Talk at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds – report

I had a successful talk in the spectacular 12th-century building that is Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in February 2025. I got a lift from Bury Station to our accommodation from a local big cat witness who’s a taxi driver. Once again, the talk was almost sold out.

The audience included an old friend from way back when who lived locally and who kindly drove me around on big cat investigations back in 2015 before I could drive. Her husband, who was an adviser on Mystery Animals of Suffolk on whether “carp the size of pigs” were possible, also showed up. (Carp the size of pigs were reported in a now vanished 18th-century pond in Middleton, Suffolk. While not possible in 18th-century England, global warming means they’re now not far off as a feasible thing.)

I had brought along – I thought rather optimisticly – ten copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk to sell. To my surprise I sold the lot. I also took testimony from audience members who had experienced big cat encounters. One had seen a black panther-like cat with a long tail that curled up, crossing the road on the southern approaches to Mendlesham back in 2017, along with their mother who was also in the audience.

The same witness described another strange experience involving phantom East of England hellhound Black Shuck, “many years ago” when they were in their early teens. It was during the peak of a time in which she had a premonition of murder, then she heard banging on the back door of the family home and swearing – it was her brother screaming to be let in. He said he had been chased to the back door by a “huge black dog” which then stood their growling at him and then “gradually vanished away.” For more unsolicited reports of Shuck see “My dad saw Shuck in the Seventies.”

I’m also now following up on a report of a big cat encounter by another audience member in Horringer, near Bury.

My talk co-incided with the Museum’s exhibition on Superstition so it included some creatures of Suffolk folklore – wildmen, evil freshwater mermaids, Shuck and the fairies. (These are all covered in detail in Mystery Animals of Suffolk.)

I unveiled at the talk my most recent map of sightings of big cats, received between July 2024 and February 2025. Also on show was my updated analysis of Suffolk big cat sightings by probably species. I showed some rather stomach-churning recently received photos of Suffolk big cat kills too.

For future events see here. Sign up to the mailing list including future events via the homepage, scroll down. 

The 12th-century stone wall of Moyse’s Hall wasn’t very adhesive! My map of big cat sightings in Suffolk fell of it soon after this photo was taken.

 

Thanks to Jane Inglesfield for the photos.

Talk on The Mystery Animals of Suffolk at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury, 21 02 25

I am presenting a talk on “The Mystery Animals of Suffolk” at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, on Friday 21 February 2025. Kick-off is at 6.30.

For details and to book a ticket see the Moyse’s Hall website.

The talk will briefly take in some of Suffolk’s fantastic animals of ancient folklore – wildmen, the fairies of Stowmarket, Black Shuck, evil freshwater mermaids (including some around Bury) before examining in more detail some far more plausible and recent mystery animals of Suffolk – big cats!

There have been quite a few sightings of these in the area around Bury, so there will be a hyper-local look at recent Suffolk big cat sightings.

As ever, signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale after the talk.

I’ll be in the Bury area from 20-24 February if you want to arrange to meet to show me any locations for big cat sightings round there.

Reconstruction of one of many sightings of “the Haverhill puma” around the Steeple Bumpstead Roundabout  on the edge of the Suffolk town of Haverhill in 2010s

The big cats of Suffolk – talk at Dunwich Museum, Saturday 20 July 2024

I am giving a talk on “the big cats of Suffolk” at Dunwich Museum on Saturday  20 July at 6.30. This will include some hyper-local big cat reports from the immediate area and an update since the publication of Mystery Animals of Suffolk.

Entry is by donation, the Museum recommend a donation of around £10. Drinks and nibbles will be served. It should be over around 8pm.

The talk’s in the Reading Room, directly behind the Museum in St James’s Street. For news of future talks on the big cats of Suffolk, join the mailing list – scroll down the the form at the bottom of the home page.

There’s now a short report on the talk here.

Woodwoses and wildmen in Butley 24 April, big cats in Dunwich 20 June

I have a talk on The Woodwoses and Wildmen of Suffolk for Orford Museum on Wednesday 24 April 2024, it’s at Butley Priory (nearest station Wickham Market), starting at 6.15pm, finishing at 7.15.

Book tickets in advance – £18 for non-members of Orford Museum via the Museum’s online booking system.

Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale at a discount.

More details are here.

This talk replaces the  talk on the big cats of Suffolk previously advertised at the same venue on the same date.

There is a completely different talk on the big cats of Suffolk on Saturday 20 June 2024 at 6pm at Dunwich Museum, St James’s Street, Dunwich, Suffolk (nearest station Darsham, a 45-minute bike ride).

Admission is by donation. There’s no need to book, but  let the Museum know if you plan to come via events@dunwichmuseum.org.uk so they know how many people are coming. Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be on sale at a discount at this talk too. Details will be on the Dunwich Museum website shortly.

 

Reportages en observations des felins dans la compe de Suffolk, 1974-2022

That’s “Reports and sightings of big cats in the county of Suffolk, 1974-2022” in English.French doesn’t really have a concept of “big cats” as they are understood in English, so it’s just felins (felines).

That’s the title of my talk at the Rencontres Europeennes de Cryptozooligie (European Meeting on Cryptozoology) in Dinant, Belgium on 5 November 2023. I had to send my PowerPoint slides to the organisers way back in September for the translation team to look at, as there will be simultaneous translation into French.

This year the talks are in a combination of French and English, at a previous meeting I went to it was nearly all in French. Back in 2017 I gave a talk at the event in French, on Les elephants nain (pygmy elephants) – I was pleased not to have to do it in French again!

Dinant is best known as the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (there’s a statue of Sax sitting on a bench near where his house was). It’s also known by Belgians as the scene of a terrible massacre at the start of World War One.

My report on the conference appeared in Fortean Times, see here.

Local event to launch Mystery Animals of Suffolk, Dunwich, Sunday 22 October 2023

There is a local event to launch the recently published book Mystery Animals of Suffolk – including an account of over 150 mystery big cat sightings by Dunwich resident Matt Salusbury

On Sunday 22 October, 2pm-4.30 pm (last admission) at The Reading Room, St James’s Street, Dunwich, Suffolk IP17 3DT (behind Dunwich Museum).

Drinks and nibbles served. Meet the author. His large map showing big cat sightings across Suffolk will be on display.

Signed copies of Mystery Animals of Suffolk will be available to buy at a discount on the day. (Dunwich Museum nextdoor is open until 4.30 on that day, one of the last chances to visit it before it closes down for the winter at the end of October.)

Big cat witnesses and sceptics welcome! (Testimony of Suffolk Shuck sightings in the 1970s also accepted.)

 This is a hyper-local “soft launch”. A bigger event in Ipswich – accessible by public transport – is expected in early 2024. For further details get on the mailing list mysteryanimalsofsuffolk@gn.apc.org.