as well as other paraphernalia. Suddenly, the needle of the counter began to act oddly when the counter was swept over the prints, and then, from the darkness a grey pillar of mist appeared. With the main A27 road in ear shot, the researchers decided it best to head for home, but then the monster appeared. The hazy shaft of mist before them took on the form of a great bear-like creature.

The apparition then faded within ten seconds.

From then on Clapham Woods would become known for its paranormal activity. It was once rumoured that a bear cult operated clandestinely in the thickets, and maybe they’d raised some kind of tulpa-like energy forever to haunt the shadows of the ‘birdless grove’.

Strange symbols, time lapses, animal sacrifice, phantom hounds, secret societies and several obscure cults. Clapham Woods is certainly one of those special places. Blue Bell Hill in Kent, and Cannock Chase in Staffordshire seem to offer similar bouts of high strangeness, whether in the form of strange animal sightings or peculiar activity and folklore. Whether by strange coincidence, the grounds of Verdley Castle, situated also in West Sussex, are supposedly haunted by a giant bear. It is alleged to have been the last bear in England.

MYSTERY ANIMALS OF KENT

After months of work, this remarkable book is finally available. It is the bulkiest book we have ever done, and with over 270,000 words the longest apart from Monster Hunter and Dragons: More than a Myth?

Neil is to be congratulated for such an extraordinary piece of writing. A large proportion of the book concerns big cats, but as Neil - despite his detractors - is one of the leading mystery cat researchers in the country, this is hardly surprising.l However, what makes it so much better than yer run of the mill big cat books which seem to be largely rehashed press cuttings, and in which the sentance "err it was black, it had a long tail and looked like my Labrador" seem to be repeated over and over again ad nauseam, this is the first-hand story of years of dedication and hands-on research.

The non-cat chapters are equally as interesting, covering a whole gamut of subjects from out-of-place animals to what Neil calls the "nameless anomalies" which would not be out of place in an episode of the X-Files from about ten years ago.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's only £14.99 which is hardly extortionate in this day and age, and in the unlikely instance that you don't like it, it is so substantial that you can use it as a door stop, throw it at your dog, or wrap it in a pillow-case to make a handy cosh, and tootle on down top your nearest sub-post office.

Well done mate.

Paperback: 420 pages
Publisher: Cfz (Mar 2009)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1905723369
ISBN-13: 978-1905723362
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Animals-British-Isles-Kent/dp/1905723369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237461233&sr=8-1

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: The Rochester Rabbit Ripper

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

Who, or what, is the Rochester rabbit ripper ? That’s the question I was asking myself after an investigation on the outskirts of historic Rochester. Now, Rochester, with it’s Dickensian association, is a beautiful place, but under the cloak of darkness weird stuff happens.

Over the course of a few years there’s been sightings of large cats, unidentified swimming objects in the river, black magic coven’s accused of sacrificing goats, piles of large pet dogs found crushed and scratched in the local woods, and now this.

The so-called Rochester Rabbit Ripper was behind the discovery of a severely mutilated domestic cat in a neighbouring village. An elderly couple awoke one morning (4th March 2009) to find the grisly remains in their garden. The remaining body parts were put in a wheelie bin. The following morning the half-eaten remains of a rabbit were found and sniffed out by their dog. Now, this poor dog certainly wasn’t responsible. For one, it’s blind. Two, it is on its last legs and can hardly walk. Fur was strewn about the garden, but one of the neighbours mentioned he’d never seen a rabbit in his garden all the time he’d lived there, however, rabbits would certainly have been in abundance in the flanking overgrown alleyway and pathway which runs along the river Medway. Some ‘thing’ had eaten the rabbit, leaving its back legs, and the couple phoned me. I arrived at the scene expecting to clear the mystery up in no time, but experience usually tells me that something weird is going to happen.

So, I checked out the remains which the elderly gent’ had thrown in the bin with dog excrement, and prodded my way through. A neighbour was quick to arrive and mentioned a few nights previous he’d been in his kitchen at around 11:00 pm, looked out his back garden and saw the rear end of a massive black cat which slinked away. So, maybe the so-called ‘beast’ of Blue Bell Hill had struck again, this animal being a black leopard said to prowl the neighbouring villages. I went into the neighbour’s house whilst the elderly couple went for a drive. After half an hour I decided to make for the woodland pathway, but as I left the house, I glanced towards the elderly couple’s gate and saw their crippled and blind Alsatian munching something. It was half a rabbit!

