Hull, Yorkshire 1800s… and maybe 2016?!

“It was stood upright one moment. The next it was down on all fours running like a dog. I was terrified.”

Our first werewolf has appeared in the Northern Folklore Archive… from Hull of all places! With the North Sea salt carrying through the mist onto the streets of Hull, one would expect a smell. But not a rank, musky odour… One that strikes fear into those smelling it… Thus born the Old Stinker. What began as a stench, slowly began forming into something more tangible, and something more terrifying. A werewolf terrorising the townsfolk, a northern Cryptid with sharp claws and dark fur!

The tale of Old Stinker began in the 1800s, during the peak of the industrial era of Hull. The port would have been a hive of activity, a mix of wealthy merchants and poverty-stricken dockworkers alike. In these times, it was a regular occurrence to have animal carcasses shipped into Hull for various different industries, one might imagine this having an influence on developing tales of large creatures roaming around at night… Not to mention the ghastly aforementioned scent they would have been victim to.

Reported sightings, which began in the 1800s, state that the beast is eight foot in height and has a ‘very human face’. It boasts the common appearance of glowing red eyes and a bushy tail. The creature has many different names, Old Stinker being the oldest but also has gone by the Beast of Barmston Drain and the Werewolf of Flixton. One report from the 1800s comes from the driver of a stagecoach, traveling along the York Road near Flixton. He claimed a ‘wolf-like monster’ suddenly ambushed his vehicle, with the passengers all firing shots to fend it off.

Whilst this creature has been Hull gossip since the 19th Century, the lil guy has actually had somewhat of a resurgence in popularity with sightings being reported in 2016! I associate the 2010s with iPhones and YouTube, not particularly with werewolf sightings, but the people of Hull were adamant they spotted him, with accounts like:

“It was stood upright one moment. The next it was down on all fours running like a dog. I was terrified.”

“It bounded along on all fours, then stopped and reared up on its back legs, before running down the embankment towards the water.”

"I was asked to research a werewolf sighting by a couple who had seen something that was tall and hairy, and was eating a German Shepherd dog by the side of the drain. They stopped to get a closer look and witnessed it jump 8ft over a fence, vanishing into the night, still carrying its prey."

Werewolves have been prevalent historically in British myths, but less so nowadays. Not many people realise that werewolf trials ran alongside witchcraft trials to try and seek out those who may or may not transform at the sight of the moon. Many, mostly in 17th-century France, have been executed for desiring the taste of human flesh - of which people instantly believed them to be werewolves, because that’s easier than believing humans are capable of cannibalism. Have you ever smelled something… wrong… at the docks of Hull?