The Chase

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Part 1.

Spectres

Situated at the most northerly point of Britain's West Midlands region lies a vast nature reserve.

And whilst the dense forests and sprawling heathland of this area of outstanding natural beauty bring joy to countless visitors each year, they have also played host to incidents of great suffering and misery.

Join us this week as we explore the horrors of Cannock Chase.

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.

When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four-liter jug.

When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia Trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip.

Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

Whatever.

You were made to outdo your holidays.

We were made to help organize the competition.

Expedia made to travel.

Designated an area of outstanding natural beauty, Cannock Chase has played host to several haunting encounters with enigmatic entities and beings, the most notorious of which is reported to be a young girl with completely black eyes, who has been encountered by a significant number of local residents and visitors.

Her apparently supernatural abilities and origins remain shrouded in mystery, although they may potentially be linked to perhaps the darkest incident in the region's past.

During the 1960s, Raymond Morris was convicted for the abduction and murder of three young girls.

Being from the West Midlands of England, he unfortunately chose Cannock Chase as the area in which to dispose of their bodies on each occasion.

Many historians and local commentators believe the mysterious entity to be the soul of one of these three victims, forever bound to the place where her life was so brutally ended.

But as with similar sites the world over, this former royal hunting forest appears to be a focal point for a far wider range of bewildering and inexplicable activity, with apparent sightings of cryptids, instances of what are believed to be time slips, and UFO activity all having been reported there.

During the 1970s and 80s, Cannock Chase and the various towns and villages which surround it became synonymous with one of the UK's oldest supernatural tropes.

Numerous stories were published in local newspapers detailing how travellers crossing the region had come face to face with what was believed to be a hellhound.

The entity involved in these incidents was described as being substantially taller and bulkier than the largest canine breeds, black in colour and unlike any animal the witnesses had ever encountered.

One evening in January of 1985,

Sylvia Everett and her husband were driving along Penkridge Bank Road, one of the several main roads that cuts directly through the centre of the chase.

It was a clear night, with the road ahead well lit not only by the headlights of their car, but also by the full moon shining above.

Sylvia was forced to step hard on the brakes as she caught sight of something moving moving slowly across the road ahead, but when the car finally came to a halt, both she and her husband were stunned to see what resembled a small patch of mist situated directly in the centre of the highway.

As the pair watched on, this mass of fog slowly materialised into the outline of a large dog-like creature, with a broad torso, powerful legs, and large head.

And yet, despite the obvious canine features, both witnesses could still see the car's headlights illuminating the carriageway beyond.

A pair of bright yellow eyes then formed upon the face of this manifestation, which regarded them for what seemed like an eternity.

Then, with a sudden movement, the entity was gone, disappearing into a thick patch of undergrowth, not far from where it had been standing.

Another of the reported incidents had previously taken place during the summer of 1972 and involved a local resident named Nigel Lee.

Unlike the Everetts, he was driving along a more open stretch of the chase during nautical twilight.

Despite it being overcast, there was no suggestion of rain.

And so Nigel was taken completely by surprise when a thunderbolt struck the heathland off to his right.

Coming to a halt, he exited his vehicle out of curiosity, but within seconds he was back inside, fumbling to engage the door locks as a huge black form emerged from the smoke generated by the lightning strike.

Nigel would later describe this animal as being bigger than any dog he had ever seen.

completely black in colour and possessing a pair of glowing, greenish-yellow eyes.

Moving in an almost ponderous fashion, constantly sniffing the air around it, the hound moved ever closer to the road.

At this point it seemed to become aware of the driver's presence, fixing Nigel with a glare that seemed to last forever.

His nerve broken, he quickly resumed his journey.

with the hound apparently remaining still beside the road, watching the departing vehicle.

Several weeks later, Nigel was involved in a large industrial accident at his place of work, in which one of his closest friends was killed.

He would remain fully convinced that the incident was portended by his encounter with the sinister hellhound on Cannock Chase,

the creature acting as an omen not only of poor fortune, but also of impending death, as it has always been known for.

Situated at the southernmost region of Canak Chase, the heritage site of Castle Ring preserves the remnants of an ancient hill fort.

Seated atop the highest point in the reserve, it is believed to have been constructed around 50 AD by an Iron Age tribe named the Cornovii.

This former military location has also been the scene of several bizarre occurrences and manifestations, seeming to act as a focal point for supernatural activity in the area.

In July of 1986, a local resident named Pauline had gone to relax at the site, as she frequently did whenever she had time off work.

Arriving early in the day, she laid a blanket at the edge of the clearing and then settled down to read a book.

