The Great Devon Mystery
Take a stroll along The Valley of the Littleham Brook where in 1855 something very strange indeed took place ...
Please make sure the final cache is WELL HIDDEN as this can be a busy area.
On the night of the 8th of February 1855, heavy snowfall blanketed the countryside and sleepy hamlets of Devon. The last snow is thought to have fallen around midnight and between this time and dawn the following morning, something left a myriad of tracks in the snow, stretching for forty miles or more and soon garnered national notoriety.
The early risers were the first to find them, strange hoof-shaped prints in straight lines, in gardens and across fields, jumping over streams and brooks, passing over rooftops, through walls and covering huge areas of land. A set of the prints were even supposed to have jumped over the river Exe, continuing on the other side as if the creature had walked over the water.
It soon became clear that the phenomenon was widespread and some of the more scientifically minded examined the prints in detail. One naturalist sketched some of the marks and measured them, they were about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide, spaced 8 - 16 inches apart. It was also noted that the way in which they were set out, one in front of the other, suggested a biped rather than a creature walking on four legs.
It seems that most of the South Eastern villages of Devon, from Totnes to Topsham, had been inundated with the prints in many unusual places, they were found on rooftops, along the tops of narrow walls. Some ended abruptly and continued after a large break, others stopped at walls as high as 14 feet, only to continue on the other side leaving untouched snow on the top of the wall. Some clergymen suggested that the prints belonged to the Devil, who was roaming the countryside in search of sinners. At Littleham Church, the footprints went right up to the vestibule door ... before turning away and continuing on their curious journey.
The mysterious tracks have never been adequately explained. According to contemporary reports, they stretched for up to a hundred miles. The extent of the footprints may have been exaggerated at the time, and they may have been the result of freak atmospheric conditions or it was even suggested, an experimental balloon which had broken free from it's moorings at Devonport Dockyard and dragged it's shackles, but in truth the 'footprints', if that is what they were, still remain a complete mystery to this day.