Padfoot of Leeds
By
Mick Mclaren
After
reading a post from secret Leeds online, which helped me to come across a news
article from the Yorkshire evening post “Woman's shock after capturing photo of
ghost dog which haunts Roundhay Park” By Susie Beever. Monday, 8th April 2019,
11:57 am Link.
I thought that would be interesting to investigate. Looking at Ley Lines I find
that most sightings of the paranormal seem to be on or around the lines.
But
first “what is Padfoot?” well in his book The Ghost World T.F. Tiselton Dyer
says he is described as ‘large, shaggy, and black, with long ears and tail. It
does not belong to any species of living dogs, but is said to
represent a hound, a setter, a terrier, or a shepherd dog, though often larger
than a Newfoundland.’
Padfoot
In other
county’s he has different names such as In Lancashire he’s known as Trash or
Striker. In Norfolk and Cambridgeshire it’s Shuck or Black Shuck and is said to
haunt churchyards and other lonely places.
In Leeds
there is of course Padfoot who is said to be the size of a small donkey, long
shaggy hair and large red eyes like saucers. This maybe compared to the
Barguest, Bahrgeist, or Boguest of Northumberland and Durham.
It is said
there was a Barguest seen in Headingly Hill, Leeds. On knowing this we decided to
head over and have a look around. But before I tell you about that I’ll let you
know of our first adventure out over at Roundhay Park were the photo of the
Barguest was taken that was in the newspaper.
We got
there one Thursday afternoon about one o’clock and started walking over to the Victorian
Folly near to Waterloo Lake a good ten minutes from the carpark we had chosen. We
did stop off to have ice cream, like you do when visiting a park on a lovely autumn
day. As we walked along the lake with not many other visitors around we got to
a part of the lake down near the Folly and started picking up on energies we
usually feel when out Ley hunting,
which at
the time I didn’t know of any in the Roundhay area. We got our dowsing rods and
pick up a Ley which headed towards the area of the Folly. I took some photos of
the surrounding trees and shrubs and the Folly itself, and then marked on Google
maps the line in which we had walked. That day we weren’t lucky, or some might
say unlucky to see any sign of Padfoot. But having found what might be a Ley
Line in the search for a Barguest we had hit the jackpot. When we had returned
home, I started researching the ancient sites that could possibly be in line
with the area in the park. As suspected it linked up to one sight I had just
written in to an article on at Adel Woods Link
and off over to more than one sight on Ilkley Moor.
We
didn’t get started until after the new year 2020 on the other Padfoot sighting
in Headingly Hill which ended up being a quick look round because of the cold
and wet weather that day. We parked not far from Hyde park off Headingly Lane, soon
as we got out of the car, we felt like we were in the right place. Even though
the rain was light it was very cold, we looked around and both felt we needed
to look in the church yard across from were we parked up, and it was a quick
look with a strong feeling of a Ley Line going through the back of the church
which was closed at that time. We headed back to the car to look at our maps,
and bingo we were on the Ley line that crossed at Adel wood going up to the three
henges at Thornborough.
Thornborough
Henge
Not very
far from Headingly is a place called Rodley, were there is a very recent sighting
of another kind of hairy encounter by a British bigfoot Research member.
WOMAN DRIVER
FEELS SHEER TERROR ON SEEING A VERY TALL, SHAGGY, BROWN/BLACK, FUR COVERED
SHAPE.
This Witness Report is in the words of the witness herself. Deborah
Singleton is happy to be named..
My Hubby and I were visiting friends about 50 miles away at the other side of York. I was the designated driver, so I was on soft drinks all evening. It was around 1:30am when we set off home - Hubby was rather inebriated, so he fell asleep 5 minutes into the journey! Along the A64 home, the fog was rolling in off the fields, in large thick patches, which would suddenly clear. I was wide awake and I didn't feel in the least bit tired. The rest of the journey was relatively trouble free, although I did have a rather nagging feeling of unease, which I just couldn't explain. I wondered if it was because the roads were lonely, I had no-one to chat to, as my husband was still fast asleep and I just had the radio on for company. The unease continued, with no real explanation, until we were around 7 miles from home; the time was approaching 2-30am. The feeling lifted a bit as I knew we were nearly home. It was almost relief. Until I got to Horsforth roundabout. This was around 02-45am. As I started the approach down the hill, to Rodley, I began to feel overwhelmingly terrified.
