The Weird Weekend of the CFZ 2012

My first Weird Weekend was in 2006, and it was the first time I met the crazy and wonderful people of the CFZ, the Centre for Fortean Zoology. I've loved cryptozoology since I was a kid, the bizarre stories of people experiencing strange creatures like Mothman, Owlman, Sasquatch, 'Nessie', Yowie or wondering what the hell the Beast of Gévaudan really was. It's funny, I think back to high school and how I used to read paranormal, supernatural, UFO and unsolved mystery stories in the library, often during free periods, or when I preferred reading books over hanging with friends. The last thing I thought would happen, would be that I attend cryptozoology conferences in a small village in North Devon a little over 10 years later. It was that, and a big thanks to Fortean Times magazine for getting me back involved in forteana - my life had been art, writing, medieval re-enactment and paganism for most of my adult life until then. The Weird Weekend is held every mid-August in Woolfardisworthy (Woolsery), a small North Devon village of no real significance except that the head of the CFZ  (Jon Downes) lives there, in an inherited cottage from his late father. The event runs in the local Community Centre and goes for a weekend. It’s only £20 to go – well, it's £25, but as a friend of the CFZ, I never pay that much – that price has not changed since I went in 2006 either. The lectures at the event can vary, and may not even be about cryptids either, just anything to do with forteana. On Thursday night, its the cocktail night, Friday night, the conference has its opening night, and the con starts at midday on the Saturday and Sunday. Then on Sunday its the end of weekend dinner.

The WW 06 was my final event in the UK, before I happily flew home to Australia. Then I never managed to get back to the WW again until 2012. While much had changed in that time, nothing really had changed with the CFZ crowd.

In August 2012, I was living near Huddersfield, and on the Wednesday before the WW, got the Megabus service to London (only cost £1!) and then to Exeter, then got a bus to Bideford where Jon Downes and his wife Corinna picked me up. It took all day to get there! I was going to be sleeping at their place. Beggars can't be choosers - I slept in the conservatory! Here's a run down of the event....

I arrived late on Wed night and slept in the lounge, promising to make cheese omelettes in the morning, which I did. The Thursday night cocktail party was a great success, even though the wind and the rain tried to spoil the fun – all those who attended gathered under the marquee in Jon’s yard, while Matt Osbourne and sometimes Max Blake mixed the margaritas nowhere near like Tom Cruise in ‘Cocktail.’ 

 

Friday

While the weekend appeared to hold the promise of rain, we began the talks on Friday night at 7pm by watching a video done by Jon, where he told a story about a sheep, a chupacabra and an alien coming to Woolsery for the Weird Weekend, with a song that he sung himself. It was typical Jon style music and video in an opening ceremony that was also very Jon style.

Richard Freeman began a talk about  ‘20 cryptids you’ve never heard of’ due to a cancelled talk, and half way through his list, was told he had 5 minutes to go. There certainly were cryptids I’ve never heard of, so the talk worked for me.

After a dinner break, we went back into the Hall to watch Paul Screeton ‘s ‘The Quest for the Hexham Heads, which I enjoyed because he went into detail about a few of the particular incidents that surrounded the heads. I've spoken about this topic on this blog before, but in regards to photography issues with stone heads of mysterious age. Paul even had two heads there – The first was a clay one made in art class by Colin Robson, one of the boys who found the original two heads in his garden in 1971 – he had made it in art class a couple of months before he moved to the house where he and his brother found the heads – the irony of this was added to the mystery. The second head was a carved one from concrete by the man who claimed to make the heads originally, as he used to live in the house where the Robson's lived. Paul had been given these heads back in the early 70’s when he researched this strange incident. He even went into detail about the strange cryptid sightings that occurred with the neighbours (the half-man, half-sheep animal in the bedroom) and Dr Anne Ross's werewolf that was seen in her house more than once.