But sometime into her relaxation, she began to feel anxious, without fully understanding why.

It was only after she put down her book and concentrated on her surroundings that she was able to identify the cause.

The everyday sounds of the chase had gradually ceased around her, to the point where she now found herself sitting in an overbearing and uncomfortable silence.

There was no bird song or animal noises to be heard, with the natural swaying of the grass and trees steadily slowing to a point where there was no movement whatsoever.

Then a figure came stumbling out into the open from a thick patch of foliage situated a short distance away.

This newcomer was deeply unsettling in appearance, caked in dirt, unkempt and heavily bearded, wearing an assortment of animal furs and skins.

He was clutching a rudimentary weapon, which seemed to have been fashioned by fixing deer antlers to the the end of a long wooden stake.

Upon catching sight of Pauline, this strange man became agitated, initially levelling this weapon at her and then cautiously approaching.

At first, she believed she may have inadvertently stumbled across some form of reenactment or prank show being filmed for television.

But despite being armed, the man moving cautiously towards her seemed terrified by her presence, struggling to make eye contact and babbling in a mysterious language.

Moments later, more men materialized from within the surrounding woodland, all dressed as bizarrely as the ones standing ahead of her.

They began to take up positions around the edge of the grassy circle, with several of their number motioning aggressively for her to move away from them.

Grabbing hold of her belongings and slowly backing backing out of the clearing, Pauline watched on, bewildered as they began to chant in the same strange language, raising their hands towards the sky.

She then became aware of an imposing shape descending towards the assembled throng, travelling through the sky upon a pair of broad wings.

It was a dark-coloured flying creature, which was bat-like in appearance but with reptilian characteristics.

This monster's appearance was so horrific and threatening in nature that it prompted Pauline to turn and flee back into the cover of the trees.

Turning momentarily, she saw the men standing around the circle now engaging it in battle using their primitive weapons.

In turn, It screeched and lashed out at them with huge talons before Pauline fled away from the conflict deep into the woodland.

The sounds of nature resumed around her as she seemingly returned from wherever, or whenever, she had temporarily been transported to.

Other visitors to Castle Ring have reported sighting UFOs in the skies above, as well as fur-covered creatures which seem to resemble the Sasquatch of North American lore.

The site has also been the scene of several encounters with a sinister entity which has been witnessed at various locations across Cannock Chase, an elongated and slender figure dressed in black which has chased and attacked several visitors before disappearing into the depths of the surrounding forests.

One such encounter with this terrifying character was relayed to a local historian named Lee Brickley.

The unnamed witness account describes how during the early hours of the 2nd of January 2015, he was travelling across the chase and walking in the vicinity of Castle Ring.

Due to the extreme lateness of the hour, he had naturally assumed he was alone, only for a sudden movement off to one side to suggest that this was not the case.

Straining his eyes to see through the darkness, The witness became aware of another figure walking parallel to his own path across the site, almost mirroring his movements but on the opposite side of the clearing.

As he observed, this figure continued to plod along at a steady pace, before beginning to somehow levitate off the ground, still moving as if walking and at the same speed.

At this point, having risen several feet into the air, The floating figure seemed to become aware of the witness's presence and began to gravitate across the clearing towards him.

With the distance between them closing, the appearance of the airborne entity now became clearer, illuminated by the full moon above.

He was very tall and exceptionally thin, to the point of emaciation, dressed in a long black overcoat which was topped off by a corresponding Homburg-style hat.

But the most disturbing aspect of this entity's deeply unsettling visage was its eyes, which seemed to be glowing a vivid red.

Its speed progressively increased, lowering itself towards the witness as it approached, attempting to take hold of him.

At the last moment, the witness instinctively ducked to one side, narrowly avoiding the pair of spindly hands reaching out for him.

His attacker had hissed loudly in frustration, as the man quickly rose to his feet and fled the scene, leaving Castle Ring and its sinister trespasser far behind him.

The earliest sighting of what is believed to be the same entity took place not at Castle Ring, but in the vicinity of the German military cemetery five miles to the northwest.

This is the resting place of 5,000 soldiers of the two world wars.

moved there from other sites following an agreement with the German government during the 1960s.

As with Castle Ring, this is another location within the boundaries of Cannock Chase that presents a focal point for supernatural and unexplained phenomena.

In the summer of 2001, a researcher named Mike Johnson selected this location as the starting point for an ecological study he was conducting on the chase.

Arriving at the cemetery one afternoon in June, he set off along one of the nature trails to survey the local flora and fauna.

As he walked, he paused at certain points along the route to take pictures and make notes.

