Bat Beast of Kent

 

The bat beast of Kent was a vaguely mothman like cryptid seen in the English county of Kent. The bat beast was seen in 1963, three years before the infamous events that took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The incident took place near the Saltwood forest, which are known for paranormal strangeness before the incident. The incident being alternately known as the Saltwood ghost and the Hythe mothman, after the nearby village of Hythe.

The bat beast overall resembles mothman, but completely lacks a head, eyes or any facial features. It's body is egg shaped and covered in black fur. The wings emerge from the shoulders in place of arms. Oddly the creature also has webbed feet at the end of human like legs. The creature was approximately five feet tall.

On November 16^th, four teens identified as John Flaxton, Mervyn Hutchinson and their girlfriends, who remained unnamed through the follow investigation, were walking home along Sandling Road, from a party. On their journey home they witnessed a strange light descend from the sky and hover over a nearby field. The light was oval in shape and about a meter in size. The four witnesses described it as either white, gold or fiery red. While later investigators would identify this moving light as a UFO, the teens themselves described it as a ghost light. The orb bobbed around the field in various locations before ducking into the nearby Saltwood forest. On witnessing the light a strange feeling of cold and fear came over the teens. All four of them started running along the road, wanting to get away from the light. The light, much to the teen's horror, came back out of the forest and started pursuing them. After a while the group had to stop to catch their breath, no matter how much they wanted to escape the events. Oddly the light stopped and waited for them, only beginning to move again when the teens did. At this point the group wondered if something was controlling the orb and purposely toying with them. It was at this point the orb disappeared into the forest again. This time the teens heard loud, heavy footsteps coming towards them from the location where the light had disappeared. They could see a dark and indistinct figure moving around the forest, which they at first assumed was either a living person or a more conventional ghost. However this idea was proven wrong when the bat beast emerged from the foliage at the side of the road before the teens. It moved with an awkward waddling gate, like it wasn't used to moving on its legs. Mervyn reported that he saw the orb following the creature, like a lantern light without a lantern, although no one else saw this. The sight of the monster sent the teens running again, and this time they didn't stop until they reached the town of Hythe.

Once back in town the teens went to the police and told them of the encounter. Surprisingly the police took them seriously, saying that the fear in the teen's eyes made it obvious this was no mere prank. Each teen was interviewed by the police separately, and each one described the same events in detail. While the teen's story was believed, the police were unable to find anything unusual along the side of the road, and didn't venture into the forest.

On November 21^st, another man named Keith Croucher, while walking home at night saw a very similar orb over a soccer field. He said it was surrounded by a golden mist, even though it otherwise was not a misty night. Keith stopped and observed the strange object for a while. The object moved around the field and then vanished into the nearby trees. Keith felt uneasy during his sighting, but not the overwhelming fear the previous group had, and he didn't see any associated creature.

The local news papers had gotten hold of the story and ridiculed the four original witnesses, even though they had initially been believed by authorities. A local man, John McGoldrich, and a friend of his, became interested in the events and went out to Saltwood forest to investigate. They found a clearing in the woods where all the vegetation had been flattened by something large, and three oddly shaped footprints that had been made by something heavy. The footprints were massive, being two feet long and nine inches across. Oddly, these were shaped like human footprints and not the strange webbed feet the creature had. The two men took reporters out to the area the following evening. The reporters were initially skeptical about the men's findings and not expecting to see anything of importance. Before they made their way to the location of the footprints an odd light appeared in the woods again. It moved around and pulsed playfully. The two men and the reporters who followed them were too afraid to go any further. Instead they watched the light moved between the trees for half an hour. After this point the reporters were convinced and wrote about the previous incidents with more veracity. This in turn caught the attention of various paranormal investigators, of both the ghost and UFO variety. The local reverend, Eric Stanton, also vowed to get to the bottom of these events, being adamant that they were caused by a ghost of a historic figure from Saltwood Castle. However not much came from these investigations. As usually happens, once hordes of curious people enter the area of a paranormal wave the activity goes quiet for a while.

While this officially marked the end of the sightings, John McGoldrich and his friend would go onto have one more encounter. After they had time to regather their courage from the evening with the reporters the two of them drove back along Sandling Road. In the area where the light had been seen previously McGoldrich saw an indistinct yet human like, dark figure, but his friend saw nothing. Because only one of them had seen the figure and there was the possibility it was really just a person, they didn't inform the press again. McGoldrich didn't know what to make of this sighting.

Occasional sightings of the enigmatic winged figures are still seen in the region of Kent, as are ghosts, mystery lights and other unexplained events. None of them have caused a similar stir to the 1963 event, but whatever fortean forces caused these sightings they're still very much active.

The press didn't initially associate the events with ufos or alien creatures, instead retelling the evens in the context of a ghost sighting. After all, these events occurred a few years before the far more famous incident with mothman. In addition to this, Saltwoods Forest and the town of Hythe were well known for ghostly activity before this. It was only after news brought international interest to the events that it began being associated with UFOs. Once the events of Point Pleasant in the USA took place the similarities to the Kent sightings were recognized. After this mothman and alien activity became the go to answer for these events.

It's interesting to note that there were other UFOs, mystery lights, and even strange poltergeist activity during the mothman events of Point Pleasant. In a more recent paranormal wave, the events at Skinwalker Range have also been described as buffet of every sort of fortean activity thrown together. John Keel came up with a theory that all forms of high strangeness have a similar origin, and that ghost, cryptid, UFOs and modern fairy sightings are all essentially the same thing. While I think Keel went too far in positing the origin of these things being some unknown electromagnetic consciousness, I do agree that all forms of fortean events have eerie similarities that cannot simply be ignored as we categorize them into their own separate boxes.