Mawnan is a village in southern Cornwall, UK. During the 1976 Easter weekend, two young women, saw a âhuge great thing with feathers, like a big man with flapping wingsâ, hovering over the church tower at Mawnan. The woman were so frightened that their family holiday was cut short by three days.
In another sighting, two people saw it standing in a large tree, near the Mawnan church. At first the witnesses thought someone was playing a trick on them by being dressed in a costume. But as they observed the creature, it flew up into the air, and away from the area. After it flew away, there was a crackling or static noise heard in the trees for some time.
In a 1996 sighting a woman reported seeing a strange glob of glowing light floating over the church. She watched as the light faded away, only to be replaced by another one a short distance away. The color of the lights was orange-red.
In 2003 two teenage girls were out after midnight driving in a vehicle, when they wanted to listen to some music. They wanted to have the music playing loudly, so not wanting to disturb local neighbors, they drove to the Mawnan church which is isolated and empty at night. After they were at the church for a few minutes the girls observed a glowing or pulsating blog of colored light hovering over the church, after awhile it vanished and the girls returned home.
In September of 2009 a 12 year old girl named Jessica Wilkins or Jessica Wilkinson encountered the Owlman of Mawnan. This is the first sighting that I have heard of in several years and only the second this century.
The creature has been described as a monstrous thing resembling a mix of 3 beings; an owl, a bear, and a man. The creatures height is estimated as 7 feet tall. It has large flapping wings that are covered with grayish-brown feathers. The legs and body are also covered with feathers.
The eyes are large, slanted and glow bright red. On top of itâs head are pointy ears, itâs feet have large, black crab-like claws.
The History of the Owlman
A letter written by Tony âDocâ Shiels - April 1976: âA very weird thing happened over the Easter weekend. A holiday-maker from Preston, Lancs., told me about something his two young daughters had seen ⊠a big, feathered bird-man hovering over the church tower at Mawnan (a village near the mouth of the Helford River). The girls (June 12, and Vicky, daughters of Mr Don Melling), were so scared that the family cut their holiday short and went back three days early. This really is a fantastic thing, and I am sure the man wasnât just making it up because heâd been told I was on a monster hunt. I couldnât get the kids to talk about it (in fact, their father wouldnât even let me try), but he gave me a sketch of the thing drawn by June.
âThere have been no reports, so far as I know, of anybody else seeing the Bird-Man ⊠even if it turned out to be just a fancy dress hang-glider, youâd think someone else would have spotted him ⊠but Mawnan is not a place for hang-gliding! I really donât know what to think ⊠itâs as if a whole load of weirdness has been let loose in the Falmouth area since last autumn!â
For a period between the late autumn of 1975 and the early spring of 1977 it seems that Southern Cornwall was seized by a period of collective madness. Much of this is chronicled in some depth in the book The Owlman and Others.
There were dramatic extremes in the weather - droughts and floods - heatwaves and frozen wastes. The local animal life went (figuratively and literally) crazy; one unfortunate woman was imprisoned in her house by hordes of attacking birds which literally beat themselves to death against the walls of her house, which was dripping red with their blood. Another woman was similarly imprisoned by a mob of feral cats, dog attacks trebled, swimmers were attacked by dolphins (who also saved other swimmers from drowning), and there were reports that cattle belonging to local farmers had developed the power of teleportation. Most interesting to the fortean were the burgeoning numbers of UFO sightings and the reports of three entirely different sets of mystery animal in the region; Morgawr (the Cornish Sea Serpent), the Cornish mystery big cats and the Owlman of Mawnan.
The first reports of these âcreaturesâ in print were in an obscure booklet entitled Morgawr-the monster of Falmouth Bay by Anthony Mawnan-Peller. He gave a brief description of the events of Easter Saturday: âDuring the Easter weekend, the two young daughters of a holidaymaker ⊠Mr. Don Melling, from Preston, Lancashire ⊠saw a âhuge great thing with feathers, like a big man with flapping wingsâ, hovering over the church tower at Mawnan (on âMorgawrâs Mileâ). The girls ⊠Vicky, 9, and June, 12 ⊠were so frightened that the family holiday was cut short by three daysâ.