NOT the Hexham Heads. The one of the left is a pottery
head made by the boy who found the heads, and the one on
the right is a similar head made by the man who claimed
he made the two, now missing, Hexham Heads 

Paul's book ‘Hexham Heads’ has also been published by CFZ press and tonight was the book launch of it, so Paul signed a few copies and showed off the two heads he had.

The final talk of the night was Richard Thorn’s ‘The Hunt for the Pink-headed Duck.’ Richard has been to Burma 3 times looking for this pink-headed duck, which apparently became extinct in 1935. His third trip was only taken this year, and the successful part of the trip was when his two tour guides took him into the wilds of Burma where all the lakes were, and they met many locals who recognised the duck and had seen it only a few days ago. Richard felt very close to the possibility of seeing it, but he had no success on this particular trip. He does know where to begin to look again, but due to the restrictions and laws of Burma at the moment, it might be hard to get into certain areas. You need a permit for a lot of things these days. Everyone enjoyed his talk immensely, and we all wished him the best with full support and encouragement.

Jon Downes and Max Blake

Saturday
After I slept in a conservatory next to a tank of rare caecilians, I got onto my laptop to post on the CFZ Australia blog about the day-to-day occurrences of the WW.  Today in the intro, Jon Downes began with the question ‘What is cryptozoology’ in which he asked the youngsters, (some who are crew or just ‘gophers’) and they could not answer – or were too shy to. Even I asked for the microphone to give 3 categories of it –
1. Study of strange cryptids not yet recognised in the animal kingdom.
2. Study of animals previously thought extinct but rediscovered.
3. Study of animals not discovered until now.

I was right, except for another category – the study of out-of-place animals - like big cats running wild in Britain or Australia without knowledge of how they came to be there.

Nick Wadham was back with his bugs – dangerous and creepy looking ones – consisting of large snails, spiders, tarantulas, centipedes, cockroaches, stick insects and scorpions, even an Argentinian Boa. He got the kids up the front to hold the creatures and described how their victims were killed and eaten.

After some lunch, Max Blake spoke about the Analysis of the Borley Bug (left).
In 1938 Margaret Wilson, an artist, saw a strange creature one day in the garden of the Borley Rectory (the most haunted house in Britain), describing it, and sensing that it was supernatural, Max’s talk was to perhaps work out exactly what kind of bug it was, the closest thing it could have been was a dragonfly.

Jon McGowan talked about large cats in Britain – focusing on his location in Dorset. Jon is one of those very few people that can prove big cats do haunt the British countryside because he goes out into the wilds three times a week and watches their movements. His findings were amazing, and knowledge of big cat behaviour is brilliant.

Glen Vaudry spoke about Scottish Sea Serpent carcasses, and spoke about many findings that occurred in previous centuries as well as the more recent ones – quite often the carcasses turn out to be rotting basking sharks, complete hoaxes, or made up.



'Bobby' of the graveyard

Jan Bondeson, who I also saw talk at the Fortean Times Unconvention in London, in November 2011. He’d spoken then about Talking Dogs. This time it was another dog - Greyfriar’s Bobby. Most people know about the small mongrel that apparently mourned his master’s death and sat by the grave in the kirkyard for several years around the 1860s and 70s, but Jan had wanted to find out whether that was true – indeed he had existed – a dog called Bobby did indeed live in the kirkyard, but it was not known that he mourned by the grave. He was well fed, even attending a restaurant where he got fed, at 1 o’clock after the gun went off daily at the castle, and had many friends in places he used to visit. It may have been romantic story tellers or journalists that made Bobby a loyal dog that never left its master’s grave. He may have not even had a dead master!

After Jan was the annual award giving – people who have been incredibly valuable in the CFZ, a great helper, or a great speaker and explorer get acknowledged by being given a Golden Baboon award, and certificate. It’s typical tongue in cheek CFZ humour and honour.

