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What did we see last night..?

969 replies

GallopingHighRoad · 20/02/2022 17:12

We had been away for a few nights and travelled back quite late. Towards the end of our journey, this was about 2am, we were driving along an A road in a rural area when something crossed the road in front of us in full headlights for about 3 seconds. It was about the height of a person, maybe 6 feet or over, but had short powerful legs and hips which seemed to move in a circular fluid fashion. It was not a deer because it stood on two legs. This was in the midlands and the area is traditional rolling fields and woodland. In this particular spot there are no houses or buildings, nearest is over a mile away. We drove back today as its only 7 miles from home to look at the road layout and whatever it was moved into a wide bowl shaped field dropping down to a stream. Any ideas?

OP posts:
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whatsitallabout1 · 22/02/2022 07:20

"man standing with just his head and shoulders visible grinning ear to ear. At 5 am."
If this was March last year there were a fair few hs2 protest marchers about, maybe there were some camping there? Hence lanterns, and were using ditch as toilet? Smiling being a misjudged attempt to not cause alarm?

GallopingHighRoad · 22/02/2022 07:46

Update. We got back to the same place last night. Pretty much midnight as planned. There was a car already in the layby which was a bit odd. As we parked up, the driver immediately drove away the impression being they did not like our arrival.

We sat there for a bit in the quiet and dark. Barely any passing traffic at all. It got colder so we spread the blanket out across our knees. Our eyes became used to the light and visibility was better. We did not see a sausage and we were there over one hour and half. No sense of any night life at all. We did get out the car to walk to the gateway. After a couple of minutes the interior light on the car came on which startled us very was weird because all doors had been firmly shut. We heard what sounded like an occassional long low trumpet or horn noise coming from the valley below, but that could be any type of crop drying machine working at night.

Leaving aside some weird and funny suggestions here such as wombles, predator, cassowarys and the like, we have concluded that what we saw was most probably a deer on hind legs, possibly mangy and with something wrapped round its feet. Maybe standing up trying to kick it off. Cannot fathom what else it was. For those who asked, @Laiste's drawing which is most accurate is at 21 Feb time -17:35:02 and @Shambolical1 the picture at 19:53:07 is also highly possible now. We are still going back to look at tracks one day later in the week.

OP posts:
GallopingHighRoad · 22/02/2022 07:49

@WobbleMolly
Put her foot on the accelerator and took a different route to work for a few weeks.
@whatsitallabout1
This was around 2000 to 2003 I believe so long before HS2.

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BooseysMom · 22/02/2022 07:58

@GallopingHighRoad..well done for going back there. You were very brave. The car leaving as soon as you arrived was strange. Got to be up to something. But it looks like we'll never really know what it was you saw..

BooseysMom · 22/02/2022 08:00

Ps. Meant to say thanks for the update too Smile

queenofarles · 22/02/2022 08:18

Another one for standing up deer
Yep, my DF once saw a Ram walking on its hind legs, he said it was the scariest thing he ever saw , he thought it was possessed.
when he asked some of the local farmers, they told him probably the Ram ate too much Hay Confused.
They all laughed at the him a thinking that it was possessed Grin, that was in west Africa around 30 years ago.

BertieBotts · 22/02/2022 08:25

This is absolutely nuts. Thank you for the summary OP. I am also a former Midlands dweller so that just gives it an extra hook :)

MrsLargeEmbodied · 22/02/2022 08:29

perhaps it was aiming to jump over you op?

GallopingHighRoad · 22/02/2022 08:34

One of the most profound things that has resulted from this can be found on the very first page. I had not mentioned any precise location at all and my descriptions were very vague. Yet as soon as I read the following post from @Laiste I felt my senses immediately prickle :-

I'm v interested because i've seen something very strange too, disappearing up across the fields behind the house and into the woods. It wasn't upright though.

That is why I probed further. It turned out @Laiste is only about 3 miles from the spot, as the crow flies. Very odd and I have not connection to Laiste at all as I am sure she will testify. I do have this strong feeling that Laiste has also seen it but it may be in her subconscious.

OP posts:
Pinkywoo · 22/02/2022 08:36

"After a couple of minutes the interior light on the car came on which startled us very was weird because all doors had been firmly shut."

Arrrrgh it was in the back seat hiding! 😱
have watched too much Criminal minds

catblanket · 22/02/2022 08:37

Was it a Pokémon? I’m thinking Mewtwo. Any pokestops or gyms nearby? Did you throw a poke ball at it to see if you could catch it?

IsAnybodyListening · 22/02/2022 08:48

whatsitallabout1 You are local to me! Even stranger, locals either don't seem to notice or don't report it, but seriously stand in your garden any given night and look up, you will likely see very odd things flying above the skyline. No idea why nothing is ever mentioned on the village community page.

Vebrithien · 22/02/2022 08:58

Regarding PP and Sussex, I grew up there, and spend many years being taken dragged on walks. My DDad used to repair churches, so at least once in every school holiday, I used to have to go with him to work. Church, graveyard, for the day.

The top of the Downs, I've always felt very safe with, there is a purity of feeling there.

Devil's Dike feels strange. It's probably the way it muffles and distorts the wind. I always felt very disoriented there, like I've been spun around and I can't tell which was is front.

