A number of years ago now I took a report that happened in the 1970's from a lady in the North East of England. Karen was around 6 years old when she had an experience that would stay with her throughout her life. Karen was interviewed by one of our BBR Investigators Carl Linneman. Carl also visited the area where the experience happened. There are a substantial amount of reports from numerous witnesses close by. These reports were made by ordinary people living in the Consett, Stanley and Beamish areas.
Name: Karen Houghton Date / Time: Approx. 1974,
Summer time, Between 12.00 - 16.00
Investigation and area check by BBR Investigator C. Linneman Dec 2020 - Jan 2021
Witness Report: On a warm summer's day in 1974 between the time of 12.00 and 16.00 in the area called Tanfield Lea not too far from the town of Stanley County Durham, the witness Karen Houghton who was aged between the age of five and seven years old at the time witnessed what she has come to term as a monkey man who was perched up in a tree under which she and her older friends who were two older girls aged about thirteen years old were playing.
Karen remembers playing in an open area inside a wooded area of Tanfield Lea and for some reason looked up into the tree to see what has become to her a very vivid memory of what she terms as a ape-man or monkey man perch high up in the tree holding what she thought could be a knife or some other object in one of its hands, in a panic Karen pointed up into the tree to show her two friends but they were unable to see anything up there and told her so, this scared Karen and she ran from the woods in a panic and crying followed by her friends trying to catch her up and calm her down.
The two older girls insisted that there was no one up in the tree branches which only made things worse for Karen who had hoped that the two girls would say it was just a local boy playing a prank on them which they did not. "I could see him just as clearly as he could see me. He wasn't like a Bigfoot or what I'd imagine they would look like, but he wasn't like a normal human man either. I know for sure I definitely saw him that day and it frightened me to think the girls that I was with couldn't see him and that there is no explanation of who or what he was".
Karen describes the Ape-man/Monkey-man as being about man sized and around young adult age, naked with long bushy dark hair covering his body, Karen supplied a picture of what she could find to be closest to resembling the Apeman/Monkey-man that she had seen that day.
December 16th 2020 Call: Talking to Karen on the afternoon of December 16th 2020 we discussed her sighting from 1974 in a bit more detail I asked her if she could remember the actual area as Stanley covers a large area, she told me that the area was called Tanfield Lea and gave details that the wooded area was right next to a road with some shops across the road from the wooded area.
Tanfield Lea Park is about 1.7 miles from the center of Stanley.
I attempted to find the exact location of the Ape-man/Monkey-man sighting, using google maps I was able to find a wooded area close to a road and near to a number of local shops on google maps. This wooded area is called Tanfield Lea Park, it is a small wooded park which has a small open area at its rear, this could be the open area where Karen had her 1974 sighting.
Karen went on to describe the Ape-man/Monkey-man in detail from what she could remember from that day, describing it as being male and of young adult in age, and adult in size and perched up in a tree. It had long bushy dark hair covering its body and looked similar to the image provided by Karen but not quite the same, Karen did mention that she had trouble remembering the face in detail of the creature seen. Karen did mention that she was an artist and had been attempting to paint the creature that she had seen that day in hope of jogging her memory and providing some more details, when finished I hope she will pass on a copy of the picture to me.
I asked Karen if she could remember what time of day and the time of year that the sighting had taken place, she told me it was probably sometime in the summer as it was warm and around 12.00 to 16.00 in the afternoon. I asked about the item in the hand of the creature which she described as looking like a knife, she said that it could have been a stone shaped like a knife that it had in its hand. In a follow up message to Karen, she let me know that she was in touch with one of the girls that was with her that day, Karen asked her about the incident from that day but unfortunately, she had no memory of the event that day. December 29th 2020 visit to Tanfield Lea Park: On December the 29th 2020 I decided to visit Tanfield Lea Park as it is not too far from where I live, it was found very easily.
Tanfield Lea Park is quite a small wooded area as can be seen from the google maps image, there are two pathways one of which goes round the inside edge to the back of the park leading to a residential area, the path passes a small open area I believe must have been where the sighting happened in 1974. The other path leads from one side of the wood to the other side in a straight line. The park while I was had a number of dog walkers using it and must be a popular place. I took a number of photographs of the wooded area so people reading about this sighting would have some context of the area that it happened in. There were a lot of broken and felled trees in the wood and quite a few squirrels running about the wood, it takes about 10 minutes to walk slowly round to the rear of the park.
On January 3rd 2021 I sent Karen a copy of this report of the experience she had back in 1974, asking if there were any mistakes or any omissions in it as well as anything else, she felt should be added to it. Karen responded that the report of her experience was good and that the pictures evoked an emotional response in her, she particularly found the clearing photograph very interesting. Karen also attached a photograph of her painting of the Monkey-man/Ape-man to her email back to me, Karen stated that the painting was done about a year ago and that it was not finished yet, she felt there was a lot still wrong with it and will finish it at some point in the future. Karen said she felt led instinctively when she made the composition and was doing so from past memories from her 1974 incident.
C. Linneman 5/1/21
There is a report very close by to this one which happened in 2019. It was reported by a lady who lives not too far from the area. There is a short walk between Karen's report and this report of a strange set of Hairy Legs.
Witness: I live a mile from the town and I like to walk the cycle route as it’s peaceful and full of wildlife. So, this particular day I walked into town as it was a lovely sunny day. On my way back I was reluctant to walk that way but decided to go against my gut feeling and headed up the line to home. My music was quite loud through my headphones to where I couldn’t hear if anyone was behind me. There is a part of the line where I always feel uncomfortable and I tend to walk really fast through that section. As I was approaching that section of line I heard a very loud knock, I stopped in my tracks and took my headphones out, turned around and this man was behind me, he also heard this knock as he was looking around to see where this noise was coming from. I noticed there were no birds on my left only on the right side of me, so I crouched down to scan the tree line up the embankment to my left as it is all just wild bushes and trees. The guy behind me thought I was a nutter as when he passed me he shook his head
I took a few steps forward and I saw two thick hairy black legs (I knew it wasn’t human legs) standing at the top of the embankment in the tree line. I thought it was a horse so I took a few steps further and couldn’t see anything, there was nothing there for me to determine what animal this was. I backtracked a few steps and the legs were still noticeable, at this point I became uneasy and a robin flew in my path and I knew by that robin I needed to get going. I walked as fast as I could, I couldn’t say whether this thing followed me as the bushes and trees are quite dense in certain parts along the railway line. The robin was in front of me all the way along the line until I came to an open area then it flew off, and all the way along I never passed another person which is quite unusual as it was half term and parents and children are always about. I can’t categorically say what this was but it was very unnerving.
When Karen shared her report I was contacted by locals who told me of their experiences close by, one mentioned a hairy hippy that the kids would throw stones at, two reports of geocachers being shadowed out of the woods, a large dark shape at the side of a church and lots of reports of being watched or feeling a sudden foreboding. You can find those reports here.
Of course this area is central to the NE Bigfoot reports. Karen could have been playing along a central route or one of the green corridors that lead up and down the North East coast.
Come along to our new BBR Website. Find Cryptid, Creature and Unexplained Events reports from the Witnesses themselves. Keep up to date with the latest sighting reports and here interviews with witnesses.
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