You are hereForums / Mysterious Britain / Cryptozoology / Black Beast of Boreham Mere
Black Beast of Boreham Mere
Hey, I was just wondering if at anyone here has happened to hear of the Black Beast of Boreham Mere, which would be from Essex I believe. I know virtually nothing about it - the extent of my kinowledge is a bit of a newspaper clipping I saw in a book once. I can't recall the name of the book, but recall it was about vampires, so I don't know if some vampire legend was mixed up with the creature or not. There was a photograph reproduced that showed what looked like a fairly large winged creature - the wings seemed to resemble those of a bat. No head was visible, so I'm fairly sure it wasn't any sort of heron or crane (not sure what of those species are native to the UK), although I can't rule out another type of waterfowl. The picture, I believe, was from the early 1970s - thinking '71, '72, or '73. Also if I recall it was supposed to make loud cries. I've searched for years for any information, but could never find any... which kind of leads me to believe it turned out to be some known species.
Hi Andrew, you've got me stumped with this one. I'll keep looking though :)
If it wasn't a hoax it was most likely a Marsh Harrier (Circus aeroginosus), probably a female since they are larger and much darker than males as is usual with harriers. In the early '70s it was pretty much extint in Britain so it was a very uncommon sight.
In Distortion We Trust
"Louhi spoke in riddled tones of three things to achieve: find and catch the Devil's Moose and bring it here to me. Seize the Stallion born of Fire, harness the Golden Horse. He captured and bound the Moose, he tamed the Golden Horse. Still there remained one final task: hunt for the Bird from the Stream of Death"
-Kalevala, Rune XIII-
I, along with many other anglers used to fish at "the Mere" - days, nights, weeks from June through to March. There are loads of tales of weird things going on there. It certainly was one of the darkest places I've known at night (especially round the top end), and definately had a very intense atmoshphere at times.
I'd be keen to hear if you find the original reference!