A Radical Decision

I have come to what some might consider a radical decision! As you may know, I have so many blogs right now that it's sometimes hard to keep track of what's going on and where. So, I am bringing all my current blogs to a halt. I'm not deleting them. But, I am folding them as of today. In their place, I have set up a new blog titled Nick Redfern's Fortean World. Yeah, I know: it's hardly the most original or imaginative title, but it is accurate and to the point! So, from now on, while all my existing blogs will remain archived, here's the address for the new blog, Nick Redfern's Fortean World. As you'll see, the design and style has not been completed yet, and there's no content yet either. But, bear with me, and over the next few days you'll see it start to develop its life and character!

Posts: Where Are They?

A few people have asked me why no new posts lately? Well, the answer is simple: the photos I have readily available and that could be considered weird have now all been posted! But, I do have 1000s more boxed-up. As soon as I have time to get them out of the boxes (not an easy task when they are stacked high and not easily accessible!), I'll go through them all and then start posting again - probably in a week or two...

Car Curiosities

Taken in California: Not exactly something you see every day...

A Paranormal Road

It may look like any stretch of road in the English countryside. But...I assure you it isn't.

This particular road links the Staffordshire, England towns of Hednesford and Rugeley, and cuts right through the heart of the Cannock Chase - a locale I have written about on many occasions and which is an absolute hotbed of high-strangeness.

But, there's something about this specific part of the road that is particularly intriguing.

You'll see the bus-stop on the right of the picture.

It's right around here - where there is a downhill turning to the left which leads to the tiny old hamlet of Slitting Mill - that there has been a deep concentration of weirdness for years.

In 1972, a man named Nigel Lea saw a definitive ghostly black dog right here.

Three years later, a family encountered on the road what they described as a number of "hairy trolls."

And, in 1995, a woman named Jackie Houghton witnessed a large, shambling Bigfoot-type beast make its way across the road at the very place where I took the accompanying photo.

Although the Cannock Chase is undeniably weird - period - there are several "hot-spots" on the Chase, such as this one, which stand out and practically scream "Window Area" or "Portal"...

Taking the Heat

Well, after a week and a half of pneumonia, feeling like hell, dropping 7 pounds, and looking as pale as a ghost, I'm up and running again - which means, of course, more photos from my collection, which varies from the intriguing to the absurd!

I'm not sure where, exactly, this picture fits in. But, what the hell.


This is what happens when you live near Dallas, Texas at the height of the summer: The squirrels will either collapse on your front lawn, or hide under your car to escape the heat. Or, in the case of this photo taken at our house, both!!

Puerto Rico's Supernatural Hound

This particular photo was taken by me back in 2005, when I was racing around the island of Puerto Rico with Paul Kimball, and his Red Star Films crew, in search of the blood-sucking nightmare known as the Chupacabra.

It shows the scene from my hotel-room window, and as you'll note, where the waves are hitting the rocks, you can see a large, jagged piece of rock standing up like Nessie's neck.

Well, no it's not the neck of some ancient serpent of the water!

But, it does have a notable legend attached to it that is widely known on the island.

So the tale goes, centuries ago a fisherman headed out to sea at that very point and never returned.


The man’s faithful hound, however, waited patiently at the shore for his master to come home, but it was never to be.

Such was the dog’s devotion, his long and lonely years-long vigil resulted in the animal being turned into a solid block of stone, forever thereafter resigned to a lonely vigil in the waters...

Folklore? Of course! But, engaging folklore, nevertheless...

Crop Circles: Large and Small

Back in the 1990s, I spent a lot of time running around England in search of Crop Circles - chiefly in the circle-saturated county of Wiltshire, but sometimes elsewhere too.

One of the things that interests me is the perception that many people have of Crop Circles - namely, that they are huge, sprawling designs of intricate design. Well, yes, some of them are.

But, not all of them.

While the photo above shows a huge formation - taken by me at ground-level in the summer of 1997 - with Wiltshire's famous Silbury Hill in the background, the one below shows a very small Crop Circle, which I captured for posterity in a field in Staffordshire, England in the summer of 1999.


In this latter case, the "formation" (if you can call it that!) was brought to my attention by a local newspaper, after the farmer who owned the land stumbled across the intriguing little circle - which was no more than a few feet across.

A natural event? A Crop Circle of "Mini Me" proportions?

Whatever the answer, it raises a thought-provoking question: How many similar circles of the small kind are overlooked each year, simply due to the fact that - for the most part - they are almost impossible to see, unless you happen to have reason to be in the relevant field where it sits?

Perhaps, in a classic "not seeing the woods for the trees" scenario, the number of Crop Circles that manifest, appear or are made in England each and every year is far greater than we suspect.

But, while focusing on the huge formations that certainly make for spectacular photographs and that reel in the media and the tourists, we are missing the equally intriguing, but far smaller, ones...