the light had fallen, was shocked and horrified to see looming before him, “the biggest bloody dog I have ever seen in my life.”
Muscular and black, with large, pointed ears and huge paws, the creature seemed to positively ooze menace and negativity, and had a wild, staring look in its yellow-tinged eyes. For twenty or thirty seconds, man and beast alike both faced each other, after which time the “animal” slowly and cautiously headed for the tall trees, never once taking its penetrating eyes off of the petrified driver. Somewhat ominously, and around two or three weeks later, says Lea, a close friend of his was killed in an industrial accident under horrific circumstances; something which Lea believes—after having deeply studied the history of Black Dog lore—was directly connected with his strange encounter on that tree-shrouded road back in 1972.
Throughout the British Isles, there are tales of huge spectral hounds “darker than the night sky” with eyes “glowing red as burning coals.” The phantom black dog of British and Irish folklore, often forewarns of death (art by Bill Oliver).
In the early to mid 1980s, reports began to surface from the Cannock Chase of something that became known as the “Ghost Dog of Brereton”—a reference to the specific locale from where most of the sightings originated. Yet again, the dog was described as being both large and menacing, and on at least two occasions it reportedly vanished into thin air after having been seen by terrified members of the public on lonely stretches of road late at night.
In direct response to an article that appeared in the Cannock Advertiser newspaper during the winter of 1984–85 on the sightings of Brereton’s infamous ghost dog, a member of the public from a local village wrote to the newspaper thus:
“On reading the article my husband and I were astonished. We recalled an incident which happened in July some four or five years ago driving home from a celebration meal at the Cedar Tree restaurant at about 11:30 P.M. We had driven up Coal Pit Lane and were just on the bends before the approach to the Holly Bush when, from the high hedge of trees on the right hand side of the road, the headlights picked out a misty shape which moved across the road and into the trees opposite.”
The writer continued:
“We both saw it. It had no definite shape seeming to be a ribbon of mist about 18 inches to 2 feet in depth and perhaps 9 or 10 feet long with a definite beginning and end. It was a clear, warm night with no mist anywhere else. We were both rather stunned and my husband’s first words were: ‘My goodness! Did you see that?’ I remember remarking I thought it was a ghost. Until now we had no idea of the history of the area or any possible explanation for a haunting. Of course, this occurrence may be nothing to do with the ‘ghost dog’ or may even have a natural explanation. However, we formed the immediate impression that what we saw was something paranormal.”
Possibly relative to the tale of the ghost dog of Brereton was the story of a man named Ivan Vinnel. In 1934, as a twelve year old, he had a strange encounter in his hometown of nearby Burntwood. The sun was setting and Ivan and a friend were getting ready to head home after an afternoon of playing hide-and-seek. Suddenly, however, the pair was stopped dead in its tracks by the shocking sight of a ghostly “tall, dark man,” who was “accompanied by a black dog” that had materialized out of a “dense hedge” approximately ten yards from the boys’ position. Both man and beast passed by in complete and utter silence before disappearing—quite literally.
Ivan later mentioned the incident to his uncle, who then proceeded to tell him that he, too, had seen the ghostly dog on several occasions as a child. It was always in the same location: on the old road that stretches from the village of Woodhouses to an area of Burntwood, near the town’s hospital. As with the majority of black dog legends from all across Britain, this particular ghostly animal would always faithfully follow the same path and walk the same stretch of road before vanishing as mysteriously as it had first appeared.
And weird reports from the Cannock Chase of out-of-place dog-like beasts continue to surface to this very day.
It was in late June 2006 that all hell metaphorically broke loose, when reports flew around the people of the Cannock Chase to the effect that nothing less than a fully-grown wolf was roaming the area. Early on the morning of June 28, motorists on Junction 10A of the M6 Motorway near Cannock jammed Highways Agency phone-lines with reports of a “wolf-like creature” that was seen “racing between lanes at rush hour.” Motorists stared with utter disbelief as the three-foot-long beast, described as “grayish-black,” raced between lanes, skillfully dodging cars, before leaping for cover in nearby trees.
Highways Agency staff took the reports very seriously, but concluded that the animal was “probably a husky dog.” However, a spokesperson for Saga Radio—the first media outlet on the scene—said in reply to the statement of the Highways Agency: “Everyone who saw it is convinced it was something more than a domestic dog. I know it sounds crazy but these people think they’ve seen a wolf.”
The local newspaper, the Chase Post, always quick to report on mystery animals seen in the vicinity of the dark woods, stated on July 6 in an article titled Great Beast Debate on Net that: “Internet message boards are being flooded with debates on our front-page revelation last week that a ‘wolf-like’ creature was spotted by dozens of motorists on the M6 hard-shoulder.”
The Chase Post further noted that: “Our own website has been thrown into overdrive by the story, which received around 2,600 hits from fans of the unexplained across the globe in the last week alone.”
While the affair was never ultimately resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, the final words went to the Highways Agency, who said: “We have received a number of reports that the animal was captured. But we don’t know where, who by, or what it was.”
Perhaps the event had indeed been due to the mistaken sighting of an escaped Husky; however, that does not in any way come close to explaining the eerie encounter of Jim Broadhurst and his wife that occurred while the pair was out for a morning stroll on the Cannock Chase, only days before the events of June 28.
Broadhurst stated that he and his wife had seen at a distance of about one hundred and fifty feet, what looked like a large wolf or “a giant dog” striding purposefully through the woods. Broadhurst added that fear gripped the pair when the creature suddenly stopped and looked intently and menacingly in their direction. That fear was amplified even further, however, when the beast reportedly, and incredibly, reared up onto two powerful hind legs and backed away into the thick trees, never to be seen again. The Broadhursts, unsurprisingly, fled those dark woods—and have not returned since; fearful of what they believe to be some form of “monster” lurking deep within the mysterious depths of the Cannock Chase.
Interestingly, and certainly unfortunately, in the weeks that followed their sighting, the Broadhursts were cursed with a seemingly never-ending run of bad luck and disaster that did not abate until well into September of that same year.
Whether they are the precursors to doom and tragedy; ancient and paranormal entities that are somehow connected with the realm of the dead; or the spirits of long-deceased animals that have returned to watch over the living, it seems that the phantom black dogs of Britain’s Cannock Chase are here to stay.
Researcher Theo Brown has divided the phantom black dogs into three separate categories: 1) a shape-shifting demon dog; 2) a large black dog about the size of a calf with dark shaggy fur; 3) a dog that manifests
