Allendale, Northumberland 1904

“A visitor to the village during the annual folk festival will be in for an unusual sight: the burning of the Allendale wolf. Every year, people flock to the marketplace to watch the burning of a huge wooden wolf effigy at the Allen Valleys Folk Festival.” - Gayle Fidler

In a rural village, near the market town of Hexham, Northumberland, Allendale is surrounded by vast areas of moorland. And what comes with moorland? Folklore, of course! But what is that strange burning smell? And what is that blazing light from the town centre? Ah, of course, the villagers are burning a huge effigy of a wolf for the Allen Valleys Folk Festival.

So, why? The events of the the winter of 1904 are the reason for this wolf-burning tradition. Reports of a vicious beast were circulating in the village as livestock kept being found dead on the moors. Wolves had supposedly been extinct in England since the 14th Century, so why suddenly was one seemingly tormenting Allendale?

The murder of livestock was not ceasing, and so farmers took to posting guards on their farms and bringing their sheep inside each night for fear of this beast. This ‘wolf’ creature had several eyewitnesses, and up to 40 sheep were taken in its terrifying reign. Howls were heard behind schools, lanterns littered the streets to try and keep Allendale visible, newspapers took to interviewing villagers who claimed to have seen this evil monster.

Fears ran about the quantity of wolves parading Allendale, as several of the eye witness reports claim to have seen different colours of fur, indicating it could have been a pack of hungry beasts rather than one. This was the catalyst for the formation of the Hexham Wolf Committee, a group of likeminded folk wanting to put an end to the terror.

A local MP offered a reward for anyone brave enough to slay the beast (or beasts!). A sweet £5 could be yours, if you had the gall to face a blood-hungry wolf that had already killed off 40 sheep. All the game hunters descended upon Allendale, hoping to be a part of something huge. A famous prized bloodhound called Monarch was also somehow wrangled into the mix (I’m guessing without his consent).

Evidence of a wolf den was found during the search, but no wolf. The search parties grew in popularity, and it became more of an excuse to socialise than actually hunt any wolves. People turned up in fancy dress, sang frivolous songs whilst walking the moorlands, and of course this turned up no wolf.

As tensions rose, the villagers began talking about who this ‘wolf’ might be. Could it be that this wolf was not wild? Rumours began, formed by the exhausted villagers, that the wolf could have been owned by Captain Bain from Shotley Bridge in County Durham, as part of his exotic private collection of animals.

Captain Bain was having none of it, his wolf was a small and harmless little thing, there’s no way it was escaping to go and kill numerous sheep (although, weirdly, Captain Bain later changed his story for a local newspaper, stating that his missing wolf was ‘much larger’ and ‘more dangerous’ than first described).

The reign of terror came to an abrupt stop when a large creature was found near a railway line at Cumwinton, near Carlisle. Upon investigation, it was a male grey wolf that had been struck by a passing train. The livestock killings then promptly ended in 1905, but it was never determined whether the beast was Captain Bain’s, a wild wolf, or the wolf that had been struck by the train.

The train-struck wolf was found in two halves, and the workers decided to bury it. Until, that is, the village realised it could be a good little money-maker for those interested in oddities and mysteries. They exhumed the body, stitched the skin back together, and the remains of the creature were the subject of, at the very least, one postcard.

The burning of the wolf in Allendale’s square as part of the Allen Valleys Folk Festival has become a new tradition, sprung from the tale of the Allendale Wolf. There’s nothing like a historical livestock tragedy to bring a community together!