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Creswell Crags Witch

The following story was recounted by a Rotherham man with an interest in the paranormal, who was involved in researching a strange event which occurred at Creswell Crags, near the South Yorkshire border. The Crags are a well-known cave formation around a natural lake, in which evidence of a Stone Age settlement has been found. They are now a protected site, and attract visitors from miles around, particularly during the summer months.

Towards the end of summer on a warm evening in the 1980s, a couple were driving home after an evening out when they halted at traffic lights at temporary roadworks, close to the Visitors Centre at the Crags. The passenger was resting her head against the window and trying to doze as her husband waited at a red light. Despite the weather being warm and the car being humid, she remembers feeling a sudden chill, which was also felt by her husband, who wound up the window on the driver's side. As the couple waited for the lights to change to amber, the woman glanced out of the passenger window to her side.

The sides of the road in this area are uncultivated, and bushes of briars and brambles grow densely underneath the trees. In fact, the briars were so thick at this point that they touched the side of the car. Less than two feet from where she sat, the woman caught sight of a pale, blurred circular shape around the size of a netball. It appeared to be suspended two feet off of the ground, caught on a thorny bush. She strained her eyes to see more clearly, unable to make out what it was, and reached for the handle to the car window to turn it down and take a better look. Before she had the chance, the shape began to float backwards and forwards as though it was being dangled on a string.

All the while, it began to assume the features of what she later described as 'an old hag', with uncanny dark eyes and a beaked nose. Suspecting a practical joke by somebody hiding in the bushes, the woman remained sceptical as to what she was witnessing. However, the longer she observed the shape, the clearer it became. Distinctly feminine features were forming before her eyes, with hollowed cheeks and long dark hair below shoulder length framing a skeletal face. As the vision became clearer, the woman was convinced that she was witnessing a paranormal event.

She later described the face as belonging to 'a witch' - in any case, the traditional version of what a witch supposedly looks like. The vision formed in further detail, seeming pale, drawn and haggard, with warts and other skin blemishes and piercing 'hateful' eyes which the woman later described as being able to 'stare through' her. When the fully formed face, which had no evidence of a body attached to it, began to 'float' towards the car in which the couple sat, she screamed in terror. Her husband looked over to his left and saw, briefly, the eerie face for himself, before slamming the car into gear and racing off into the darkness.

Unfortunately, the incident proved so shocking to the young woman that on their arrival home, a doctor was called who prescribed her a sedative to calm her down. It was the doctor who persuaded the woman's husband to call the police, convinced that a dangerous prank had been played on the lonely country lane. A neighbour was called in to sit with his sedated wife while the man accompanied local police to the scene of the incident.

The police searched the area but were unable to find any clue as to what could have been responsible for the appearance of the mysterious head. One of the policemen even entered the thick brambles and thorn bushes at this point, to ascertain whether access would indeed have been possible for a practical joker. Entry was found to be almost impossible, and the policeman received cuts and scratches and ripped his uniform in the attempt.

Strangely, this was not the only sighting of something unusual to be reported in the area that night. Around dawn, a lorry driver was forced to brake hard and swerve to avoid a mysterious, dark figure which crossed the road from the Visitors Centre side at Creswell Crags. Thoroughly shaken by his encounter, he later described the figure as 'floating' and 'seemingly headless'. Instinctively, the lorry driver reported that the figure was female, although he had seen no face or other indication as to its sex. Once across the road, the cloaked figure disappeared into the thick bushes and vanished from sight. Lady of Galmis | Witchcraft | Abergeldie Castle | Castle | Eliza | Essex | Lafayette Cemetery | Newark | Norton | Pendle | Quarr Abbey | Tennessee | The Bull Pub | Two Large Trees | United States | Woodplumpton | Woodplumpton | Yorkshire |