A regular visitor to the area, Johnson was perplexed by the lack of animal activity that day, being accustomed to seeing deer and other animals in the grounds adjacent to the trail.

The distinct absence of birdsong was also unnerving, to the extent that he considered abandoning his task and returning another time.

Reasoning that he may as well finish what he started, the researcher pushed on into a more open part of the chase, catching sight of a group of four hikers approaching him.

But as this quartet slowly laboured down the trail from the opposite direction and as their features became clearer, Johnson slowed his pace.

Whilst three of the group looked fairly similar, presenting as older local residents out for a lunchtime stroll, the fourth stood out entirely.

Walking a little behind the others as if deliberately trailing them, this figure was far taller, apparently dressed in a formal suit made of black and dark grey material.

Its skin was deathly pale, and its arms were unnaturally long, dangling down by its sides seeming to almost touch touch the ground.

As the distance closed between them, Johnson found himself physically recoiling from the group to avoid having any contact with them.

He could see that the tall figure had no face whatsoever, possessing instead a perfectly smooth and glistening area of skin where its facial features should have been.

It had since moved forward so that it was level with the three elderly walkers, moving its arms around them, touching them on their shoulders and their faces.

And yet, they seemed completely unaware of its presence, walking and chatting to one another, the haunting entity continuing to manhandle them as they did so.

As the three men walked past Johnson, Regarding his shocked expression with a degree of curiosity, the creature travelling with them seemed to move in closer, wrapping its arms protectively around the man closest to Johnson and leering at him with its expressionless face, as if to warn him off interacting with them.

They disappeared into the wooded area of the trail that Johnson had just emerged from, seemingly unaware of their unearthly fellow traveller.

Lee Brickley has spent several years studying and compiling the various supernatural incidents reported by people during their travels across Cannock Chase, with the dark long-armed figure being the most threatening and persistent of such occurrences.

There are even reports of it manifesting inside houses adjacent to the area.

Two witnesses separately contacted Brickley following a newspaper interview, and despite not knowing one another, They described eerily similar accounts regarding this strange creature.

Both stated they had awoken to find a shadowy portal forming in the corner of their bedrooms, through which an entity with long-reaching arms and red-glowing eyes had emerged.

It had rushed towards them brandishing a set of sharp fangs, taking hold of and squeezing them to the point where they had then passed out.

They had later awoken in bed to find themselves alone once again.

Brickley remains unsure about the origins of this sinister figure, but draws parallels between the reports of shadow people and sleep-related demonic entities which have been witnessed elsewhere across the globe.

There is also a resemblance to the Slender Man Creepypasta, which has emerged from the United States in recent years, although the Canak Chase encounters predate this by quite a margin.

As we will go on to see, this long-armed intruder is far from being the most notorious resident of Cannock Chase,

but there are other entities which are said to haunt the area,

including one which is believed to be the by-product of a military experiment dating back to the Cold War.

Be sure to join us for part 2.

Part 2

Beastmen

Due to its remote and secluded location, Cannock Chase has long served as a haven for individuals in search of solitude and respite from the busyness of everyday life.

For the officers of the Staffordshire Police Constabulary, the sprawling rural area has always produced a steady stream of crime reports to investigate.

In October of 2006,

authorities received a call about a disruptive crowd on the outskirts of the chase.

The gathering included intoxicated individuals who were causing a disturbance for nearby residents.

Response officers were dispatched to address the situation, and upon arriving, they discovered several cars parked along the road.

The officers proceeded through the adjacent tree line and stumbled upon a camp where the owners of the vehicles were situated.

Having moved this group on, the officers then resumed their evening patrol, only to later receive a report that a distressed young man had attended a local station.

It would transpire that this youth had been one of the group recently encountered by the police, but had decided to return to his campsite as he had no desire to return home.

Sometime in the early hours, he awoke unexpectedly, and before attempting to go back to sleep, he decided to step outside for a cigarette.

Upon emerging from his tent, The teenager heard a rustling sound in the undergrowth about 200 meters away from where he had pitched.

Expecting the cause of this disturbance to be one of the many deer he had seen in the area, he continued to smoke his cigarette, only to then see a pale creature emerge from beyond the bushes.

It was moving on all fours, with its face pressed close to the ground, as if doggedly searching for something.

Believing that this must be a sniffer dog belonging to the police or a local warden, the man began to back away, inadvertently disturbing the ground beneath him.

Almost immediately, the creature reared up, standing tall on its hind legs and adopting a confrontational posture.

With growing horror, the witness realised that he was looking at a gigantic figure, almost eight feet tall, with a humanoid body and a grossly oversized and distended face.

