Imagine a cold, dark, moonless night on the streets of old Birmingham. A lone woman walks through the city, wrapped tightly in her coat, hoping it will protect her from the biting to the bone wind. As she turns a corner, she is uncomfortably aware that someone with sinister intentions is watching her every move, standing in the shadows. Suddenly, a tall, thin figure approaches her from behind and before she can scream, a clammy, cold hand clamps around her throat. Then the demonic creature sinks its long teeth into her supple flesh and darkness engulfs the woman.
If you think this all sounds like some kind of gothic horror movie, you are wrong. This terrible scene happened on the streets of one of the largest cities in England – Birmingham. According to some residents of the city, a bloodthirsty nocturnal creature used to roam the streets, fearing no one.
However, despite all the rumours and even eyewitness accounts, there are people who claim the story is completely made up. Maybe, it was just some kind of mass hysteria caused by a mixture of old-world fears and the modern Internet age. Learn more at ibirmingham.info.
Modern Birmingham’s ghosts and monsters
Ghost, monster and alien stories are common for Birmingham and the West Midlands. In fact, there are a whole bunch of them. Birmingham has many spooky myths and legends, with Aston Hall considered one of the most haunted places in the UK, the ghost of Charles Dickens regularly appearing in Birmingham Town Hall and other ghosts regularly seen near the Jewellery Quarter’s Warstone Lane Cemetery.
However, it’s not just old horror stories that excite the imaginations of locals and tourists, there are also many modern ones. We will tell you just a few.
One of them began in 1981 and continued until 1984. Somebody damaged the windows and roofs with stones on Thornton Road. The residents reported those incidents to the police, who even set up street patrols, hoping to catch what they assumed were juvenile vandals.
The officers pitched tents in nearby gardens and set up secret video surveillance on trees to record the street. They used night-vision cameras, image intensifiers and motion sensors. In total, the police spent thousands of hours on the case, but nobody was ever caught at the scene.
The most logical explanation would be that someone used a slingshot or a homemade catapult to cause damage from a distance. Still, people rumoured of a ghost and even named it the Thornton Road Poltergeist.
Another story involved a spirit and one of Erdington’s phone boxes. A priest and a couple were waiting for an old red phone box on Station Road. It was occupied by a woman in a red or pink jumper, who was talking on the phone for a long time. Eventually, the priest lost patience and opened the door to ask how much longer he had to wait, but the woman melted into the cold night air.
Later, the story began to grow in detail. They said that the woman was wearing a dress and some even claimed that she was wearing Victorian clothing. The most persistent theory was that she was a spirit asking for help, and not for herself, but for her family.
Somehow, it became known that a ghost called emergency services to save her family, who stayed in a burning house. Moreover, people reported seeing this ghost until the mid-90s. Later, the phone box was dismantled, however, not because the city was afraid of new calls from the spirit, but in connection with the appearance and spread of mobile phones.
UFOs over the Black Country
Not only did supernatural creatures interest the residents of Birmingham and the Black Country. Locals also reported many UFOs over the years. For example, in 2010, two men saw a silent flying machine in the shape of a triangle speeding through the sky in Tipton. It was seen again over Quarry Bank in 2011, but at that time, it was chased by a second UFO.
The race was witnessed by a local resident smoking in his garden. Moreover, construction workers at the West Midlands Safari Park claimed to have seen the mysterious triangular flying machine in 2009. The legend of the Dudley Dorito spread and a similar sight was seen in York in 2012. This story has subsided in recent years and there have been almost no UFO sightings.
The Ward End Vampire
There was another scary story, which was much talked about and written about in Birmingham. It was about the Ward End Vampire, which became famous throughout Great Britain. The legend about a man walking the streets and sinking his teeth into passers-by in the Ward End area began to spread in 2005.
The vampire was said to have bitten a man who was walking down the street and then attacked neighbours who came to his aid. One woman said that he bit off a part of her hand. Local mass media were inundated with calls from people living in Saltley, Small Heath and Alum Rock. They reported alleged attacks and bites after people answered their doors to a stranger. Interestingly, those who claimed to have seen the attacker said he was black and in his 20s.
While police believed it was probably nothing more than a horror story, some residents didn’t know what was true.
West Midlands policemen were adamant that they were dealing with a fairy tale and not a bloodsucker. They were also confused by the lack of victims, as they hadn’t received any reports from people claiming to have been bitten.
Laura Lorenzini’s picture
However, the legend about the Birmingham vampire inspired the Italian artist Laura Lorenzini (Nadine), who interpreted it into a fascinating charcoal drawing called The Magic of the Moon or the Legend of the Birmingham Vampire.
It depicts the figure of a man who imagines himself a vampire, walking along the paths of Ward End Park on a full-moon night. Next to the man, a wolf howls at the moon with closed eyes and an ecstatic expression. The artist probably wanted to show that the wolf is praying to some ancient deity.
The man wants to attack the wolf in order to satisfy his hunger and continue his journey in search of people to feed on.
It is unknown why the vampire has a gloomy appearance. The Italian artist depicted him as very simply dressed. He has a hat that allows him to hide, even on the night of a full moon, which shines, bringing a penetrating energy.