The nearer I got to the dip in the valley, the more the panic was rising. There was no explanation for this at all. I tried to wake my husband, with no success. I tried to get a grip of myself, to no avail. There were no cars around at all, in fact, when I thought back, I hadn't seen another car on the road in either direction, for at least three quarters of an hour. With the sheer terror beginning to escalate, I was almost at the bridge when I "saw" it. (I say "saw" because I didn't dare look at it directly; I had the overwhelming feeling that if I looked at it, I would die). Stood at the side of the road and looking directly at me, was a very tall, shaggy, brown or black, fur covered shape. At my estimation, 'it' must have stood over 2m tall, and 'it' was around 1.2m wide, with no visible limbs or eyes that I could see, but I sensed that the eyes were there somewhere, as I could feel them boring into the car.
Needless to say, I had to get away from this "thing", so I accelerated away from 'it'. As I passed where 'it' was standing, I stared straight ahead, not daring to look left. I looked back in the rear view mirror, to see "it" step off the kerb and into the road where I had just driven. By the time I reached our house, I was panic stricken, I needed to get in and lock the door. My husband couldn't understand what was wrong with me. I explained what had happened, but he said that it was probably a tree and my mind was playing tricks on me! I knew what I had seen and it was no tree. How could a tree make me so scared and step out into the road? The next morning, in the cold light of day and with a sense of apprehensive curiosity, I decided to drive back and see if there had been a tree there. But as I suspected, there was nothing there that I could have misinterpreted. The story doesn't quite end there. . .
I decided to research and write the book a few months later, the book was about people’s paranormal experiences in my area. I'd placed an advert and had a feature in our local paper; including my horror story and asking for people to write in to me. I had a lot of response, mainly UFO sightings. But then one day, I opened a letter that made my blood run cold. A young man wrote to me, to say that he worked at a supermarket a couple of miles away, on the twilight shift, between 8pm and 2am. He frequently walked home, the last third of his journey passed the end of my street and down into the village. Around 400 metres from my house, is our village church, which is opposite a row of shops. As he had approached the church, he saw two figures crouching in the middle of the road. He slowed down to almost a stop. There were no cars around at all. At first, the figures didn't appear to notice the young man. He said they made no sound. Then they looked up at him, stood up and walked away towards the shops and around the back of them. He followed them round a few seconds later and they had gone. The figures he described were exactly the same as the one I had seen that night on the drive home! I have no idea what I saw or what the young man saw, but the terror that event caused me, will stay with me forever.
Looking back I'm so glad I was in the car now! I don't know if I would have coped with the event if I'd encountered 'it' on foot. The area I saw 'it' in has apparently had some similar reports from people who have heard weird noises, someone else reported seeing a furry thing (someone suggested that it was the ghost of a monk dressed in animal furs, as Kirkstall Abbey is just down the road). Apparently, I think it was on Dogmen Encounters that Vic read a report from a woman in Rawdon, which very near the location of my encounter and she said she had to swerve the car to avoid hitting a Dogman.
The other thing that creeps me out a bit, is that hidden down a lane in Rawdon, is a temple, belonging to the Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley's invention. It is said he used to conjure demons and entities in the building there. This ties in for me with The Bempton RAF base and the strange tales of a satanic cult, and all manner of strange things happen down on the Base and the Cliffs. Makes you wonder if there's something in that? People say it can't be a flesh and blood creature, or it's interdimensional. That thing I saw was definitely solid. I 100% believe these things exist, I just don't know how!
As a side note, I have always been scared of what would be termed werewolves, ever since I can remember. This must be some sort of genetic memory, as I wasn't exposed to horror films as a child, because my family wasn't into them. Bramham is about 10 to 15 miles from me and I'm sure there was another report from out that way. The report Deborah is referring to is the report made by a gentleman out walking his dog one evening, when a huge hairy humanoid figure stepped out of the trees and into the path in front of him.
Original LINK
My Hubby and I were visiting friends about 50 miles away at the other side of York. I was the designated driver, so I was on soft drinks all evening. It was around 1:30am when we set off home - Hubby was rather inebriated, so he fell asleep 5 minutes into the journey! Along the A64 home, the fog was rolling in off the fields, in large thick patches, which would suddenly clear. I was wide awake and I didn't feel in the least bit tired. The rest of the journey was relatively trouble free, although I did have a rather nagging feeling of unease, which I just couldn't explain. I wondered if it was because the roads were lonely, I had no-one to chat to, as my husband was still fast asleep and I just had the radio on for company. The unease continued, with no real explanation, until we were around 7 miles from home; the time was approaching 2-30am. The feeling lifted a bit as I knew we were nearly home. It was almost relief. Until I got to Horsforth roundabout. This was around 02-45am. As I started the approach down the hill, to Rodley, I began to feel overwhelmingly terrified.
