There are many so-called areas of high strangeness across the globe, from The Bermuda Triangle to Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The term ‘high strangeness’ was coined by Dr. J. Allen Hynek in 1972 and means ‘a high number of strange events in conjunction with UFO sightings.’ Almost inevitably, the mind thinks of famous cases from the States and rarely thinks of a small area in Staffordshire, England. And yet Cannock Chase has gained notoriety in recent years for being one of the strangest places in the UK. So we hopped in Nessie to go and check it out for ourselves.

Cannock Chase is located 20 miles north of Birmingham and is the smallest Area of Natural Beauty in mainland Britain, only covering 26 square miles. It is made up of forests and heathlands and is a popular destination for cyclists and walkers. The Chase, as it is known by locals, is laced with history dating back to the Iron Age when it is believed that the local tribe, the Cornovii, built a hill fort now called Castle Ring. Then in 1086, William the Conqueror declared it a Royal Hunting Forest. In 1290, part of the forest became a chase for the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, a chase being an area of private land used for hunting. Fast forward to the 1850s, and coal mining was becoming a developing industry, and by the 1900s, millions of tons of coal were being mined. During the First World War, up to 500,000 men trained in camps across the Chase and it was also briefly home to J.R.R. Tolkien. RAF Hednesford was opened in 1939, and thousands of people passed through it until it closed in 1956.

However, Cannock Chase doesn’t just have a fascinating history; it has a reputation for being an unsettling place and home to everything from werewolves and ghosts to wild men and the infamous Black Eyed Kids. Let’s start with arguably the creepiest tale from The Chase, the legend of The Pigman. The Pigman is, (no prizes for guessing,) a half man, half pig hybrid that is claimed to have been spotted across Cannock Chase since the 1940s; however, finding evidence of this claim is proving difficult. A simple Google search will bring up several online news outlets peddling stories about groups of missing scouts getting attacked or people seeing 7-10 ft tall Pigmen prowling the woods. The facts of these cases are hard to nail down, and the description of the Pigman varies from story to story. Sometimes it wears clothes, sometimes it’s covered in thick hair, sometimes it’s a failed military experiment, and other times it’s the abandoned child of a local witch. Regardless, the Pigman is an interesting piece of modern folklore that provokes a horrifying image of a disfigured beast stalking the woods of The Chase.

The next legend is one of Cannock Chase’s most well known residents, The Black Eyed Kids. The story goes that the area is haunted by a child or children, that are often hitchiking or on doorsteps and stop you asking for help. When you pay attention to the child you’ll notice that the clothes appear outdated, their skin is pale and that their eyes are distubingly completely black. Those poor folk that help the BEK are apparently never seen again. Which does make me wonder, how would people know if someone has helped a BEK if that person was never seen again? Perhaps the BEK leave a little ghostly business card as a sign that they had been there. Regardless of the logic, the story of the BEK’s is a modern classic. The BEK’s have been labelled as ghosts, hoaxes and the ever popular explaination of demons. Speaking of ghosts, the BEK’s have been attributed as a child who was murdered in the 1960’s or as children who died of a Dyptheria outbreak in the 1800’s. Whatever the truth, social media and pop culuture have elevated the legend of the Black Eyed Kids into infamy.

But strange things aren’t just happening on the ground. Cannock Chase is reportedly a hotspot for UFOs and lights in the skies have been reported for decades. In March 1993 the Wolverhampton Express and Star wrote an article on how police are looking into reports of a ‘Shining oval object more than 450 feet long in the sky‘. This object was seen by five people and RAF Shawbury stated that no aircraft were in the area and that nothing showed on radar.

In 1964 a UFO is speculated to have crashed near Penkridge, which is just outside Cannock Chase. The wreckage apparently contained three occupants and was later whisked away by NATO forces. Nick Redfern provides an eyewitness testimony in his book ‘Cosmic Crashes: The Incredible Story of the UFOs That Fell to Earth‘. The witness in question claims that he was stopped by roadblocks manned by the army and police and forced to turn away from the area, but later went back on foot to take photos. His camera was later confiscated and the film removed, leaving it difficult to corroborate the story. In 2023 a freedom of information request was submitted to the Ministry of Defense about the incident, but no additional information was released.

We went to Cannock Chase for a weekend in Nessie to see the sights and maybe spot some strangeness.After parking up at Tackeroo campsite ,a wonderful site surrounded by beautiful forest and lovely walking trails, we immersed ourselves in cycling around and exploring. But did we see and ghastly beasties or strange lights? In short, no.

We saw no Pigman (thank God) and disappointingly we saw no strange lights in the sky. In fact, one long-time local we spoke to was adamant that the whole thing was an outright hoax. However, what we did see was plenty of wildlife and beautiful scenery. We visited Castle Ring and stood where people lived hundreds of years ago. Cannock Chase may be one of the strangest places in the UK, or it may simply be a lovely place to be surrounded by nature. Whatever you believe, I highly recommend giving Cannock Chase a visit.

As always, if you’ve seen anything strange at The Chase or anywhere else then please reach out to us here.