Ginger Beast of Beckermet

I was intrigued to come across mentions of a Big Foot sighting in Beckermet, Cumbria and sought out the original source, a copy of the Whitehaven News, dated 5 March 1998.

“While walking my dog on the evening of Sunday, January 25 on the road out of Beckermet towards the A595, I passed Nursery woods. The time was approximately 16.45. It was starting to get dark, but as I walked past the woods, I heard a snapping of branches.

Thinking it was a deer or another animal, I stopped to try and see what it was. Looking through the trees I noticed a large creature covered in a sort of ginger brown hair that seemed to be drinking from a pond about 150 metres into the woods. As the lighting was getting bad I was straining to make to make out what the animal was but as I stopped and stared it appeared to see me, at which point it reared up on to its hind legs and made off slowly further into the woods. I would estimate its height when upright to be approximately six feet and six inches and its weight to be about 14 stone.”

The witnesses name and address were kept anonymous. Luckily, Alan Cleaver, Deputy Editor of the Whitehaven News (one of the founding members of ASSAP and creator of the Strange Britain website) made me aware of a response to the article which shed some possible light on the experience.

“On January 25 I attended the birthday party of a friend at The White Mare, Beckermet. I was told the party was to be fancy dress…..I ordered a taxi and was duly dropped off at Beckermet approximately 16.30. Imagine my surprise when I entered the pub bar dressed as an orang-utan, to be met by all my mates dressed in jeans and shirts. The fancy dress had been cancelled.

I ran out of the door to a chorus of laughter, before anybody knew who I was. I thought the quickest way home without being seen would be over the fields, so off I fled. As you can imagine this is no easy thing dressed as I was. I came to a pond in a small wood, stopped and knelt down for a drink of water. Just as I finished my drink I heard a dog bark and turned to see a man staring at me….”

On the Paranormal database website they mention a “large pterosaur-like creature flying above Nursery woods” in 2006. If anybody has any further information about this I would most interested, especially if it is another fancy dress costume.