Myths Of Great Britain.

[BIAD]

The Owlman Of Mawnan.

This is a difficult one due to one of the characters in the tale being portrayed by some researchers as dubious
and conniving.  Anthony ‘Doc’ Shiels is seen as a person that the media exploit and a man who enjoys such
audience-drawing antics, so any incident where his name is mentioned brings scrutiny with a flavour of doubt.


Mr. Sheils and the infamous photograph of Nessie.

Sheils was known for 'calling up' sea monsters using a witches coven (all naked, of course!) and capturing the
famous 1977 'Muppet Nessie' photograph, but the actual account could stand alone as this old man is only a
peripheral player in all of it.
............................................

Back in 1926, a village close to where the southern-tip of England sticks out towards the Atlantic Ocean, owned
an unusual incident that the Cornish Echo newspaper reported on at the time.



Mawnan (also known as Mawnan Smith) near Falmouth, was -and probably still is a sleepy hamlet, where we would
assume nothing of note ever happened and where the villagers of Mawnan trudged up to the parish church whilst
pondering their serenity considering the national strike continuing in the rest of the country.

Anyway, the local newspaper reported that two boys had been attacked and chased by what was described as a
very large and ferocious bird. The terrified boys managed escape and took cover behind a large steel grating.

And that's it, an odd yarn that would normally be lost in history of Great Britain due to more important news begging
to be reported. 1926 was when Scotsman -John Logie Baird showed off a strange machine called a 'televisor' to
uncertain members of the Royal Institution in his London laboratory and in that same year, the current Queen of the
United Kingdom -Elizabeth II was born.

Life goes on and half-a-century later, 1976 found a British–French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner
called 'Concorde' taking its first flight and two hopeful Americans start a new computer company called Apple.
But in that same year, the creature that had frightened the two boys of Mawnan appeared again.

Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry were enjoying a camping holiday with their parents next to the grounds of the
6th century St. Mawnan and St Stephen's Church church in Mawnan Smith. Hearing a strange hissing sound from
some nearby woods, the wide-eyed girls peeked out of their tent and looking towards the bell tower of the old church,
they saw a horror that would stay with them forever.


The church of St. Mawnan.

With glowing red eyes and 'claws like blacksmiths pinchers', the huge feathered monster cast its massive wings to the
night and flew over the church and into the darkness. The Owlman was back.

The year of 1976 hadn't finished with this strange Cornish phenomena, the Owlman had other holidaymakers to terrify.
June and Vicky Melling accompanied their parents on an Easter holiday from Preston in Lancashire to the land where
the pasty was invented and clotted cream is an essential part of a cream tea.

How the two girls came across the humanoid-avian was never expanded on, but the encounter was alarming enough
that Vicky and June's father -Don, cut the holiday short by three days. Wanting to know what this flying fiend actually
was, Mr. Melling provided a sketch from his daughters of the creature to a local researcher.
Enter artist, magician, writer, busker and psychic entertainer -Doc Shiels.


What all the girls saw.

Two years later and a more cynical set of witnesses observed 'an abnormally large bird that was silver grey in colour'.
Thinking this was a trick using a costume, any pessimism dissipated when they saw the creature fly up into the air and
disappear. After it flew away, they said that there was a strange static noise coming from the trees for sometime afterwards.

There was a further sighting in 1989 and then again 6 years later. The witness this time was an American tourist.
The lady from Chicago described the owl man as being at least 5 ft tall with huge claws emanating from its vast wings.

She sent a letter about her experience to the then night editor of the Western Morning News, Simon Parker, at the end
of the summer in 1995. It read:

Dear Sir

I am a student of marine biology at the Field Museum, Chicago on the last day of a summer vacation in England.
Last Sunday evening I had a most unique and frightening experience in the wooded area near the Old Church at
Mawnan, Cornwall. I experienced what I can only describe as a ‘vision from hell’.

The time was 15 minutes after 9, more or less. And I was walking along a narrow track through the trees.
I was halted in my tracks when about 30m ahead I saw a monstrous ‘Birdman’ thing. It was the size of a man with
a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes and pointed ears.

It had huge clawed wings and was covered in feathers of silver grey colour. The thing had long bird legs which
terminated in large black claws. It saw me and rose, floating towards me. I just screamed then turn and ran for my life.
The whole experience was totally irrational and dreamlike.

Friends tell me that there is a tradition of a Phantom Owlman in that District. Now I know why. I have seen the
phantom myself. Please don’t publish my real name and address.
This could adversely affect my career. Now I have to rethink my ‘worldview’ entirely.
Yours very sincerely scared Eyewitness.

The little village of Mawnan still claims mysterious happenings to this day with the odd sighting of the Owlman,
floating orbs among the gravestones of the church and ghostly apparitions being glimpsed in Mawnan Woods.

Now... did you hear that fluttering?