The Encyclopedia Mythica defines a werewolf as “a man who is
transformed, or who transforms himself, into a wolf in nature and
appearance under the influence of a full moon”. It goes on to
say that “the werewolf is only active at night and during that
period, he devours infants and corpses”.
Now, I understand completely that under a normal set of circumstances
these statements would generally be considered true, but Cannock
Chase is undoubtedly a paranormal portal area like no other. Although
there have been many wolfman-like sightings in recent years, rather
oddly, a number of the cases I've investigated have occurred, not
during the solemn radiance of a serene full moon, but at the early
onset of the bright and bustling daylight hours.
Paranormal investigator Lee Brickley has a new book available about the paranormal happenings on Cannock Chase. Read it here:
UK Link -
US Link or click the book cover below!
No-doubt this somewhat hairy revelation will pose more questions than
answers in the mind of the truly ardent researcher. Folk may say that
the appearance of werewolves during the daytime is a ludicrous, even
foolish, impossibility, but are they heedlessly overlooking something
profoundly important? In the case of Cannock Chase, I think they may
well be.
One report I received came in from a gentleman who, on the morning in
question, while walking his Labrador Retriever around the ancient
Iron Age hill-fort at Castle Ring, heard the distinct sound of
abnormal and unearthly howling coming from the surrounding damp and
misty woodland. So loud was the noise, that his dog immediately began
to draw back and cower in fear. Mr Chapman recalled that, upon
glancing into the shadowy trees he saw two bright, fiendish yellow
eyes glaring menacingly back at him. This was enough to seriously
spook Mr C and, in his own words, he promptly “ran like the wind”.
Castle Ring 2013
Another report involved a group of 3 teenagers who, whilst stopping
for a cigarette break on a popular car-park near to the village of
Brocton (a place that describes itself as the Gateway to Cannock
Chase), witnessed the understandably terrifying sight of what they
described as an “oversized, upright, wolf” rummaging through a
litter bin. Luckily, at a distance of around 20 meters, the creature
didn't notice them and soon moved on, but those lads have been deeply
affected by it nonetheless.
I am certainly not the first person to uncover sightings of this
nature in the area though. Throughout 2006-2007 dozens of articles
were printed in local newspapers relaying tales of mysterious howling
and sightings of wolf-men, and quite a few people came forward with
details of their experiences. Many of these cases were investigated
by my friend and fellow researcher Nick Redfern, who has written
about Cannock Chase in a number of his best selling books. Several of
the incidents Nick refers to happened within the confines of the
infamous German Cemetery, which is home to the graves of some 5000
Austrian and German soldiers who fought and died in WW1 and WW2.
However, I'll go into that place more thoroughly in another post.
So, if people are regularly seeing werewolf type critters during the
daytime, what possible explanations could there be? Well, I admit the
idea that these creatures are in fact real wolves isn't entirely
beyond the realms of possibility, but scientifically it is highly
unlikely. This can be illustrated by the fact that, officially, all
the wild-wolves of England were killed many years ago by hunters.
Although some researchers do believe that small packs may continue to
survive, successfully evading human attention, in the deepest,
darkest areas of England's forests, I feel this theory can be ruled
out for the vast majority of sightings coming in from Cannock Chase,
simply because the hairy beast people claim to see, is reported as
being much to large to resemble an English Wolf.
As discussed previously, the standardized understanding of werewolves
also collapses when we are dealing with daytime sightings, so could
it be possible that we are not dealing with an entirely physical
creature? Could the werewolf encounters, far from being
hallucinations, represent just one element of the direct
manifestations bought about by the opening of a genuinely
fascinating, but incredibly rare, paranormal window? I'll leave you
to ponder on that one.
The time has come for me to take my leave, but before I do, I'd like
to offer you the only sincerely rational, yet admittedly slightly
humorous, advice I have ever been given on the topic of snarling
beasts:
Never moon a werewolf!
Until next time my friends......
Written by Lee Brickley 2013
