The Henfield Humanoid Thing (did he throw a squirrel at us) 1990

The witness shared this account with me July 2016.

It was September 1990 and I was around 16 years old. It was the 40th birthday party of the mother of my best friend. They were caravan owners who camped often and had obtained use of a field behind a pub to put up tents, caravans, BBQ etc for the weekend. The pub has quite a large beer garden so the field would have been quite a way behind the pub, very near to the River Adur.



My parents were also attending the party but I was actually staying the night with my friend in an awning attached to her parents' caravan. I will admit we did consume some alcohol (underage obviously!) earlier on in the evening but it was lemonade mostly and by the time the incident happened I was completely sober. I have an exceptional memory for silly small details and can remember the evening very well, even down to the white cut off jeans I was wearing that were from Gap in Brighton and also a flowery shirt that I got caught on some brambles in a ditch and ripped the back open.  After my friend and I had settled down for the night - giggling and talking as girlie's do - we heard some commotion outside of the awning. We heard a few twigs and things falling down on the canvas tent roof. It was a bit scary as it was very late and very dark.

We then heard an animalistic growling sort of noise and a large thump and sort of squeak. It sounded like a small animal being thrown at the roof and immediately afterwards (bare with me on this one) I thought of that episode of Blackadder the Third with Amy the female highwayman-type who hates squirrels and shoots one out of a tree and it squeaks as it falls. I even joked and said to my friend 'that sounded like a squirrel hitting the roof'. When I looked outside I saw someone/something standing up a tree with its arms above its head. It was a very dark, very broad with a humanoid shape and I could just see one continual colour of darkness ie: couldn’t see clothing, no visible eyes or facial features etc, just the outline of a broad shouldered human shaped thing up a tree. I am short sighted though so would not have been able to see detail like hair. I just remember it being very dark in colour and it emitted a sort of guttural sound that sounded like 'wer' (to rhyme with 'her').

There were other people camping in the field and it could have been someone maybe playing a joke but it really didn't look like a 'normal person' to me. I was terrified and immediately stuck my head back into the awning. When I eventually grabbed my glasses so that I could have a proper look, it was gone. I didn't hear it get down and go.

For me to be able to see it without my glasses must have meant it was pretty big and relatively near, but distance is not my forte I am afraid! My friend asked what it was but this is where my memory fails me (which is unusual for me) as I cannot remember whether she looked too or relied on my description. I think we just both went to sleep thinking we were dreaming but when we woke we both remembered it.

We do still talk about it from time to time and she says often “do you remember when that funny thing threw a squirrel at the roof at my mum's.  Its something i thought about often as the years have gone on, and to be honest until i saw your site i didn't realise other people had seen them too.  I just wish i had gotten a better look at its face, but maybe to a young girl it was a blessing in disguise that i couldn't.....

Area check: on doing an area check i realised that although this was a pub it wasn't your usual local, set on a country road, with many over grown hedge rows, fields and woods behind, it was quite an empty area and could easily be used moving between the coast and the South Downs National Park.  There are also four audio account of howls growls and screams in the area also.