The legend says that the Devil Himself was trying to dig from the Weald through the Downs to the sea, to flood the Weald. He could only dig for a single night. Someone in a Weald village heard Him, and in the early hours of the morning, got up and lit a candle. The Devil, seeing the candle flame in the cottage window, mistakes it for the dawn, and flees away.

Chanctonbury and Cissbury Rings make me feel very nervous, there is something primitive there, watching you.

We had a very strange one once, near Stenying. Wooded road, driving along. About to turn right, into a different road. At the road junction ahead, we saw what looked like a person standing on the left. It was like a 2D cutout of black shadow. Thin and tall, with clear long legs and arms, but in proportion. We indicated to go right, and the thing crossed the road, with one leg reaching to the other side, elongating, then the body and other leg followed over. As we left the original road, we then couldn't see it on the right side of the original road, or on the left of our new road. It was sodding creepy, the way it moved, and that there was no detail to is, just a black cut out. We did wonder if it was trying to get onto th car, as when it crossed, we would have been driving right over it, if we hadn't left that road. Crossroads were often chosen as placed to bury those outside societal norms.

We also had (differently) odd one, with my DDad at work. He was in the crawl space underneath some box pews (Downs church, box pews directly over the chalk bedrock). Could see something over in one corner of the space. Crawls up to it, to find a human skull. DDad said he never crawled backwards as quickly, before or after! Police were involved, there was no recorded burials or interments in that part of the church. The skull and disarticulated bones found were very old. However, there was the story from the 1700's, that the priest had been rather too friendly with the local Lord's daughter, and had disappeared one day. I think it is unlikely he was out under the pew (the smell of decomposition in the church?) But did wonder if the bones had been dumped back there, afterwards.

BitOutOfPractice · 22/02/2022 09:22

@Thisisit2022

Probably Holly Willoughby. She's bloody everywhere.
😆😆😆

Or maybe Hilly Wallaby?

JohnStonesMissus · 22/02/2022 09:23

Wow Vebrithien what interesting story, but you're right about Chanctonbury ring, you are being watched there, it's a very sinister place, I go walking up to Slindon Folly where there are woodlands but the atmosphere is totally different, it's very calm an peaceful....almost serene.

JohnStonesMissus · 22/02/2022 09:32

Thanks for the update OP, there's definitely something going on in that area but I guess we'll not find out, unless you're a regular on that stretch of road? The interior lights coming on would have freaked me out.

WonderfulYou · 22/02/2022 10:24

Completely incested and placemarking in the hopes you capture something tonight!

That's taking it all a bit far, really

😂😂😂

WonderfulYou · 22/02/2022 10:25

OP have you googled the sound of a deer?
I’m sure that has a low call a bit like a cow.

If it’s similar to what you heard then it’s even more likely to be a deer.

Laiste · 22/02/2022 10:52

I'm pretty sure what i saw going over my fence that day was a big cat. As in proper Big Cat - puma/mountain lion.

(weird that i nearly put ''just'' a big cat!)(this thread is fab)

Very interesting what @JohnStonesMissus said re: predators making birds go silent in the woods like i explained happened to me that day. I never put 2 and 2 together about that! I feel like i've just had an epiphany!

EmmaH2022 · 22/02/2022 11:00

Thanks for the update OP.

I kind of sighed about the driver. I'm a Londoner and immediately think "late night drug drop". Feels like you can't go anywhere without seeing that.

Laiste · 22/02/2022 11:04

@Vebrithien 's post about the black stretchy thing is VERY creepy but rings a bell.

Before i moved up here i used to live in West London. I had a friend who lived in the middle of some (damn) woods near Croxley Green (iirc). I used to HATE driving in or out of those woods after dark. I used to see a black shape sort of flitting between the trees in the same way Vebrithian describes. Keeping up with the car (not fast, terrible track road, maybe 15/20 mph) going from tree to tree. I used to try not to look. It used to come quite close to the car. My heart would pound and i'd risk wrecking the suspension of my old car trying to get through faster.

We took a walk through the woods one summer day and it still felt off, but much better than in the dark obvs. We went for a meal in a pub near the outskirts and by the time it was time to walk back to her house it was getting dark.

I tried to walk into those woods, tried and tried, but i just couldn't do it. Every fibre of my being was saying stay back. I was almost in tears - ridiculous! In the end we had to call a cab and pretend to the cabbie i'd sprained my ankle and that's why i could do the 10/15 min walk to friend's house!

Oh and i can confirm what OP said earlier, me and OP are totally unrelated to each other Grin

EmmaH2022 · 22/02/2022 11:20

Wow, Vebrithien, that's full on.

Re crossroads, yes, and they'd bury them with a stake through their hearts. Poor souls.

Gonnagetgoing · 22/02/2022 11:23

Sounds a bit of a stretch to think it could be anything eerie!

TatianaBis · 22/02/2022 11:33

We heard what sounded like an occassional long low trumpet or horn noise coming from the valley below, but that could be any type of crop drying machine working at night.

Aaahh, it was Herne the Hunter/Cernnunos you saw.

The horns are calling up the Wild Hunt.

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 22/02/2022 11:49

If you've seen the French 'Scandi Noir' (if that's not a contradiction in terms?) drama 'Black Spot' (on Netflix), you might not be so flippant about strange beings in the wild!