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Friday, October 15, 2021

Staffordshire Trolls of Slitting Mill

 The Staffordshire Trolls of Slitting Mill

By Cole Herrold

As a researcher I've always been fascinated with cases that seem to echo accounts that happened years ago. Whether the account is an identical sasquatch type entity or a series of lights that seem identical to others across the globe its consistent accounts from geographically different locations that really help assert my belief that these accounts are genuine. Of all the seemingly geographically similar phenomenon there’s one in particular that really piqued my interest since the entities in question are of a bizarre place in the paranormal spectrum. Faeries and their ilk have reports that are found all over the world yet most paranormal and fortean researchers seemingly have no idea with what to do with these claims. Some can be pegged in the hairy hominid file under proto-pygmies, or aquatic apes, others can be interconnected with the UFO and extraterrestrial phenomenon, and yet other accounts seem to be of something that can only be defined as magical.

In Staffordshire, England an account occurred where several eyewitnesses encountered the more rugged and loathsome form of faerie known colloquially as trolls. Troll sightings are not unheard of in fortean circles even though they are considerably rarer than encounters with merfolk and the flying faerie variety or leprechaun type yet the most interesting thing to me is that this encounter happened in an urban area whereas other troll sightings tend to take place in the Scandinavian wilderness.

Two witnesses known as Elaine and Barry a married couple in their late twenties who had a home near Staffordshire were returning home with their two children one late December night after a Christmas party in Peckridge. They had gotten into Staffordshire when Barry started to notice that the car was starting to act up. The engine seemed to sputter soon ultimately cut out as they coasted down the road to a safe spot. Barry being the dutiful father and certainly cursing his luck exited the warm automobile and worked his way to the front of the car. Barry popped the hood open and soon began to examine the vehicle’s motor “even though I’m mainly useless at mechanical stuff” as he would later say. Even though he was not an expert on car repair he had some points to look for and proceeded to check the cars wires, radiator, and fuses and none appeared to be loose or overheated. So, Barry simply shaking his head was at a loss for what the car’s ailment might be. He looked down the road as he shut the hood of the car and began to assert how far they were from the home and figuring that they were only half a mile or so and so began to plan accordingly he would later describe his plan thusly: “We had a picnic blanket in the boot (trunk) of the car and I got it out. I got back into the car, and I said to Elaine something like ‘lets cover you up and the kids with the blanket’. They were in the back sleeping and (were) only four and six at the time. So, I said to (Elaine) ‘you stay with them, and I’ll run back home and get your car, pick the three of you up, and then we’ll leave my car here, and we can get someone out from a garage to look at it tomorrow”.

Elaine now nestled in the warm trunk blanket was agreeing to her husband’s decision and was beginning to wait till her husband returned but as he was just about to turn around and head up the frozen winter road she saw something run by exceptionally quick in front of the car. Seeing this bizarre figure startled her enough for her to uncurl a loud scream. Yet soon this singular figure would be followed by several other dark figures that seemed to of stepped from the furthest realms of imagination. Elaine would describe the scene “I just about saw it at the last second, and then another one followed it, and then a third one. The best way I can describe them to you is like a hairy troll or something like that. We had some moonlight, and they were like little men, but with hunchbacks and big, hooked noses and not a stitch on them at all. Not a stitch, at all; just hair all over them. I’d say they were all four-feet-tallish, and when the third one crossed by us, you could see them at the edge of the trees – wary, or something, anyway.”

The events that followed are anyone’s guess for the family seemed to have a period of time that appeared fuzzy to say the least. The family seemed to blank out as though their memory was spliced by some cosmic editor as the figures they encountered seemed to seemingly disappear and their car suddenly revved back to life. The family confused by what had just occurred but more determined than ever to simply get home led the family to stop any would be investigation and instead continue the half of a mile drive back to their house. In the safety on comfort of their home however they felt uncomfortable about the events, and they seemed to be missing some time from when they sighted the creatures and when their car returned to life. These memories however would return in time as what happened at the car once they seen the diminutive denizens would happen in flashes. Barry would later say “We both know from memory that they came forwards, towards us, very slowly to us, and I’ve thought since that they were interested in us or wanted to know who we were. They came very slowly, and it was a bit like we were being hunted, to me. Elaine was hysterical; and with the kids with us, I wasn’t far-off, either”. “But that’s all we remember. The next its all gone, nothing. Neither of us remembers seeing them go, and the next thing it was about two o’clock and the car started fine, then. It felt like something had happened to us, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on, you know, what I mean? But the memory thing is the biggest problem, even now, what was it? I did have a dream later about them surrounding the car, but that’s it really. But they were there, and we did see them, right up by the Stone House”.

Barry and Elaine now in their mid-60’s to this day feel uneasy about their loss of memory but is certain that their encounter did happen stating “I know, and we know, that we both saw them. The kids don’t remember a thing, thankfully. They were horrible little things. All that hair: Trolls, Goblins, something, but they were there, and they were real”. Barry and Elaine later would state that they never had any paranormal encounter before or after, but they were certain the encounter happened.