Although not widely read outside Cornwall, this booklet was available extensively throughout the county and was read by many people including two young girls of fourteen, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, who in early July 1976 were camping in the woods by Mawnan Old Church when they, too, saw the Owlman.
They met Tony on Grebe Beach, below Mawnan Old Church the day after their sighting. Sally, who was from Plymouth, had been staying with her friend Barbara, (who would only admit that she lived âquite near the riverâ). Sally approached Tony and said: âAre you Doc Shiels? Weâve seen the bird monster.â
Sally described what they had seen: âIt was like a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first, I thought that it was someone dressed up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it, we both did, then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up you could see its feet were like pincersâ
Her friend added some details of her own: âItâs true. It was horrible, a nasty owl-face with big ears and big red eyes. It was covered in grey feathers. The claws on its feet were black. It just flew up and disappeared in the treesâ.
Although as Tony admitted at the time, it is possible that the two young ladies were trying to hoax him, he is convinced that they were genuine.
He separated the two girls and had each of them draw a picture of what she had seen. The two pictures are dissimilar enough to rebuff suggestions of collusion but have enough points in common, both with each other, and with the other accounts of the âcreatureâ to be considered as a significant piece of evidence.
Both girls made brief additional notes underneath their pictures. Sallyâs read: âI saw this monster bird last night. It stood like a man and then it flew up through the trees. It is as big as a man. Its eyes are red and shine brightlyâ.
And Barbara wrote: âBirdman monster. seen on third of July, quite late at night but not quite dark. Red Eyes. Black Mouth. It was very big with great big wings and black claws. Feathers grey.â
The two girls agreed on most points with their pictures although Sally thought Barbara had âdone the wings wrongâ. At the same time as Sally and Barbara were talking to âDocâ on Grebe Beach, two other girls also saw what Tony refers to as âhis Owlinessâ:
âIt has red slanting eyes and a very large mouth. The feathers are silvery grey and so are his body and legs, the feet are like a big, black, crabâs claws. We were frightened at the time. It was so strange, like something out of a horror film. After the thing went up, there were crackling sounds in the tree-tops for ages. Our mother thinks we made it all up just because we read about these things, but that is not true. we really saw the bird-man, though it could have been someone playing a trick in a very good costume and make up. But how could it rise up like that? If we imagined it, then we both imagined it at the same timeâ.
Two years later, a young lady called âMiss Opieâ saw âA monster, like a devil, flying up through the trees near old Mawnan Churchâ. A few days later Tony Shiels wrote to Janet and Colin Bord of the Fortean Picture Library: âThe owlman is certainly back in business, it seems. I poked around his area, around Old Mawnan Church, a couple of days ago, and the atmosphere was positively crackling with âodd presencesâ, if you know what I mean.
As soon as anything really exciting happens, Iâll let you know. It would be terrific if I really could get a picture of our feathered friend, but, he only seems to pop up for young girls ⊠and I ainât one!â
The Owlman, as it was now generally known, (it appears that Tony coined the name in late 1976), was seen again on the 2nd August by three young, unnamed French girls. The landlady of the boarding house in which they had been staying told Tony that the three girls had been frightened by something âvery big, like a big, furry bird with a gaping mouth and round eyesâ This was all that the landlady could tell him, so Tony left a message for the girls to contact him, but as always seems to be the case he never heard anything further. Many commentators on the case have questioned Tonyâs role in the affair. One investigator, Mark Chorvinsky of Strange magazine even claimed that because so many of the sightings were connected with him, that Tony had made the whole thing up. Such people do not understand the reticence of the Cornish people. They do not like to talk to outsiders, and I am convinced that if it had not been for Tonyâs presence in the area as a trusted âlocalâ the affair would never have been made public. The case of the French girls for example. Tony wrote to me in 1995 explainiing how he had become involved: âThe French girls were students (at Camborne Tech - now known as Cornwall College), lodging in Redruth. I think they were on some sort of âsummer schoolâ course. Their landlady âphoned me about this sighting. Remember, at the time, I was getting quite a lot of media coverage. People reported weird **** to meâ⊠Two years later the creature re-appeared when, âan enormous, bird-like creatureâ was seen flying âover the Helford River and into the trees near Grebe Beachâ.
