Creature of the Month - The Hairy Trolls by Nick Redfern

During the course of my long and winding research in the field of Cryptozoology – which is defined as the study of unknown animals, such as the Loch Ness Monster, the Abominable Snowman, the Chupacabra and Sasquatch – I have come across a number of near-mystifying reports of so-called “wild men” and Bigfoot-type creatures seen deep in the woods and forests of the British Isles.

And, while I am not at all sure that the following case is directly linked to the controversies surrounding Bigfoot, unknown apes, or even ape-men, in Britain, it does involve the sighting of unidentified, hairy humanoids in the very depths of the country. And, so, I can only conclude that here is just about as good a place as any to relate the admittedly odd details, such as they are, given that they relate to an encounter with what the witnesses, who preferred to speak off the record than on, described to me as definitive trolls!

 Doubtless, the arch-skeptic or debunker would conclude that this determination on the part of the family not to discuss their case on the record is an indication that I have been the victim of an audacious hoax or a practical joke. And, while such a scenario can never be outright dismissed, I can only state that having now spoken to the husband and wife concerned on several occasions by phone, and twice in-person at their present home in Stoke on Trent, England I do not doubt the veracity of the case or of their honesty and sincerity. But, that does not mean I can make a great deal of sense of their experience, either. With that stated, I urge you to read on.

It was in the early hours of a winter’s morning in 1975 when Barry and Elaine, a married couple then in their late twenties and with two small children, were driving towards their then-Slitting Mill, Staffordshire, England home after attending a Christmas party in the nearby town of Penkridge. As the pair headed towards the small village (its population today, four centuries after its initial foundations were laid, is still less than three hundred), their car’s engine began to splutter and, to their consternation and concern, completely died. Having managed to carefully coast the car to the side of the road, Barry proceeded to quickly open the hood and took a look at the engine – “even though I’m mainly useless at mechanical stuff,” he states.

   

There did not appear to be any loose-wires, the radiator was certainly not over-heated, and a check of the car’s fuses did not provide any indication of what might be the problem. But, as the family was less than half a mile or so from home at that point, Barry made a decision, as he explained: “We had a picnic blanket in the boot [a British term for trunk] of the car and I got it out. I got back into the car and I said to Elaine something like: ‘Let’s cover you up and the kids with the blanket.’ They were in the back sleeping and [were] only four and six at the time. So I said to [Elaine]: ‘You stay with them, and I’ll run back home and get your car, pick the three of you up, and then we’ll leave my car here, and we can get someone out from a garage to look at it tomorrow.’”

At that point, however, their plans were thrown into complete and utter disarray. According to Barry, Elaine let out a loud scream, terrified by the sight of a small figure that ran across the road in front of them at a high rate of speed. She explains: “I just about saw it at the last second, and then another one followed it, and then a third one. The best way I can describe them to you is like a hairy troll or something like that. We had some moonlight and they were like little men, but with hunchbacks and big, hooked noses and not a stitch on them at all. Not a stitch, at all; just hair all over them. I’d say they were all four-feet-tallish, and when the third one crossed by us, you could see them at the edge of the trees – wary, or something, anyway.”

 Copyright John Bauer, 1915

Things became very hazy indeed, says Barry: “We both know from memory that they came forwards, towards us, very slowly to us, and I’ve thought since that they were interested in us or wanted to know who we were. They came very slowly, and it was a bit like we were being hunted, to me. Elaine was hysterical; and with the kids with us, I wasn’t far-off, either.

“But that’s all we remember. The next, it’s all gone; nothing. Neither of us remembers seeing them go, and the next thing it was about two o’clock and the car started fine, then. It felt like something had happened to us, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on, you know what I mean? But the memory thing is the biggest problem, even now. What was it? I did have a dream later about them surrounding the car, but that’s it, really. But they were there and we did see them, right up by the Stone House [Author’s Note: A reference to a large, old abode that sits on the edge of the village of Slitting Mill and that dates back to 1584, two centuries prior to the emergence of the village in the 1700s].”

Barry states that, to this day, and now both in their mid sixties, both he and Elaine still feel very uneasy about the loss of memory that they both experienced back in 1975, but he is keen to affirm that: “I know, and we know, that we both saw them. The kids don’t remember a thing, thankfully. They were horrible little things. All that hair: Trolls, goblins, something. But they were there and they were real.” Neither Barry nor Elaine have ever experienced any further such incidents or encounters with the unknown, but they have never forgotten those disturbing events deep in the heart of Slitting Mill on a chilly, winter night all those years ago with a strange band of hairy trolls.

Nick Redfern works full-time as an author, lecturer, and journalist. He writes about a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, alien encounters, and government conspiracies. He also contributes regularly for UFO Magazine, Fate, Fortean Times, and Paranormal Magazine. His books include The Real Men in Black, The NASA Conspiracies, Contactees, and Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, all published by New Page Books. Nick has appeared on numerous television shows, including the BBC’s Out of this World; History Channel’s Monster Quest and UFO Hunters; National Geographic Channel’s Paranatural; and SyFy Channel’s Proof Positive. He lives in Arlington, Texas and can be found online here.

Nick Redfern’s new book, The Pyramids and the Pentagon, will be published in June by New Page Books.

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