The Fen Werewolf -With Pictures!

[BIAD]

Here's strange tale from an area of England known as 'The Fens'.
On the Eastern side of the country, there's a stretch of marshland that -due to the contours of the coastline called 'The Wash'
and its elevation, spent most of British history as a inhospitable place until some work was done to create drainage for
farming use.

Anyway here's the recent account, it's a long story but the images are fascinating. (Link to article here)

It was almost a year before Michael’s story reached me and truly came under scrutiny and into the public domain.
This happened quite by chance, while I was pursuing another, apparently fruitless story on the southern edge of the Fens.

Chris Nailer was visiting friends out in the wilds near Burnt Fen, some miles from Ely, when, soon after midnight on 22 August
2002, they had heard some strange sounds, somewhat like those of a dog, outside the house.
When the owner of the house shone a torch from a downstairs window, he glimpsed something ‘very large and dog-like’
disappear through a gap in the hedge.

Though it had clearly been disturbing for them, the phrase ‘like a dog’ cropped up a great deal in their testimony.
So much so that, regrettably, there seemed to be only one conclusion to be drawn. I left feeling convinced that they were
unfortunate victims of a local stray and ‘Black Shuck mania’.

Afterwards, I was discussing the matter in a local pub with a friend.
We talked about the recent phenomenon of the Fen Tiger, and Black Shuck – a great black dog, said to inhabit the Fens
(there have been numerous terrifying encounters with this beast since the earliest properly recorded sighting in 1570, near
Bungay, Suffolk). This friend, it transpired, also knew a friend of Michael’s and mentioned some of the details of the case.

Though he was concerned about betraying a confidence, I made subtle enquiries and met Michael two weeks later, who,
it turned out, was very willing to talk. I had the impression that while he had been reluctant to push his case before the public,
it was a great relief to him that someone had finally come to take the matter off his hands.

We talked several times over the next couple of weeks, and he produced a drawing of what he had seen.
It was all perfectly clear in his mind, even after many months, though he apologised for the quality of his draughtsmanship
(‘I’m not an artist…’ he laughed). I was firmly convinced that he believed in what he saw, and that it was something quite real.
Nevertheless, for the moment, as so often, the investigation was at a dead end – a detailed account, but nothing more.

But more was to come, quite suddenly, and quite unexpectedly. While pursuing other investigations in Scotland towards the
end of September, I picked up a message on my mobile from Chris Nailer, saying that the same disturbances had occurred
again at approximately 1.30pm on the morning of 22 September.

When he joined his friend for a walk later that day they had also found unusual, large footprints –one whole and three partial
–which they said they could not definitely identify as either animal or human. ‘If they are made by a person,’ said Chris, ‘then
they were walking barefoot and had claws’.

These were found near a ditch at the edge of an open field, which according to Chris’s friend tended to drain poorly during
Autumn, and was often half full of water. Chris speculated that the ‘creature’ had stopped here to drink. However, poor mobile
reception had meant a significant delay in me receiving the message.

The day after the discovery the footprints were already gone, the field having been freshly tilled. Most frustrating of all, no one
had managed to take a photograph on Sunday, because the battery in the only available camera was flat.
Nevertheless, by this time I’d put myself on a train heading south.

On the journey, I had another dramatic call, this time from my partner Charlie Marlowe. A friend of hers –a long-serving country
vet –had called her with a curious story about a cow that had been found dead – and severely mutilated –at a farm in the Fens.

Both the farmer’s dogs had refused to go anywhere near the carcass. The farmer had called the vet immediately.
Several weeks had now passed since the original discovery, and the animal’s body had long since been destroyed, but I’d seen
mutilated cattle before -in Nevada -and it is a horrific sight. Ironically, the usual explanation for mysterious cattle mutilations is that
it is a predatory animal.

It was clear that here it really was an animal that was responsible –but neither the farmer nor our friendly vet could satisfactorily
explain what animal (in England, at least) could wreak such damage. Even more significantly –and this was not known to the 
farmer, the vet, or even Charlie –the attack had taken place just hours after Chris Nailer and friend had heard those mysterious
sounds at the Burnt Fen house (in the early morning of 23 August), which was only 9 miles away.

But by the time I got back into East Anglia, there was far more dramatic news.
Over the weekend of 21 September, the same farmer had had another encounter –one that, this time, would not need to depend
on anyone’s drawing skills.

The farmer –let’s call him John –had been severely shaken by the attack, and with a resourcefulness worthy of a true investigator
immediately set about introducing security measures. The cattle were kept in a locked shed at night, opposite which there was
already a security light. This is set off by movement in the yard –anything bigger than a rabbit will do it.

On an adjacent barn, John installed a small webcam overlooking the yard, triggered by a simple light sensitive switch.
If the security light comes on, the webcam snaps high resolution images every two seconds, saving them directly to the hard drive
of a PC.
It keeps this up until the light switches off again (once triggered it stays on for approximately 3 minutes, unless the beam continues
to be interrupted). In the three weeks it had been in operation, it had snapped nothing but a few cats and the odd fox.
Then something much bigger paid a visit.

At 3.20am on 22 September –again, just a few hours after the second disturbance at the Burnt Fen House –John was awoken by
a loud crash. In the next few moments he was convinced he could hear something moving outside. Looking out of all the windows
towards the yard and the nearby cattle shed, he could see nothing.

But the security light was on. By now, the sounds had stopped. John headed to the PC to see what, if anything, the camera had picked
up. What he found was startling.

At exactly 3.17am, an upright figure enters the yard from the left (the drive leading to the road), triggering the security system.
Seemingly unpertubed by the security light, it stands for several seconds looking from side to side before moving further into the yard.
It stops again, dead centre, in the full beam of the light, and appears to look directly at the camera.

Then, very suddenly and swiftly, it moves off to the right, in the direction of the cattle shed and fields beyond.
When I saw these images for the first time I found it a truly chilling experience. One can only imagine how John must have felt that night.
This creature, whatever it was, had passed just yards from him only moments before.

The first thing that struck him in the silence that followed was that his dogs hadn’t barked once. He found them downstairs in the kitchen,
cowering in a corner, their ears flat against their heads. Needless to say. he did not investigate further outside until daylight.
He never did discover the source of the crash. There were no other signs of an intruder of any kind...'

British Bigfoot Sightings:

Here are the images from the farmer's computer's Larger versions are available on the linked website.