At Halloweâen 1986 Tony was at the centre of a media storm when the Bishop of Truro, and the local newspapers accused him of having committed unspeakable acts of blasphemy inside Mawnan Old Church whilst attempting to invoke the Owlman. The affair was somewhat of a âfive minute wonderâ in the press and the actual sequence of events remains obscure. Ten years or so later Tony told me: âI did a few bits and pieces inside the Church ⊠There was a lot of misreporting that I was throwing out challenges to God, and saying Iâd smack him in the gob. I donât think God has a gob, and I wouldnât do that anyway to the deity. Heâd give me a harder smack back wouldnât he?â Eventually - more by luck than by judgement - I pieced together the true story.
He had indeed visited the church with a local radio team, but the âhuge crowd of peopleâ turned out to be ONE rather shy bloke called âDaveâ. He told me that there was no blasphemy, no swearing, no naked witches and no cigars, and that the wizard had entered the church, muttered a few things under his breath in a foreign language and then left again. It turns out that the radio team had approached my friend and asked him what he had planned to do to celebrate Halloweâen. He said: âBuy me a drink and Iâll show you.â
This the radio people did, only to find that like many wizards, my friend has a legendary capacity for the stuff. Finding at the end of the evening that they had nothing to show for their severely depleted expense accounts, I have a sneaking suspicion that someone decided that it would be a good idea to concoct a bizarre tale of blasphemy and psychic mayhem.
In 1989 a young man called âGavinâ and his girlfriend âSallyâ (not their real names), encountered the Mawnan Owlman. This was perhaps the most important sighting to date from a cryptoinvestigative point of view, because it is the only sighting that cannot in any way be linked to Tony âDocâ Shiels. I have interviewed âGavinâ on a number of occasions and am convinced of his veracity. This is his story in his own words:
âWe had a torch and I was shining its beam across trunks about fifteen feet off the ground. I am fairly sure that the animal was standing in a large conifer tree and the illustration we made after the sighting (but not til we got home actually) does depict the animal in a conifer tree, but Iâm not that sure now. Here is the actual sighting as written down in my diary:
âEvery couple of hours we would walk along the fringe of the wood. This was the third time that evening and it was beginning to get dark. From a distance trees looked black but closer up the branches and trunks could be seen. We saw the animal at about 9.30Â pm. It was standing on a thick branch with its wings sort of held up at the arms. Iâd say that it was about five feet tall (but please read on). The legs had high ankles and the feet were large and black with two huge âtoesâ on the visible side. The creature was grey with brown and the eyes definitely glowed. On seeing us its head jerked down and forwards, its wings lifted and it just jumped backwards. As it did its legs folded up. We ran away.
âWe had a pretty good idea what it looked like. We didnât know what to do about it, and essentially vowed never to tell anyone. I last saw Sally about two years ago and talked about it then. She was as unkeen to share the information then as she was earlier, and I promised I wouldnât tell anyone about her involvement, but I could âdo what I likedâ with my interpretation. I respect this and have never disclosed any information about herâ.
To date the most recent sighting of the Mawnan Owlman, took place, allegedly, at the end of the summer of 1995 and is chronicled in a letter sent to Simon Parker, the night editor of the Western Morning News in Truro. It reads:
âDear Sir, I am a student of marine biology at the Field Museum, Chicago, on the last day of a summer vacation in England. Last Sunday evening I had a most unique and frightening experience in the wooded area near the old church at Mawnan, Cornwall. I experienced what I can only describe as âa vision from hellâ. The time was fifteen minutes after nine, more or less, and I was walking along a narrow track through the trees. I was halted in my tracks when, about thirty metres ahead, I saw a monstrous man-bird âthingâ. It was the size of a man, with a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes and pointed ears. It had huge clawed wings, and was covered in feathers of silver/grey color. (sic). The thing had long bird legs which terminated in large black claws. It saw me and arose, âfloatingâ towards me. I just screamed then turned and ran for my life.