Where its nose should have been, there was instead a blunt pig-like snout, which sat atop a large gaping mouth, through which the creature now began to howl and scream.

At the first sign of this shrieking and squealing monster moving towards him, the youth had immediately turned and run, leaving his tent and car behind.

Fleeing as fast as he could to the main road, he had flagged down a passing motorist, begging to be taken to the nearest police station.

The description of the creature encountered by the young man is remarkably similar to that provided by a pair of local residents in an incident which took place in October of 1993.

On that occasion, the couple, named John and Anne, had been out walking in the vicinity of Castle Ring when they became aware of a noise in the nearby woodland.

Stopping to listen, they thought it was likely another couple indulging in a romantic encounter away from prying eyes.

Deciding that it was time to go home, they returned to their car, which was parked a short distance away from where they heard the sound.

But as John was putting the vehicle into reverse to leave, his wife suddenly gripped hold of his arm, her other other hand pointing out through their windscreen.

Several meters away, a figure had emerged from the tree line and was standing silently regarding the couple as they sat in their car.

At first glance, this looked like any other adult male, dressed in a dark top and matching trousers.

But instead of a normal face, it had a repulsive and horrifying blend of human and porcine features.

It possessed dark, piercing eyes which appeared far smaller than normal, and a totally flat snout framed by a pair of flat drooping ears, which hung low either side of the head.

John was sitting open-mouthed, staring at what he thought looked like tusks at the side of the creature's broad mouth.

when it suddenly took a step towards them.

The creature then raised a hand and emitted a shrill scream.

John immediately changed gear and drove away from the car park as fast as he could.

Stories relating to this supposed pigman, who is rumoured to stalk the woods in and around Cannock Chase, have been in circulation since the late 1960s.

Over time, this legend has been linked to another piece of local lore, one that relates to a secret military installation allegedly hidden away within the reserve.

The Py Green Communications Mast lies a mile south of the German military cemetery, one of 14 such installations to have been constructed at the height of the Cold War.

A reinforced concrete tower Built as part of a backup communications network in the event of a Soviet attack, it stands at nearly 100 meters tall.

But rumors persist that during its construction in 1963,

the opportunity was also taken by the military to hide a secretive facility beneath the ground.

It was here that the pigman was said to have been birthed, the result of a rudimentary military experiment involving gene splicing and cross-species husbandry.

Over the years, a number of alleged whistleblowers have come forward with stories of how the creature came to roam the woods around the tower.

Some have stated that at the end of the experimental program in question,

the hybrid managed to escape from captivity with no real will or desire shown by the authorities to recapture it.

Others believe it may have been intentionally freed by its creators in order to keep people away from the facility.

Regardless, regardless, having been witnessed moving across the region for roughly a 70-year period, it remains to be seen how much life this creature has left to live.

In addition to the pigman, it would appear that Cannock Chase may be home to an elusive dogman, with stories of a werewolf lurking in the woods being equally prevalent.

The most recent of such sightings took place on the nearby M6 motorway during the summer of 2006.

One evening in June of that year, Highways Agency staff were dispatched to a multi-vehicle collision which had taken place in the vicinity of Junction 10A.

Upon their arrival, the highway's officers found a number of damaged vehicles which had thankfully already been moved off the motorway by their owners.

Fortunately, nobody involved had sustained serious injury, but when the officers attempted to determine the cause of the accident, several of the drivers became somewhat evasive.

It was only when police officers attended the scene that an account of what had transpired was obtained, one that would raise eyebrows when it was later transcribed.

The driver of the first vehicle to be hit, a middle-aged woman driving home from work, claimed to have braked sharply to avoid a person crossing the carriageway ahead of her.

But when asked to describe the pedestrian, she had stated that she could not, as it had not been wearing any clothes, and had been completely covered in a layer of hair or fur.

Despite repeated questioning,

She maintained that the figure had resembled a wolf or dog, but had been hurrying across the busy road on two legs as opposed to four.

Bizarrely still,

a passenger in the car which had subsequently collided with hers agreed with the account, stating that they had also seen a dog-like figure fleeing the ensuing collision.

A search of the ground either side of the motorway did not reveal any trace of this mysterious entity, be it human, or otherwise.

The incident on the M6 is only one of a larger number of sightings of what resembles a dogman occasionally emerging from the woods to cross the roads of Canock Chase.

Back in February of 1995,

Jackie Horton had been driving from Canock to Rugely along the A460 road, which cuts right through the heart of the reserve.

