I saw a shadow man at Roddlesworth

After several phone conversations and recieving this email I have been quite active in researching and walking the area David had his experience in Roddlesworth woods. This is his account of the day that changed his life.

Dear Mick,

I hope this email finds you well.

I recently came across your YouTube channel while searching for explanations of an unusual experience I had in Roddlesworth woods. Your content resonated with me, and I felt compelled to share my account with you, which occurred on the 1st of April, 2023.

Since that day, my life has taken a significant turn. I’ve relocated to a new home in the city and have sold all my camping equipment. The incident has left such an impact that I’ve been unable to return to camping, an activity I once greatly enjoyed.

On that fateful morning, I arrived at my familiar camping spot around 11 am and prepared for a day in nature. After setting up camp and cooking lunch over a fire, I took a leisurely walk around the reservoir. Returning around 3 pm, I settled in to relax by the fire as the air grew cooler.

However, the tranquility was short-lived. While gathering wood, I noticed a sudden movement in the periphery of my vision, accompanied by the sound of rustling bushes. Initially, I dismissed it as an animal, but the subsequent snapping of branches and the sight of a dark, swaying figure beside a tree sent chills down my spine. The figure’s swift, elusive movements and its disappearance from view left me in a state of terror.

In haste, I abandoned my tent and fled towards my van, sensing the presence of this entity following me. It wasn’t until I was close enough to hear the traffic that I dared to look back, only to realize the figure was much closer than I had anticipated. The sight was indescribable: a human-like silhouette, yet shrouded in black and partially transparent.

I’ve scoured the internet for answers, stumbling upon terms like ‘shadow man’ and ‘hat men,’ but nothing quite fits what I witnessed. This encounter has profoundly altered my perspective on the unexplained, transforming me from a skeptic to someone who now harbors a cautious wariness, even in the wooded areas of the park near my new urban residence.

I’m eager to hear your thoughts or if you’ve come across similar experiences in your research.

Warm regards, David

The Mysterious Growling of Rivington

In the heart of the 1990s, when grunge music ruled the airwaves and dial-up internet was a novelty, there existed a quaint business in Bolton town and their stood a shop as a beacon of commerce amidst the cobbled streets and cozy storefronts. But this tale isn’t about the shop; it’s about the Saturday lad and his band of adventurous mates.
Their destination? The Rivington Terraced Gardens. Rivington, with its rolling hills, ancient woodlands, and reservoirs, was a place where nature and folklore danced a timeless waltz.

here is a report i was sent 10/12/2020,:

Great to see a page like this in our local area Mick!

I look forward to listening to the readings and posts etc to come.

A story I’ll never forget:

My parents own a business in Bolton town, it was during the mid 90’s the Saturday lad at the time and his mates, gathered outside the shop at 5:30pm with all their camping gear and headed up to Rivington to camp around the gardens, if I recall.

Monday morning, when asked how they got on on their first camping trip, he said the 5 of them heard a growling that couldn’t be identified.
It terrified them so much that 5 lads in their early 20s packed up quickly in the middle of the night and fled home.

Kind Regards.

And so, the Saturday lad’s midnight escape remains etched in memory—a blend of fear, wonder, and the inexplicable magic of Rivington’s gardens

The Beast of Winter Hill

Carolan and I knocked on the door and were welcomed in by one of our witnesses and his partner. After a chat and drink of tea, I set up my camera for an interview while we waited for the other witness to turn up.

I asked witness 1 to start at the beginning then he related his part of what he recalled of his event.
He and witness 2, his friend had gone up to winter Hill for a night walk, they pulled up and got out of the van and entered a field through a gate near a fallen down stone wall, crossing over it into another field, on entering that field, witness 2 took a couple of steps and kicked something on the ground, witness 1 then pointed his torch down onto the ground to see what witness 2 had kicked. They were both shocked by what they saw. There was lying on the floor a sheep that had been ripped open at the chest and had its head removed and steam rising from its body where the heat and cold air met. witness 1 at this point raised his torch to look around to see if he could see anything. He then went on to say he thought he saw red eye shine, and something moved swiftly before disappearing, then came a growl that scared them both, at which point witness 1 asked witness 2 if it was a bear, to which witness 1 replied we don’t have bears in this country. At this they both walked shoulder to shoulder back to the gate which witness 2 went through, and witness 1 jumped over the barbed wire fence back onto the lane. They both marched as quick as they could whilst hearing growls circling them one or two seconds from the left and then the next couple of seconds from the right and then left again before locking themselves in the van, then they quickly got to a nearby lane before stopping to get their heads around the situation.
Before setting back home they Googled different animal growls including wolves which didn’t sound like what they heard, then messing about witness 1 said to Google “the sound of a werewolf” and they were both shocked to hear the sound that sounded very close to the growl they had heard in the field.
We then waited for witness 2 to turn up. We chatted some more and when he turned up we then listened to his event of that night, which he related to us in a manner of nervousness and at one point his hands were sweating from him feeling anxious about going through what had happened on the moors of Winter Hill that night. He also said he would not go up there again on his own at night again.
After the interview witness 1 took us to the spot of the growls and the sheep. As he ran through the event I filmed and we walked around the inner wall of the field, we then came across another sheep similar to the first, this one with the head removed and the skull wedged into the wall, and a vertebrate piece placed on top. At this spot we came across what looked like a paw print with three pads.
We all went up on Saturday 31st October to see if anything would happen but didn’t see anything, we also placed a trail cam up in the field. We didn’t capture any footage.
Carolan and myself went up on Sunday to have another look round and found something we had missed at the first sheep we came across where the witnesses heard the growls. On top of the wall were two stone wall toppers leaning against one another in a pyramid shape with two vertebrates placed in the middle.
We shall be making regular outings up there to see if there are any more strange events happening over the coming months.