âThe whole experience was totally irrational and dreamlike (nightmare!). Friends tell me that there is a tradition of a phantom âowlmanâ in that district. Now I know why. I have seen the phantom myself. âPlease donât publish my real name and address. This could adversely affect my career. Now I have to rethink my âworld viewâ entirely. Yours, very sincerely scared⊠âEye Witnessâ.â
We have her name and address, but we have respected her wishes and kept her anonymity. We have tried a little piece of covert investigation into this particular eyewitness but have drawn a blank whenever we tried to investigate further. I think that it would be unwise to wholeheartedly accept this account as genuine, but it is included for the sake of completion.
We are left now with what devotees of TV gameshows would no doubt call the $64,000 question. Does the Owlman exist? and if it does what is it?
I quite understand the unwillingness of researchers like Mark Chorvinsky to accept such a bizarre tale purely on the evidence presented by such a notorious figure as âDocâ Shiels. After all, by his own admission he is a âcharlatanâ and a âthimble riggerâ, and he has even told me not to âinvest belief in anythingâ especially him! (and this is a man I count as a close and dear friend). The discovery of âGavinâ and his succinct and believable eyewitness testimony provided an invaluable corroboration to the vast body of âShiels-channeledâ evidence, and has persuaded even some noted sceptics that there is something to the story after all.
Graham McEwan has suggested that such âcreaturesâ are quasi-animate thought form manifestations created by the unconscious mind of a lonely traveller. The veteran explorer and mystic Alexandra David-Neel writing in With Magicians and Mystics in Tibet (1931) tells how certain Buddhist monks can create living thought forms called tulpas. She claimed that she managed to create one of her own, the image of a fat and jolly monk who was seen on at least one occasion by an independent witness. She warns, however: âOnce the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to play the part of a real being it tends to free itself from its makers controlâ. In the case of her tulpa this happened and she described how the monk became thinner and less jolly and how slowly âhis face assumed a vaguely mocking, sly, malignant look. He became more troublesome and bold. In short he escaped my control.â
In my more frivolous moments I wonder whether Mark Chorvinksy was sort of right after all. Maybe âDocâ had made the whole thing up, perhaps after he had been reading John Keelâs classic The Mothman Prophecies (about a similar apparition in West Virginia during 1967), and had decided in a spirit of genuinely surreal mischief that it was perhaps time that Cornwall had something similar to counterpoint its very own sea monster. Perhaps this very act of creation helped form a tulpa which then got out of hand. If so then I suspect that Tony was as surprised as anyone else when other people started to report sightings of the creature.
Another theory that I have adopted at various times is linked with the sex of the witnesses. With the one exception - the young man who has asked to be identified only as âGavinâ the only people to have seen the creature have been young women. Even âGavinâ was accompanied by a young woman at the time. Could the owlman be a sort of three dimensional, feathered poltergeist? An apparition âinvokedâ by the peculiar hormonal and emotional changes which affect young women at this time?
Maybe the combination of these conditions - which as anyone who has ever shared a house with a teenage girl will know can be quite devastating, with something inate in the psychical infrastructure of the area surrounding Mawnan Old Church has a synergistic effect, producing the apparition that has become known as The Owlman of Mawnan.
As Oscar Wilde said, âthe truth is never pure and seldom simpleâ. Perhaps the real identity of the Owlman of Mawnan, and indeed other similar âcreaturesâ seen across the globe is some, all, or none of the explanations given above, or perhaps, more probably, we shall never know!
- Article By Jonathan Downes, The Centre for Fortean Zoology
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