The night ended with a documentary called ‘Heads!’ about the Hexham Heads and other mystery stone heads of North England. It must have gone for close to 2 hours. Some more raffle prizes were handed out, and then Silas Hawkins read out another ‘Bedtime story’ from Richard Freeman’s book ‘Green Unpleasant Land.’ It was my favourite story - about a dragon/wyrm – Drake's Brier – which I found out was everyone else’s favourite too. Including Richard Freeman, as I found out while I was sitting next to him during the story. The Saturday ended at midnight, yet most people went straight to the bar.

Sunday

Apparently, during the night in Woolfardisworthy, a leopard was heard calling nearby! Jon McGowan, the large cat expert and hunter, heard it at about 5am, while he camped by the local Community Centre. Jon has heard many large cats before, so he should know. Yes, all manner of weird things come to the Weird Weekend, even cryptids like out-of-place leopards.

First of the day was Richard Muirhead’s ‘The Flying Snakes of Namibia’ where he looked into old stories from the 1950s where someone saw a flying snake – or thought they did. Since then and in many areas of this south western part of Africa, people who see lights in the sky at night, don’t say it’s a UFO like we would, but that it’s a flying snake with glowing lights on its head.

Someone asked Lars a question about
Trolls during question time. (image
from 'Troll Hunter')

Lars Thomas gave us a run down on the cryptids of Denmark, ranging from bugs, beetles, wolves, and chipmunks, to trolls, hominids and lake monsters. Lars not only reads a lot, and travels to locations of sightings, but he uses the microscope to discover what is out there – and has tested many hairs under a microscope, finding leopards, out-of-place cats, hominids, and even a platypus hair…from New Zealand. The old stories in Denmark of hominids and hairy creatures are found in many old documents from wooden carvings to old manuscripts. He also knows of a colony of Siberian Chipmunks that live in forests in Denmark, but is uncertain how they got there. The questions at the end even involved Trolls, and it was clear to Lars and many others that questions were asked in relation to the ‘Troll Hunter’ movie, released in 2011.

Orang Pendek - bipedal hominid of
Sumatra, as yet unstudied

Richard Freeman spoke about the Sumatra expedition of 2011 – so far the largest group to go on an expedition, splitting 3 teams up to cover more ground to try and see the Orang-Pendek. There was no success in seeing the cryptid this time round, like the sighting in 2009, but Richard still has hopes to see something one day and tick this off as ‘found’ for the CFZ.

Ronan Coghlan, the CFZ’s ever hilarious trickster talked about Sinbad the Sailor, and the cryptids he encountered. This re-introduced us to creatures like the Roc, and the ‘Old Man of the Sea’ – from Sumatra and probably like our Orang-Pendek or even the Flores dwarf.

Jon ended the Weird Weekend by remembering those lost to us – Jeanett Thomas, the late wife of Lars, and Lionel Beer’s long time partner Joy. And acknowledging a CFZ birth and a wedding too.

The dinner was held in the hall this year, with a wonderful meal presented to us by the lovely ladies of the community centre, and we all ended the night eating a CFZ cake too. After dinner, a small few of us stayed behind and watched ‘Occasional Monsters’ a British film that was inspired by Nick Redfern’s book ‘Three Men seeking Monsters.’

The men off on a big cat hunt - Mark,
Jon, Darren and Max

Due to the excitement about possibly having a leopard nearby, Mark North, Jon McGowan, Darren Naish, and Max Blake (left)appeared to walk away from the Community Centre equipped with headlights, torches and wet weather gear, into the dark fields of the Devon countryside in search of it. The rest of us (now an even smaller group) listened to Silas Hawkins read out a third story of Richard Freeman’s book ‘Green Unpleasant Land’ – this one a rather creepy one about the Bodmin little people. Richard is an excellent writer of the macabre and I recommend this book.

This ended the XIIIth Weird Weekend for 2012, and as a representative of the Australian CFZ gang, I was honoured to be there (It certainly helped when you were living in Yorkshire). Thanks to Jon and Corinna Downes, and all other members of the CFZ that helped me out on that weekend. 