Account four on video 16:20 mins in.  

Scary experience in Roddlesworth

 Hi Mick, I'm in to wild camping and was taking some photos up Roddlesworth woods and these strange shape where in the photos.it was 1:30 in the morning and I was on the way to the well house up there.

To be honest there has been some strange noises up there.the week before I camped at back of the well house and we heard what sounded like iron gates being screeched shut down near the well house.do you think my camera has caught anything?. I went up there to Roddlesworth on Saturday night again with my friend who had a speaker with him. we both had a strange feeling around the well house and on the track on the way up to it was like a we where surrounded by something like we where smothered.we could definitely feel the energy around the place. I will have a look through my pictures and send the original.we are planning a camp around there again with  the guy that was with me on camp when we heard the iron gates closing so be good to meet you and give you our findings and sightings.thanks for getting back to me have a good day.

The Lancaster Raptor

 Hey Mick, I'm a 16 year old currently living in the North West of England, and I had an encounter with a creature that was so strange that it resembled a dinosaur.

The encounter happened back in December of 2019 when I was with a group of friends in the small village of Bolton le sands. We all met one day in the hopes of building a Bushcraft shelter, like the ones you see all over YouTube. One of my friends at the time called James, said that he knew a spot that was isolated and hidden, everything that we could have hoped for. So, we all agreed to follow him to the unknown location. After about twenty minutes of walking through farmers fields and thin paths, we were met with a barbed wired metal fence, and to the left of that on a tree, there was a sign that said 'private' obviously being young kids, we ignored the sign and carefully climbed over the metal fence. After we all successfully got over, we looked around for a brief minute to observe the creepy yet somewhat beautiful forest. it was so creepy that some of the trees even looked like tortured souls with faces. maybe we were all just being paranoid, but we all got a similar feeling that we were being watched. After about five minutes of walking through the dense woodland, one of my friends said that he had seen movement in the distance. He pointed forward, and to all our shock, there in plain sight, we laid eyes on the strangest, most obscure creature we had ever seen. It looked like it belonged in a science fiction movie. the best way I could describe the beast, is that it looked like the raptors from the jurassic park movies. every single one of us stood in panic, as we watched it quickly run into neighbouring tree line. I counted down from five to one, and we all ran backwards towards the fence, and climbed over with sheer fear, as if the creature was chasing after us. We ran, with no stopping all the way back to my house. We sat down in my living room, and discussed what we had seen. we all agreed at the time that the creature looked like some sort of dinosaur.

Nowadays, none of those friends believe or even take recognition of the encounter, and all put it down as being natural, possibly a deer of something? I just don't know how they could even mistake that thing for a deer.

Thanks for taking the time to read my encounter Mick. I appreciate your work and how you help bring these topics to light.

Rivington Dogman

It was summer time back in 2014/2015 - I cant be 100% on the year, but it must have been the height of summer as the days were at their longest. The paranormal group had taken members for an open air invest up to the castle ruins - around the ruins, nothing at all was felt or noted so the group set off to walk back through the wooded pathways, turning left as they left the entry/exit to the ruins. Amongst the group, there were two on mobility scooters (who kept getting them stuck in the muddy puddles so requiring the more abled of the group to lift/push/pull them out) and one with enough mobility issues that she would need to walk pretty slowly along the pathways. There were around 10 people in all yet only 2 people (who were way behind everyone else) visually witnessed this creature and a third (who had come back to make sure the two left behind were ok) sensed it but couldn't see anything. As the latter two walked up along the pathway after the house on the corner there, they became aware of someone behind them. Thinking it was a random dog a little way off from it's owner, they moved over and looked behind them to watch them pass and acknowledge the walker. However what was behind them was not your standard dog. It stood at least 6 feet (if not more) high on its back legs, it's coat was quite long and jet black and it had deep red eyes that seemed to glow, sometimes red sometimes a deep orangey colour. The lady with the mobility problems (she was one of the paranormal group leaders and the lady she was walking with was learning the ropes sort of thing so both were very used to being around odd and weird energies and had experienced many 'happenings' over the years), sorry I am trying to give you as much detail as possible - the lady with the mobility issues could hear it panting/breathing as it darted between the trees watching them. When on all fours it was long and still very tall (much bigger than a very well bred german shepherd) and there was a sensation of it stalking them until they were out of the tree cover and back onto the open grassland. At that point, it either ran off or faded away because no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find it amongst the backdrop of trees. The person that came to see if they were managing to walk their way back, said as he entered the cover of the trees how odd the atmosphere felt there at that time he knew nothing of the experience of the two ladies.