Now, it wasn’t the same rabbit because I had this slain bunny in a bag, but somehow, a new rabbit had appeared from nowhere. Within the last thirty or so minutes. The dog was crunching bones and lapping at the meal with difficulty, but the poor, hungry mutt wasn’t allowed to eat such a meal as it was on a special diet, and certainly couldn’t have gotten round the garden to catch a rabbit. Even though no-one had seen rabbits in their garden, probably because rabbits couldn’t gain access, it was a mystifying triangle. Had, whilst I was in the neighbour’s house, a black leopard dumped another rabbit in the garden, eaten half of it, but somehow, the crippled dog picked up the scent, even though the dog couldn’t get down the steps of the garden. Or, had there never been a black leopard, but instead a dog gorging itself on local rabbits and domestic cats ? Unlikely. When I got home I received a call from the elderly couple who were mystified as to how their dog had gotten another rabbit, but did mention that sometimes ‘things’ were thrown over the fence for the dog to eat ? However, who on earth had been hunting rabbits, and chucking their rear end over a fence ? It was all confusing, and so the saga continues…until the next mysterious kill.

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: Mystery paw-prints in Kent

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

February has been a chaotic time for my research into exotic cats across the south-east, and one particular animal always makes great headline. The ‘beast of Bluewater’, a black leopard, has been seen a handful of times since January this year, and in February the Gravesend Messenger were eager to tie a set of mysterious footprints to the big cat. However, the tracks, which were discovered by four golfers whilst playing at Southern Valley Golf Club were nothing of the sort.
One of the witnesses, a Mr Bowles, photographed the tracks which he’d found during the morning in a frosty bunker. The impressions, when compared to a size 10 footprint, measured almost as long, and showed four claws on each ‘paw’, but an elongated heel. The prints were dismissed as belonging to a badger by a local badger expert, and the witness sent the images to Howletts Zoo, who told him they were probably made by a German Shepherd dog! However, after looking through many sets of tracks, I believed the impressions resembled those made by a wolverine, or another member of the mustelid family, the Fisher!

These animals are around two to three-feet in length, whilst the wolverine can reach up to four-feet. Mr Bowles mentioned that whatever made the tracks walked on all fours, and was roughly four-feet in length, the indentations of the fore-paws being slightly smaller than the rear. I sent the images to Richard Freeman who mentioned also that a wolverine could well be the answer, and mentioned that although such animals have five claws, the fifth is not always evident in tracks. There have been no local reports of such an animal, but I would like to know what everyone else thinks.

Paw prints: Wolverine (L) Fisher (R)

GUEST BLOGGER NEIL ARNOLD: The Monster Spider of Stock

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

When frontman of The Cure, Robert Smith mumbled, “On candystripe legs the spiderman comes, softly through the shadows of the evening sun…”, I’m pretty sure he had no recollection of one Charlie Marshall. Mr Marshall was known in Essex as the ‘spiderman of Stock’, although he was by trade an ostler, but ol’ Charlie, for extra income, decided to cash in on a legend which remains as one of the county’s most obscure.

In 1777, an Arthur Trumble visited Brazil and brought home with him a variety of strange and large beetles and insects and creeping arachnids. Unfortunately, most of these creatures were dead by the time he got off the plane, but one particular specimen was an huge spider which he plucked from the Amazon jungle. Trumble conducted lectures on his expeditions, but one day was horrified to learn that his monstrous spider had escaped, and so was born the legend of the ‘Spider of Stock’. It is alleged that one elderly lady died of a heart attack after spying the eight-legged crawler, but once winter enveloped the area, many who’d become unnerved by the alleged spider’s presence, felt they could breathe a sigh of relief as surely the spider would have perished in the coldest weather.

During the early 1900s, sightings and legend still persisted in reference to an enormous spider which many locals called the ‘ghost spider’. The creature would often spring upon those sleeping and then scuttle out of sight, leaving many to believe that the area of Stock was indeed haunted by this legend.

In 1974 Mrs Gloria Craven from Hedingham saw a spider the size of a dinner plate, slowly creeping up her husband’s jacket sleeve. So terrified was she by the sight that she attempted to batter it with a heavy book, but instead smashed her husband on the back of his neck. This was the last sighting of the monstrous thing.

Charlie Marshall attempted to be a bit of a local Spring-Heeled Jack and steal the thunder of the monster spider. His antics, which he performed for a few coins in his bowler hat, involved climbing up the local church tower, and writhing up the tall, cold chimney of the local pub, where on one occasion he failed to return. It is believed the ‘spiderman’ of Stock died, wedged in one of the chimneys, or indeed the legend, or possibly the ghost of the monster spider, had devoured the imitator, intent on cashing in on the monster legend.