 

Paul Screeton signing books

Pink Headed Duck, extinct 1935 (or so to be believed)

Joe Thomas with Nick Wadham

Max and the Borley Bug

Scorpion

Quiz time!

Jon McGowan and big cats

Glen Vaudry and Scottish sea monsters

Jan Bondeson and Greyfriar's Bobby

Jon gives Richard Muirhead a Devo hat

Jon McGowan's collection

 

Richard Freeman and the Orang Pendek

Ronan Coghlan

Ronan Coghlan talks of Sinbad (Jon Downes' step daughter
on the floor as a part of Ronan's act)

The Sunday dinner- my table from left - Joe, Chris, Richard,
Nichola, Nadia and Lars

Jon Downes cutting cake

 

The Literal Ghost Tour

Back in 2000 to about 2003 I was a volunteer at Werribee Mansion, near Melbourne. We used to dress in 1870s style clothes - I had a lovely gown, complete with a bustle! I found this email that I had sent a friend in 2001 -  a fellow volunteer at Werribee Mansion. She in turn published the story in the volunteer newsletter. Being of a pagan sensibility like me, she was very interested and wanted people to hear the tale.
I had saved the email on ye olde fashioned floppy disk and finally got the chance to access the disk around the summer of '08/'09 on a computer that still had the disk drive working...

I thought I'd put it up on here.

July 2001 – Werribee Mansion, Melbourne, Australia.  
 


Andrew Chirnside, as a
 young man before he became
a posthumous tour guide
and eternal gracious host

Werribee Mansion was built in the 1870s by the Chirnside brothers, Thomas and Andrew, who immigrated all the way from Scotland. Thomas, who loved his cousin Mary, sent his brother Andrew to Scotland to fetch her, and said ‘if she refuses me, marry her yourself.’ That was one way of getting her to come to Australia. Andrew married her (I am not sure if Mary refused Thomas, or Andrew took her for himself - poor Thomas!). Thomas suffered from severe depression all his life. He shot himself in the laundry of the Mansion in 1887. Andrew died three years later.
 
One Sunday my friends Kath, Craig and Bridie came to Werribee Mansion with me to see the place. That day, they claimed they had experienced the spirits of Thomas Chirnside (died 1887). While their experiences were not pleasant (I am not sure I really believe their stories), I told my friend Tania and her mother Marj, who are both mediums (a family gift). Tania was very interested in coming from Melbourne to visit me in my Mansion costume. I'd told her on the phone two nights earlier of our experience on Sunday, and so being a curious medium, she wanted to come down and check out the place herself.  



The library, with portrait of Andrew, top hat and cane on
the chair, and bookcase on the right, with his favourite
book in it.

I met them at the Gatelodge, and we walked through the garden to the Mansion. First we had lunch in the café, as Marj was hungry. We ate with Ernie, another volunteer and good friend of mine. Then we went into the Mansion. The first room that everyone usually goes into is the library, which is to the left of the front entrance. The 3 of us went in, but after a minute or so, I left and spoke to other guides/friends. I followed a crowd into the library again to find Tania and Marj coming out saying 'We left your friend in there.' I was confused and asked what they were talking about, and they pointed to a portrait of Andrew Chirnside as a young man, Thomas's brother that was on the wall above the fireplace. They said it was his ghost. I asked more. Tania said he was sitting down, 'He's sitting right there...'  There were leather chairs in the room, and Tania could see the spirit of Andrew sitting  in one of the chairs, which had a top hat, coat and cane propped up against it. I asked her what he was doing, her reply was 'Just sitting there.' I asked what he was looking at and she replied 'You!'

