Tales Of Bigfoot In The UK- Smitham’s Hill Somerset

Set within the Mendip Hills area of outstanding natural beauty, and just six miles from the iconic Cheddar Gorge and legendary Wookey Hole, this enchanted locale is riddled with disused iron and lead ore mines, making it perhaps the perfect hunting ground for a shy Wildman.

In days gone by the miners in this area spoke of being watched by strange beasts as they went about their work. When they reported for work in the morning, they would often find their carts and equipment had been thrown around or broken.

Today, curious phenomena continue to plague the area, with farmers finding themselves at a loss to explain the mangled carcasses of the sheep discarded on the hills.

In late November, 1993, an unidentified and foul smelling beast was observed as it stalked a dog walker in the woods. The beast, described as being seven feet tall, dark brown, hairy and ape-like, with an intelligent face similar to that of a chimpanzee eventually lost interest, and wondered off into the trees.

Twenty years later, in January 2013, a pair of geo-cachers, Dr Francis Sheppard and his colleague Dr Martin Blakely, were searching the woods off the nearby Cleeve Hill one sunny morning, when they came across a sleeping animal curled up under a pile of branches and dead leaves. Initially assuming that the breathing body was a stray dog or something equally mundane, they began removing the branches to see exactly what or who it was. As they removed more and more of the cover, they changed their minds regarding the nature of the beast which lay below, and began to suspect that the hidden being was actually a tramp wrapped up in rags: but it soon became clear that it was nothing of the sort. The creature, which smelled liked a ‘rancid wet dog’ turned out to be something which they described as being ragged, dirty, matted and monkey-like. As they removed the last branches, the creature awoke and sat up, appearing somewhat dazed. It had big eyes and a pot belly. The witnesses described how it had features similar to those of an orang-utan, but moved more like a human child. The creature began to wail as if distressed. As the doctors backed off, the creature got to its feet unsteadily – standing some five feet tall – before slowly walking off into the woods, constantly looking back at the geo-cachers. The doctors followed it at a distance for a short while, but whilst the thickening undergrowth and brambles proved no obstacle for the creature, it quickly became too difficult for the doctors to traverse, and they were forced to watch helplessly as it slowly, but noisily, disappeared into the thicket.

Courtesy of

UK BIGFOOT RESEARCH GROUP