It Happened to Me...

Little Devil’s hoofprints

My sister and I have always been fans of spooky and unnerving stories, and particularly those associated with Devon and Dartmoor, our favourite holiday destination as kids. We both, therefore, knew the ‘Devil’s Hoofprints’ story better than any other, and as a laugh, every time it snowed we always – as a joke – checked to see if we could find hoofprints.

It was all very amusing, until decades later, in 2010. I used to live in Warwickshire, and that year we had a particularly long and cold snowy spell. Our family had organised dinner at a restaurant, so we were waiting for our parents to get themselves together and, as it was snowing, we reverted to childhood and amused ourselves with a hoofprint hunt.

This time, to our consternation, we actually found them. A set of little tracks leading right up to the side of the house (see photo). They were hoofprints, clear as anything, neat and well-shod. They weren’t exactly devilish, more little demon-ish, being no more than about 1-2in (2.55cm) wide, arranged in a neat trotting row. They weren’t dead straight, doing a little meander until they hit the wall. But they didn’t go back again, and so not quite believing what we were seeing, and convinced it was just an animal of some kind, we went back in the house and leaned out of the kitchen window, which was directly opposite the line of hoofprints on the other side of the house. And sure enough, there they were, starting dead against the wall below the window before trotting off again in a thin line out across my neighbour’s garden and into the shrubbery beyond.

The thing that we really couldn’t get was that they went right up to the wall one side, and came away right against it the other. If it were an animal (we had muntjacs aplenty round there) it would have turned around and gone the other way. If it were a meteorological phenomenon (the most likely explanation) then it would have begun away from the wall on the lee side of the house. As for bird prints, I’ve never seen a bird with round feet.

I appreciate the photo is vague, that as evidence it’s poor and could have been faked, but all I can say is that the thing happened. I’m also not saying it was supernatural; I think it most likely a weather phenomenon, a line of hail in the snow overnight perhaps. But it was, and remains, inexplicable. Needless to say, my sister and I continue, in fine old tradition, to keep an eye out when it snows, but we haven’t seen it again. Yet.

Ms Tansy Kelly Robson

By email

Editor’s note: See “The Devil’s hoofmarks” by Mike Dash, Fortean Studies #1, pp.71150; “Devil’s hoofprints” by Ben Radford, FT70:65.

Phantom jay walker

I found the feature about the Ruskington Horror [ FT401:3238] very absorbing. As a lorry driver, I have travelled along that particular stretch of the A15 many times, but have never encountered anything untoward, except the usual bad driving prevalent on that road. However, in 2005 I did have a mysterious and maybe ghostly encounter 20 miles [32km] further south in Lincolnshire near the village of Corby Glen, midway between Grantham and Bourne. I was driving along the A151 towards the A1. It was a very dark but clear winter’s evening at about 6.30pm and I was about half a mile west of the main east coast railway line, travelling at 45 to 50mph [72-80km/h]. I had just switched my headlights to full beam when I was very shocked to see a man standing near the centre of the road about 50m [164ft] in front of me. He was motionless and facing towards me, and had a prominent bushy beard. He was wearing a quilted ‘bomber’ type jacket, white trousers like a chef might wear and a woolly hat. Luckily, there was no traffic heading in the opposite direction and I was able to swerve around him.

The thing that convinced me he wasn’t of this world was the fact that a taxi, travelling very closely behind me (way too close in fact), an annoyance for many miles, didn’t take similar action to avoid the man. Given his position near the centre of the fairly wide road, I don’t believe he could have made it to either grass verge in the few seconds’ space between our vehicles. I stopped a bit further on and the taxi overtook me and continued on its way. It occurred to me that perhaps the taxi had been involved in a hit and run, so I turned round and went back to check, but there was nothing to be seen. I checked local media for days afterwards, but there was no report of anyone being involved in an accident along that stretch of road.

I did hear a FOAF (friendof-a-friend) story about a young woman having a similar encounter at the same place a few years later, but couldn’t get any more details.

Paul Clark

Grantham, Lincolnshire

Orange orb

I woke up in the early hours one day in June 2018, possibly due to a strange light. About 10ft [3m] away was a steady, floating orange orb or ball of fizzing orange light. The orb was about a foot [30cm] wide and was ‘floating’ a third of the way up the door. It did not make any sound. I raised myself up on an elbow to get a better look and considered waking my wife, but didn’t do so as she is a heavy sleeper and I reasoned by the time she awoke the anomaly might have disappeared.

As I raised myself upon my elbow, the orb appeared to ‘notice’ my observations and slowly retreated out of the room. What I particularly noticed about this retreat was our bedroom door closed or pulled-to smoothly as the orb retreated. Have any readers had a similar experience? Rowan Callcels

Edinburgh

Every time it snowed we always checked to see if we could find hoofprints