I was dressed up in period clothing from 1870s. I didn't mind, nor was I afraid or excited. Tania said he was glad he found someone to talk to - being her as a medium - 'a light in the darkness', as they say. He got up and walked across the room - Marj shuddered, as she felt the room go cold when he did this. He went to his desk, talking about a book he used to often read. We looked in the book case and sure enough, Tania exclaimed that it was the book called Music of the 19th Century. He then came and stood next to Tania, and she could feel the cold of his closeness. Marj again said that the temperature in the room had dropped since he got up and walked around. 




The Drawing Room, where the ladies sat.

We then next went to the Drawing Room. They liked the room saying it was feminine. Tania said that Andrew had followed us. He commented on how he didn't really care to sit in this room, it was more for the ladies, he preferred the library.

The 4 of us (notice I said 4) then went to the Dining room and Tania and Marj felt that this room was very tranquil. Then in the Morning room (breakfast room) the energy was even nicer. Andrew commented on how he used to sit here facing the window, usually alone, as he was first awake, and he liked to look out into at the garden. But now it is not as he remembered it. 'All the trees are bigger' he'd told Tania, and I realised that by seeing photos from the early Mansion days, that it was different for them, the trees outside newly planted back then. He spoke of having an egg for breakfast, and seeing the chickens in the garden and how they tried to plant roses outside the morning room once, but even he knew that it was a bad spot to grow them.

The Morning Room, where Andrew ate eggs, and
watched chickens in the garden.

Lisa, one of the paid workers there, in a maid outfit, was standing near us when I happened to ask Tania where Andrew was standing right now. She said that he was standing behind me. Lisa had looked behind me and saw a tourist there, and wondered what on earth we were talking about, so I explained to her that this was the late Andrew Chirnside, giving us a tour of sorts. She got excited and asked if she could hang around us a bit, obviously believing us straight away (interesting, as some are usually sceptic :P). Tania announced to Lisa that he was looking at her, being dressed as a servant.

Andrew then walked off round the corner, wanting to show us something, so we followed him to the Kitchen area, which has recently been restored. Christos was giving a tour to about 20 people in the kitchen, but we went down the corridor past the kitchen. Marj stopped in her tracks unable to physically move, and calling Tania's name, clearly distressed. This energy down here was very unpleasant. In the larder, we went in with Andrew and he was saying that bad things happened down here. Tania and Marj could likewise feel it anyway. I don't think we got into any specifics about what went on here though, but moving further down the corridor, they felt the last room, which was locked, had the worst vibes in it, Tania telling us that that was where the deceased were put temporarily. Tania had felt the sad energies of a small girl.

The Saloon, upstairs, where a maid was seen cleaning

Heading back, we walked under the stairs of the Mansion heading to the downstairs bedroom, where Andrew's room was. Christos was walking beside us, and we got tangled in his group, so we decided to go upstairs to avoid crowds. Andrew didn't want to come upstairs with us, so he stood at the bottom, apparently watching us go up. Tania and Marj believed the energy upstairs was a lot lighter than downstairs. Tania saw a servant working in the Saloon, who paid no attention to us. Marj saw a little kid run past her in the corridor, which headed to the restoration display near the back of the mansion. Tania also saw the back of a women in 19th cent costume walking toward the Blue Room (guest bedroom). In there they sensed a very feminine presence, and an opera singer once stayed there. Lisa told us who used to stay - a lady called Violet. 

In another room, symmetrically placed opposite where the Blue Room is, is an empty room with no furniture in it, except for a few plants and chairs and a dressing table. The spirit of a man was in there and he was telling Tania how he looked after sick people - influenza was mentioned, (Andrew had also mentioned it once downstairs) We believe this man was a part of the seminary, who bought the Mansion after the Chirnside’s in the early 20th century, building extra wings for the Seminary and schooling many Catholic priests. Tania said that the chandelier in this room swings sometimes.

The Hall looking at the front door, taken from the stairs.
Andrew met us at the bottom by the left statue.