Throughout that walk, the two on the mobility scooters and the group leader walking with them, noticed some smaller (around the 2ft tall mark) beings/animals/shadow creatures that darted across their path and among the trees besides them.

UK Bigfoot seen at the Wigan Flashes

“Hi Mick, I recently saw your video titled 'The Wigan Flashes Mystery' and I was absolutely stunned by the gentleman you interviewed mentioning not only his own sighting but the sighting the lady had, who came running towards him with her dog.

I've only ever spoken about this incident/experience with one other person, which was a couple of years ago now. Prior to that, I'd never breathed a word of it, basically for fear of ridicule, as that is what normally happens to people who experience things like this. I was planning on telling my current partner but she thinks such things are ludicrous, so I've always kept it to myself.

So basically, I used to work at the CWS/Rockware glassworks which was off Webster Street in Platt Bridge, Wigan. This factory used to back on to the land where the flashes are, it closed in '91 and was demolished in the 90s and a new housing estate now stands there.

The factory originally used to have some of its raw materials delivered by rail, and the old supply rail lines were still there but were disused in the 1980's although the company had never closed the opening in the fence where the rails came into the factory. Myself and a work mate used this route to sneak out on a late/night shift and go walking around the flash and down that section of the Leeds/Liverpool canal. This used to happen anytime between 7 and 8pm or on nights between 1am and 4am. We'd often hear sounds as if someone was following us and what we perceived as growling noises but we always just put it down to our imaginations or maybe even stray dogs. Then one night but a stop to our sneaking out. We never left the building after what happened.

Then one particularly clear moonlit night in Sept/Oct 1987 we were both out and just walking around and enjoying the night. We could hear fairly loud footstep noises that sounded as if someone was walking and they were coming towards us. So we crouched down in the bushes (they are full grown trees now and fairly dense but back then they weren't so big). Because of where we were, we thought it was probably a couple of work mates who sometimes came with us or went out on their own and were making their way back to work.

My mate who was with me whispered something to me and 'it' stopped dead, it either heard him speak or smelled us as ‘it’ stopped suddenly. We were silent and after what seemed like ages, whatever it was, took a couple of steps and moved into a position where we could see it. It was about 30 ft away from us, and ‘it’ was very big. It looked to be possibly around 7ft tall, the moonlight was behind ‘it’ so the front of ‘it’ was in silhouette, so I couldn't make any facial or bodily features out. It had its arms raised out to its side but lower than shoulder height. My first thought was that it was a big guy with straggly hair wearing a cowboy style jacket, the kind with the tassels running down the arms, but I realised it was hair that was about 4 to 5 inches long. Then all of a sudden ‘it’ let out this extremely loud and very long scream/roar. It sounded like a man to start with but the volume was absolutely ear splitting and I could feel the noise inside me, as if I was standing next to a big speaker.

The scream/roar I'd guess lasted for 10 or 15 seconds, it tailed off in the middle then went loud again before ending in a deep roar. I felt dizzy/nauseous, but this passed and I remember rubbing my eyes feeling like they were really dry and stinging a bit, when I opened my eyes again, it was completely gone, and we couldn't hear it walking away. The weird thing was, I felt like I was in a soundproof room, all the time this went on, no noise at all, once it disappeared, all felt normal again and we could hear the factory noises in the background.

We didn't want to move but had to, to get ourselves back to work. After about 10 mins, finally we plucked up the courage to head back, we really got a move on and we're more or less walking with our heads facing backwards trying to make sure ‘it’ wasn't behind us. We were talking about what it could have been. But we couldn't actually say what it was at the time. I had heard of Bigfoot when I was a kid watching Arthur C. Clarke's mysterious world but I figured they were only in America. We got back and my mate told me not to say anything to anyone as we'd have the p*ss taken out of us relentlessly at work, and I agreed.

My friend, by the way, is a big fellow, he is 6ft 4, but this thing was way taller than him. Also he was a hard case and no one messed with him but this thing petrified him, he was white and shaking. I've tried to speak to him about it a couple of times over the years but he just shuts me down, says that as far as he's concerned it didn't happen as things like that don't exist.

It's only in recent years, with the advent of various Facebook groups that I believe what we saw was probably a British bigfoot/wildman/woodwose, call it what you will. Also something to mention is that we weren't far from what we as kids called the Murder bridge/devil's bridge. I used to take my dog walking around there a few years ago as it's now a nice walk through the woods, but I always had a feeling I was being watched so I always took someone else with me.

Mick McLaren (W.H.I.T) Map

https://goo.gl/maps/RJM3gBozwVdZBTv59