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Post by dem bones on Apr 25, 2024 6:53:37 GMT
Long overdue a thread on Vault; Lee Brickley - UFO's Werewolves & The Pig-Man: Exposing England's Strangest Location - Cannock Chase (Yam Yam Books, 2013) Introduction
The Bloody History Of Cannock Chase
Alien Encounters
Wild Beasts
Legend Of The Pig Man
Ghostly Goings On
Top Secret Military Activity
Conclusions Blurb: The mysterious woodlands of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England are known throughout the world as an entry point for bizarre and unearthly, paranormal phenomena. From werewolf sightings and spectral encounters, to documented UFO crashes and spooky urban legends, this supernatural portal area experiences more inexplicable activity than you even dare imagine.
In this book, Lee Brickley chronicles his investigation into the very location many researchers call "England's Strangest". With brand new sighting reports, spine tingling tales of gruesome monsters, and fresh information on the alleged top secret military connection that could be responsible for it all. Are you brave enough to find out what's really going down in the woods today? Introduction: Author on growing up in a haunted house and how he first came to study unexplained phenomena in the area, "which many researchers and best-selling investigative journalists'— Nick Pope, Nick Redfern and Neil Arnold for three — 'list as one of England's most active paranormal hotspots." On the evidence of this slim volume, it certainly gives Mysterious Milton Keynes a close run for the title (Haunted Harrow Weald, your day will come). The Bloody History of Cannock Chase: Featuring the Black Death, William 'The Rugely Poisoner' Palmer (his ghost haunts the corridors of HMP Stafford), Satanic cultists, the Wyrley Gang - animal mutilators from either within the local community or outer space; the jury is still out - a haunted war German POW cemetery, the bloody spectre of Elizabeth Gaskin, the A34 child-killer, and the People of the Horn. Alien Encounters: Did the MOD remove three dead extra-terrestrials from a crashed UFO on Cocksparrow Lane during the Spring of 1964, and if so, why won't they tell us? An alien abduction near the Cannock Leisure Centre during the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Terrifying experience of Mark, snatched from the wood by black clad, hostile, fanged saucermen while returning from a friend's birthday party. Triangular UFO's over Stafford Hospital. Not for the first time we ask ourselves; what can it all mean? Wild Beasts: Mauling and attempted abduction of ten-year-old Emily Hilton by a slavering werewolf — or dog-man — in a stretch of Hazelslade Wood overlooking the Beau Desert Golf Club, as witnessed by her parents. "Standing directly over my trembling daughter, just as my wife described, was a now howling, hairy creature stood on its hind legs. I only saw it for a moment because when it detected me it darted." Also, Navy Bill and the 14 feet yellow-bellied monster serpent; alien big cat sightings; the black panther of Cannock Chase, etc. Legend Of The Pig Man: As name suggests, a tragic human-pig hybrid, reputedly born to a victim of secret "disgusting genetic experiments" conducted by Allied scientists during WWII. Banished from home by parents who accused her of going with a man out of wedlock, his mother took to the woods to raise her monster child. Author documents three reported encounters with the snouted horror from October 1993 to 2011. It even has its own jingle. "When night falls, enter the woods at your peril,
For inside lurks something worse than the devil,
Avoid at all costs the gathering place,
Where at midnight, the Pig-Man roams on Cannock Chase." Ghostly Goings On: Mr. Bird and the vanishing hitch-hiker from out of the graveyard on Stile Cop Road; one minute a young woman in her mid-twenties, the next an ugly, evil-eyed hag! And then — she isn't there at all; Caroline Parks and the phantom jaywalker of the Hednesford-Rugeley road (as also mentioned by Antony Milne - who underplays it - in his Haunted Cars and Highways); "It looked like a man with some sort of rimmed hat on, but he was also translucent and I couldn't see where his legs met the ground. It looked like he was floating above the road. He had bright yellow eyes — I thought maybe it was a vampire." Also, a column of spectral Roman foot-soldiers on the march in Birches Valley, and the rather more sobering proposition of demon children - evil entities raised by local Satanists - loose in the wood. Top Secret Military Activity : Are the military using a network of secret tunnels to transport nuclear weapons or worse across the Midlands? Is there a government-military super-bunker beneath Cannock Chase? The author's pessimistic theory on why the residents of Cannock Chase have experienced more than their fair share of weird goings-on since the First World War. |
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Post by ripper on Apr 26, 2024 10:25:12 GMT
Living right on the edge of the Chase, and having walked it for over 50 years, I am sad to report I haven't run into any werewolves, been kidnapped by aliens, nor answered the door to even a single black-eyed child, but my goodness these little books are entertaining. The tale of Elizabeth Gaskin is well known around here, in fact I live mere yards from where she did, and there is a wood opposite Hednesford Park known as Gaskin's Wood, where my mates and I would play. I read of the 1964 UFO crash in Nick Redfern's Cosmic Crashes, yet there is also another alleged crash in 1974 that doesn't get so much coverage mentioned in the same book. It hasn't been so long since there were reports of a panther seen on the Chase and what was described as a 'crocodile' in a stream. Many reports were in free local papers that we received each week, but sadly that doesn't happen nowadays.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 26, 2024 16:53:27 GMT