We went back downstairs and sure enough, Andrew was at the bottom waiting for us, giving Tania a big smile when we came down. We went into his bedroom now, free from crowds and Tania and Marj felt nothing of Mary, Andrew's wife who's hair had caught fire accidently in this room in 1908. She died later in Colac hospital (two hours drive from Mansion, but probably 1 days drive in a horse and carriage!!!) Mary's spirit wasn't here today, if ever.

We then went down the back to the Billiard Room and the Conservatory.  In the Conservatory, Tania was facing the doorway we had walked into. I was watching her. She suddenly smiled and said a joyful 'Hello' to an invisible doorway, and I asked who just walked in. It was Andrew again, he had decided to come down to see us. He began to tell us that he'd liked it in here, but he doesn't recognise half the plants in here now. He pointed out the pot in the middle of the room and said that he didn't know what this plant was and I told him it was a crow's nest fern, although I had no idea if he could hear me. He told us of an old gardener who would come in here with his little trolley and tiny spectacles. (The window has double doors and he said they used to be always open).

Billiard Room

Moving on, we left Andrew and went outside to the Laundry. We hadn't told Marj about where Thomas actually committed suicide in 1887, but after going into one of the rooms to the right of the entrance, it looked like Marj was about to start crying. She's guessed that it was here from the feelings she was getting. A week earlier, where Craig thought that he had killed himself actually was where they placed his body after they found him. Outside they both sensed in amoung the trees behind the laundry, an aboriginal girl who had been hung there, before the mansion had been built.
 
I can't think of anything else that happened that day, apart from the fact that after Tania and Marj left, I hung out with Julie and Briony who had been upstairs getting fittings for their new outfits, and I told them what had been happening. Tania, Marj and I one point had been in our change room section once and I said to Briony 'Come with us we are hanging out with Andrew Chirnside!' But she thought I meant Ernie. So she missed out. Lisa told Christos and when we were sitting in the drawing room, he charged in and demanded in his European accent to tell me all about it. 'Why didn't you tell me you were getting a tour from a ghost?' he had asked. 'Because you had a tour yourself!' I replied. He often told Briony to shut up so I could tell him about the day without interruptions. It was rather funny. Everyone there that day wishes they were with us on the ‘ghost’ tour Andrew was giving us.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

I remember this day clearly when I re-read this. Everything mentioned here was told to me by Tania directly on receiving the information. Believe of it what you will, take it as an interesting read. The tales are consistent with the Mansion life of the 19th century. I have heard of other stories of ghosts in the garden too. I consider this tour was a unique experience. In a way, it belongs to me.

Black Dog in a Blackberry Bush

Here is another story from the Fortean Times - I got this from the It happened to me volume 4 which I bought at the November 2011 Unconvention in London. Another tale of an encounter with Black Shuck, the black dog or spectral hound. This is one of those stories that helps me connect the dots when I look at my theories of strange phenomena. Experiences with spectres like these in this way - transmogrifying from mist or fog - fits well with some of the theories out there that I believe. Reading the amount I have read into the supernatural and unexplained has given me a conclusion - some things we are not meant to know. I'm alright with that...

Here's one way of meeting the Black Dog (Black Shuck, Gytrash, Barguest)

Old Shuck

 

Black dog in a Blackberry Bush

In the early 1990s I used to live in a semi-detached house in Nuthall Road, Nottingham. It had a long garden with a disused railway line at the end blocked off with wooden fencing and a full 6.5 ft (2m) hedge to the right. The left hand side used to have a wire fence, but this had long since been removed, and growing between the old posts were blackberry bushes, with vast gaps in between through which you could nip into next door’s garden. The neighbour was an old lady we got on with well so it never seemed worth putting up a new fence – besides she had three marvellous apple trees ripe for the picking!