The nearer I got to the dip in the valley, the more the panic was rising. There was no explanation for this at all. I tried to wake my husband, with no success. I tried to get a grip of myself, to no avail. There were no cars around at all, in fact, when I thought back, I hadn't seen another car on the road in either direction, for at least three quarters of an hour. With the sheer terror beginning to escalate, I was almost at the bridge when I "saw" it. (I say "saw" because I didn't dare look at it directly; I had the overwhelming feeling that if I looked at it, I would die). Stood at the side of the road and looking directly at me, was a very tall, shaggy, brown or black, fur covered shape. At my estimation, 'it' must have stood over 2m tall, and 'it' was around 1.2m wide, with no visible limbs or eyes that I could see, but I sensed that the eyes were there somewhere, as I could feel them boring into the car.
Needless to say, I had to get away from this "thing", so I accelerated away from 'it'. As I passed where 'it' was standing, I stared straight ahead, not daring to look left. I looked back in the rear view mirror, to see "it" step off the kerb and into the road where I had just driven. By the time I reached our house, I was panic stricken, I needed to get in and lock the door. My husband couldn't understand what was wrong with me. I explained what had happened, but he said that it was probably a tree and my mind was playing tricks on me! I knew what I had seen and it was no tree. How could a tree make me so scared and step out into the road? The next morning, in the cold light of day and with a sense of apprehensive curiosity, I decided to drive back and see if there had been a tree there. But as I suspected, there was nothing there that I could have misinterpreted. The story doesn't quite end there. . .
I decided to research and write the book a few months later, the book was about people’s paranormal experiences in my area. I'd placed an advert and had a feature in our local paper; including my horror story and asking for people to write in to me. I had a lot of response, mainly UFO sightings. But then one day, I opened a letter that made my blood run cold. A young man wrote to me, to say that he worked at a supermarket a couple of miles away, on the twilight shift, between 8pm and 2am. He frequently walked home, the last third of his journey passed the end of my street and down into the village. Around 400 metres from my house, is our village church, which is opposite a row of shops. As he had approached the church, he saw two figures crouching in the middle of the road. He slowed down to almost a stop. There were no cars around at all. At first, the figures didn't appear to notice the young man. He said they made no sound. Then they looked up at him, stood up and walked away towards the shops and around the back of them. He followed them round a few seconds later and they had gone. The figures he described were exactly the same as the one I had seen that night on the drive home! I have no idea what I saw or what the young man saw, but the terror that event caused me, will stay with me forever.
Looking back I'm so glad I was in the car now! I don't know if I would have coped with the event if I'd encountered 'it' on foot. The area I saw 'it' in has apparently had some similar reports from people who have heard weird noises, someone else reported seeing a furry thing (someone suggested that it was the ghost of a monk dressed in animal furs, as Kirkstall Abbey is just down the road). Apparently, I think it was on Dogmen Encounters that Vic read a report from a woman in Rawdon, which very near the location of my encounter and she said she had to swerve the car to avoid hitting a Dogman.
The other thing that creeps me out a bit, is that hidden down a lane in Rawdon, is a temple, belonging to the Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley's invention. It is said he used to conjure demons and entities in the building there. This ties in for me with The Bempton RAF base and the strange tales of a satanic cult, and all manner of strange things happen down on the Base and the Cliffs. Makes you wonder if there's something in that? People say it can't be a flesh and blood creature, or it's interdimensional. That thing I saw was definitely solid. I 100% believe these things exist, I just don't know how!
As a side note, I have always been scared of what would be termed werewolves, ever since I can remember. This must be some sort of genetic memory, as I wasn't exposed to horror films as a child, because my family wasn't into them. Bramham is about 10 to 15 miles from me and I'm sure there was another report from out that way. The report Deborah is referring to is the report made by a gentleman out walking his dog one evening, when a huge hairy humanoid figure stepped out of the trees and into the path in front of him.
Original LINK
“They were
usually referred to as ‘Padfoot’ in Leeds though. Bob Trubshaw’s excellent book
‘Explore Black Dogs’ relates that a man called Nichols, writing in 1828, said
:-
‘Leeds has it’s
distinct Padfoots, distinguishable one from another (as I am told), for almost
every street’.