This case is extremely interesting, and I wish I had more details on it, I would love for an eyewitness sketch or some one on one discussion with Barry and Elaine on some of the other details with this case, but unfortunately I don’t think that will come into fruition. With this case it has so many hallmarks to other cases that its difficult to point to specifically one category for these creatures. I guess to begin with we could look at these creatures from the realm of cryptozoology as these could be a kind of hairy hominid. These creature’s height is realistic for an organism to remain hidden now a days as opposed to the 6-9ft tall Bigfoot reports that are also said to have occurred in England and Ireland. From this it could be plausible that the creatures seen are some offshoot of hominid evolution especially since there’s a phenomenon called Island dwarfism which caused organisms that are typically large on other continents to be smaller on islands to help deal with competition of resources. There’s a very good chance that this is a possibility.

The Norwegian Film Troll Hunter dealt with the idea of Trolls being biological creatures as yet undiscovered by mainstream science

The next possibility is that these creatures are extraterrestrials. There have been several sightings of creatures similar in appearance that have been seen in connection to UFOs. The most famous is the rash of hairy dwarf sightings or as we here at the New World Explorer’s Society call them Space Morlocks. These creatures are about the same height and the first sighting which eyewitnesses Jose Ponce and Gustavo Gonzalez experienced on a road near Caracas in Venezuela is eerily similar to what Barry and Elaine had witnessed. Now the big difference between the two is that in the Caracas case the two witnesses saw a large oval shaped object hovering in the middle of the road and when one went to investigate happened to run into one of the hairy entities. While similar these entities feature wise are also different in the Venezuela case the entities were essentially featureless aside from a pair of glowing eyes set in a round head whereas the trolls had hooked noses and other human like features. The Caracas aliens also wore loin cloths as opposed to the nude trolls and these space entities also wielded “wand-technology” (cylindrical shaped machinery that emits light) whereas the troll case featured no reference to any kind of machinery or tool use. Also, there was no confirmed UFO sighting in the area that these entities assumedly would travel on so that is also another issue with this hypothesis.

Sketch of the Hairy Dwarf from the Caracas case

To me the most obvious answer to these creatures seems to be the most absurd and that is that they are faeries in the truest sense of the word. Faeries are a variety of creatures that are deeply connected with both nature and historical sites. These entities have many of the same elements associated with extraterrestrial encounters including time loss and in some cases memory loss. These entities are not fond of being sited in fact there are several accounts of faeries scaring people away, chasing them, causing great emotional distress, or in more aggressive cases like the typical Scandinavian Troll or Kelpie eating those they encounter. These entities are interconnected with green places and that seems to be the one consistent element to all reports as faeries are found in areas with high concentrations of trees, grass, flowers, what the exact connection to this is, is cannot only be speculated but the most common belief is that they are the avatars of nature if this is the case it would make sense as to why these creatures were seen in England even though it is a decidedly more urban area than most of the other reports out there.

With that said there is very little modern research on the phenomenon. There’s tons of accounts that can be found in old books and some modern day podcasts feature some eyewitnesses but other than that there’s no “Faerie Quest” or some other research oriented study of the phenomenon. The last big one was the Fairy Investigation Society which for more information definitely read Seeing Fairies by Marjorie T. Johnson. So, it’s difficult to speak with any certainty that these entities really do belong in their own category and not in the trinity of paranormal (Cryptozoology, Ufology, and spirit research/Demonology).

With this case its resonated with me for some time when I first came across it in the Monster Book by Nick Redfern and it is perhaps to me one of the most interesting ostensibly fae encounter. These creatures are entirely unique only in that they seem ancient as though they have leapt from a John Bauer painting yet the thing that haunts me is their motives. In a sinister take on their sighting one has to mention the phenomenon of changelings how trolls and other faeries will kidnap human offspring and swap them with their own and it is very eerie that Barry and Elaine’s children were asleep in the car and the couple had memory problems afterwards. Perhaps their children were given the old switcheroo and now their real children are down in the faerie kingdom somewhere. I do not know and this is just a hypothetical based on legends but it is important to say about that time loss for who knows what really happened during that time maybe they were given a tour of the land or the great Seelie courts or perhaps nothing happened at all and the Trolls used the time loss as a kind of blanket for them to get away but its all speculation and something that we will never more than likefully know the answer to.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Hominid/ Mammal

Location: Slitting Mill, Staffordshire, England

Sighted: December 1975

Works Cited:

Beasts of Britain By Andrew M. L. McGrath

The Monster Book: Creatures, Beasts, and Fiends of Nature By Nick Redfern

Combing, Beach “Trolls in Staffordshire (in the 1970s!)”. Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog.  June 13, 2012. https://www.strangehistory.net/2012/06/13/trolls-in-staffordshire-in-the-1970s/. Accessed October 12, 2021. 

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