Anyway, one night a friend and I heard a noise outside in the garden. It sounded like somebody creeping about outside so we went to investigate: nothing. Not a soul about. It was a frosty night with not a cloud in the sky and plenty of moonlight. As we stood halfway up the lawn, we heard a rustling sound in one of the blackberry bushes, which got louder as we approached. We thought it was a bird rummaging about inside.

The bush was only a few feet high and we could see more or less all round it, but the sound continued to increase. We walked closer to investigate and I pushed the branches apart and peered in to see a large thrush looking at me. After staring at me for a few seconds it quickly darted under cover and the bush started to rustle violently. I jerked away and started walking backwards.
When I had away some eight feet (2.4m), the rustling stopped abruptly and a black funnel of fog or mist shot out and arched into the air. As it descended in front of us, it began to take the shape of a huge black dog – well, I say a dog, but it reminded me of the keepers or gargoyles in the film Ghostbusters. It was roughly four and a half feet (1.4m) tall and about 3 feet (90cm) across, black like a panther, huge fangs dripping with saliva and to be honest the most terrifying thing I had the misfortune to meet.

It landed with a resounding thud on the turf and started to make a dry, throaty rasping sound, building up to a deep warning growl. Then it opened its eyes – huge, red glowing, piercing eyes. It’s impossible to explain the feeling of terror and hopelessness this produced. We both stood transfixed, unable to move or scream or even run. It was as though it wanted us to run, was playing with us.

There was a definite intelligence behind those eyes and it was studying everything about us.
It felt as if we spend an eternity transfixed by its gaze. It stepped slowly forwards and I heard my friend’s footfalls as he frantically ran to the house, leaving me with this thing bearing down on me. That was it: the autopilot came on and I turned and fled, with tears rolling down my cheeks in absolute terror. I have never run that fast in my life and never will again; it was pure adrenalin fuelled panic.

I slammed into the back door that, thankfully, my friend had not locked behind him. It burst open and I fell through, expecting to be torn to shreds at any moment. I managed to slam the door shut, fumbled for the bolts and locked it, then fell crying against it in the vain hope my body weight would somehow stop the huge beast from ploughing straight through…but nothing happened.
My friend had collapsed in front of the freezer his face snow-white and his hair standing on end. He was shaking and mumbling, but I was too terrified to comprehend his ramblings, but after a few minutes we moved into the adjoining room and looked out the window overlooking the garden. There was nothing there.

I saw my reflection in the glass; I was too ghostly white and my hair was standing up. You read of such things, but unless you have actually seen it you wouldn’t believe how strange it looks. I stopped shaking after about 15 minutes, by which time my friend had managed to compose himself. We tried to compare what we had seen… to make some sort of sense of it. We agreed on what had occurred but could find no rational explanation. He left in a taxi a short while later and refused to talk about the subject whenever it was mentioned subsequently. He just said he never wanted to think about it again.

I myself never went into the back garden of that house again. I moved about 18 months later, without setting foot outside the back door, although other members of my family did without incident. I could never tell anybody what had happened. It was too crazy: large black dogs with glowing red eyes do not leap out of small blackberry bushes in back gardens!

I spent years terrified of the dark because of this encounter, wondering why it happened and what the hell was the point of its appearance. I had been struggling with a fear of death and worrying about the point of existence as a whole. I had become a complete nihilist set on a path of self-destruction; live fast and die young was a motto that I actively embraced and sought to live out.
The encounter with the black dog seems to me to have been an externalisation of my internal terror. I couldn’t cope with it and it was destroying me. I needed to be given a jolt somehow. The black dog did this….and did indeed ‘hound’ me out of Nottingham (to East Anglia, ironically, where I found black dog stories everywhere!)

I had been living out a myth of self-destruction – and it had taken a face-to-face encounter with a myth to bring me to my senses.

JD, East Anglia, 2004



Take from this tale what you will. Believe or not, you should not care what people think about your beliefs anyway. This story might not be real, this 'JD' may have made it up. But I like it. I like to believe, besides, I don't think it matters, it's a good read...