It was early morning.

and as there were no streetlights on this long stretch of road, Horton engaged her high beams.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a large figure suddenly stepped out from the side of the road ahead of her vehicle, lumbering slowly into the centre of the carriageway.

With her reactions dulled by fatigue, Horton didn't have time to swerve, and closed her eyes in anticipation of the coming collision.

When she then opened them again, the car had travelled directly past the figure, which which appeared to have stepped back at the last moment.

Applying her brakes, she looked in the car's rearview mirror at an unnatural creature, which remained standing in the middle of the road, staring right back at her.

Illuminated by the red glow emanating from her brake lights, she could make out the features of a tall and muscular figure.

covered from head to toe in dark fur.

Its eyes were a piercing red, reflecting back at her out of the darkness, and the lower half of its face ended in a blunt canine snout which was opened to expose a row of sharp teeth.

Then the creature had turned on its heel and sprinted off into the bush, moving at a speed well in excess of anything any human would be capable of.

The killing and mutilation of small animals and cattle in the area has often been linked to this entity, despite such events being common to most rural areas.

With a combination of natural tunnels and industrial mine shafts running beneath the region, some theorise that a number of such creatures may have made their home beneath the chase, emerging only during the darkest hours to hunt and returning to their lairs as the first rays of sun crest the horizon.

In addition to the ghost of a black-eyed girl, whose antics have now been recounted to audiences around the globe, Cannock Chase hosts several other infamous female ghosts.

One of these is reportedly a woman dressed all in white, who haunts the land that lies in and around Springslade Lodge, situated not far from Pygreen Tower.

Dubbed the Lady of the Chase, this spirit manifests in front of both drivers and walkers, somehow possessing the power to paralyze them exactly where they stand.

She then proceeds to stare into their eyes for several minutes, as if analysing everything about them, before then disappearing as quickly as she appeared.

Another famous ghost linked to the area dwells within the confines of the nearby Shugborough estate.

and is believed to be the spirit of one of the previous owners.

Lady Harriet Hamilton was the wife of the second Earl of Lichfield, and resided in Shugborough Hall during the second half of the 19th century.

Since her death in 1913,

visitors to the hall have reported hearing ghostly footsteps and the rustling of a heavy silken dress along the main corridors of the building.

A smoky figure has also been witnessed to pass directly through closed doors from one room into another by some guests, and it would appear that not all of the chase's spectral inhabitants are confined to their home, with at least one possessing the ability to travel beyond its boundaries.

During the 1990s, a man named Nigel Barrett was travelling through Cannock Chase en route to the town of Wanden.

It had been a damp and miserable day, and as he was nearing the outskirts of the town, he caught sight of a young woman walking along the road just ahead of him.

He wondered if she might be a hitchhiker, but when she made no effort to flag him down, Nigel increased his speed and manoeuvred his car to pass her by.

As he did so, He suddenly cried out and slammed his foot hard on the brakes when he realised that her face was a mass of featureless flesh.

At the exact same moment, the woman instantly vanished, leaving Nigel sitting at the wheel of his car in shock.

He told himself that it must have been the effects of his long journey home, or a trick of the evening mist and murk, before continuing with his journey.

But in the coming days, Strange events began to take place around the home he shared with his wife.

His dogs, who had resided with the couple at the property for years, became sullen and withdrawn, refusing to remain in the same room as their master.

His wife complained that she had felt an invisible hand touching her hair or running itself across her exposed forearms when she was alone in the house.

Several nights later, she woke Nigel with her screams.

claiming she had opened her eyes to see a woman hovering directly above him with a hazy patch of nothingness where her face should have been.

Her lifeless arms had been reaching down as if to take hold of her sleeping husband and remove him from their bed.

It remains something of a mystery as to why this one particular area of the West Midlands possesses such a wide and varied catalogue of mysterious occurrences.

It has often been compared to the likes of Skinwalker Ranch or the Bridgewater Triangle in the USA for its high strangeness.

Some would argue that its sprawling and remote nature has allowed some species to evolve over time, free from human interference, only being glimpsed during the very late or very early hours, whilst the rest of the world sleeps.

For others, The isolated region has acted as a magnet for extraterrestrial or malign entities, who are able to move around beyond the reach of human surveillance.

And then there are those who believe that sites such as Castle Ring and the German Military Cemetery have directly contributed towards the growth of supernatural phenomena, the souls of so many who have been laid there having become restless and unable to find peace.

Regardless, inexplicable activity on Canock Chase seems to show no sign of abating nor diminishing.

If anything, and perhaps unfortunately for the local population, it only seems to be increasing, both in terms of frequency and intensity.

The question is: why?

What may be coming around the next corner?

Benton's glories.