Living right on the edge of the Chase, and having walked it for over 50 years, I am sad to report I haven't run into any werewolves, been kidnapped by aliens, nor answered the door to even a single black-eyed child, but my goodness these little books are entertaining. The tale of Elizabeth Gaskin is well known around here, in fact I live mere yards from where she did, and there is a wood opposite Hednesford Park known as Gaskin's Wood, where my mates and I would play. I read of the 1964 UFO crash in Nick Redfern's Cosmic Crashes, yet there is also another alleged crash in 1974 that doesn't get so much coverage mentioned in the same book. It hasn't been so long since there were reports of a panther seen on the Chase and what was described as a 'crocodile' in a stream. Many reports were in free local papers that we received each week, but sadly that doesn't happen nowadays. The author devotes six pages to panther in the Wild Beasts chapter, don't recall any mention of the crocodile, but it's probably in there somewhere - he seems very thorough. Anyway, enjoyed UFO's Werewolves & The Pig-Man so much, I'm hoping to try at least one more Lee Brickley title before I'm through. |
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Post by ripper on Apr 27, 2024 16:07:49 GMT
Living right on the edge of the Chase, and having walked it for over 50 years, I am sad to report I haven't run into any werewolves, been kidnapped by aliens, nor answered the door to even a single black-eyed child, but my goodness these little books are entertaining. The tale of Elizabeth Gaskin is well known around here, in fact I live mere yards from where she did, and there is a wood opposite Hednesford Park known as Gaskin's Wood, where my mates and I would play. I read of the 1964 UFO crash in Nick Redfern's Cosmic Crashes, yet there is also another alleged crash in 1974 that doesn't get so much coverage mentioned in the same book. It hasn't been so long since there were reports of a panther seen on the Chase and what was described as a 'crocodile' in a stream. Many reports were in free local papers that we received each week, but sadly that doesn't happen nowadays. The author devotes six pages to panther in the Wild Beasts chapter, don't recall any mention of the crocodile, but it's probably in there somewhere - he seems very thorough. Anyway, enjoyed UFO's Werewolves & The Pig-Man so much, I'm hoping to try at least one more Lee Brickley title before I'm through. The crocodile was actually spotted in a pool rather than a stream, and was apparently investigated by Jon Downes from the Centre for Fortean Zoology. Almost certainly a misidentification, but it caused quite a stir for a few weeks round here, I can tell you. |
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Post by dem bones on Apr 29, 2024 12:21:25 GMT
I'd not realised he was so prolific! FORTY books! Do you have any particular recommendations, or is it a case of dive in where you can and hope for the best?
Does your walk take you through Hazelslade Wood? I don't know whether to be delighted we have a reporter on the spot or terrified for your safely!
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Post by ripper on Apr 30, 2024 14:58:57 GMT
I'd not realised he was so prolific! FORTY books! Do you have any particular recommendations, or is it a case of dive in where you can and hope for the best? Does your walk take you through Hazelslade Wood? I don't know whether to be delighted we have a reporter on the spot or terrified for your safely! I haven't read that much of his work, but what I have read it has all been much of a muchness. It's very entertaining, especially if you are familiar with the places being mentioned, but even if you are not, it's still keeps you turning the pages. On the basis of what I have read then any of his work is worth a look. There's a book by Peter McCue called Britain's Paranormal Forests which has a good chapter on Cannock Chase, as well as eerie goings-on in other forests and woods around the country. It's not a bad place to start to get an overview. I used to go walking in Hazel Slade wood as a boy, when my mates and I would ride our bikes there, but haven't been for a long time. Nowadays our morning walk is much more limited to the local area around our house, together with car rides to more distant parts of the Chase. When I was a boy there used to be what we called 'lodges' on the Chase. One of them sold refreshments in Summer and it was very popular with walkers. Another sold tortoises, and that's where I bought my two tortoises, Belle and Sebastian from in the early 70s--you may remember that was the name of a French B+W kids TV series the BBC bought about a boy and his dog. There's also a mini version of the BT tower right at the top of Pye Green, providing the same services as its more famous counterpart, and I always thought it was a prime target for a nuke in the Cold War. I used to pass it every day going to work and one morning in the early 90s it was crawling with military personnel. No idea what they were doing there, probably just training, but who knows. |
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