British and Irish Wild Men August 9, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
There follow nineteenth-century reports of wild men from Britain and Ireland: can anyone add to the list, drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com (fiction is good too)
1851: Co Limerick (Ireland), a rumour was doing the rounds that a wild man with no clothes lived in the wood there. He had been carrying off and killing sheep, ‘which he devours ravenously in a raw state’. Some speculation that this was an escaped wild animal from Liverpool! New Exam 1 Nov 1851
1862: Hollington (Kent), ‘almost in a state of nudity’, ‘bleeding profusely’, very recently arrived and hiding in wood, very possibly mentally ill, he had come to Hollington to get married, though knew no one there! Holb Jour 26 Apr 1862.
1864: Bacup (Yorkshire), one Martin Noon, an Irish man had briefly been a ‘man of the woods’ in the area then had turned into a wanderer of moors and woods and got arrested in Hebden Bridge for stealing a rope end and two drills. He wore ‘ragged dress’. Roch Obs 11 june 1864
1864: Greta Bridge (Co Durham): About 35 he was captured by the police. He wore an old dressing gown and some rags. Muddy legs, matted hair and immense beard. He became very excited in the police cell and swung from the iron bars! He said only ‘God Bless you’ and ‘God preserve you’ (Irish?). Had long wandered and accepted food from the high farms. He refused offers of clothes though. The journalist suggests that he was ‘ a harmless lunatic who had escaped from confinement’. Tees Merc 17 Aug 1864
1868: Egerton (Kent), a Belgian, Frederick Naasch, had been wandering around the Weald and living on ‘roots, berries and offal’. He was ‘clothed in rags’ (a homemade coat of rags sewn together sometime to the thickness of an inch), barefoot. He was sentenced but was too ill to be imprisoned. Der Merc 23 Dec 1868 see also Kent Gaz, 1 Dec 1868 where described eating a horse carcass raw! ‘[H]e rejects money when it is offered him’.
1869: Shooter’s Hill Wood (London), Samuel Tomlinson lived in a cave in the woods near Woolwich. He had been brought back once but returned after ‘an act of impropriety’ (nudity?) and lived on nuts, many of which were found on him. He was locked up as an ‘act of kindness’. He had ‘unwashed face, long hair and tattered clothing’. Brad Dail Telegraph, 14 Sept 1869
1870: Keswick (Cumbria), fleeting reference to a ‘wild man of the woods’ who was committed but who ‘the surgeons could not make out to be insane’! Carl Patr 1 Jul
1875: Williton (Somerset), one William Coles habitually lived in the woods despite imprisonment and transportation (!). He also habitually stole things, in this case a bucket that got him hauled up before the judges. He was known locally as ‘Miser’. West Gaz 13 Aug 1875
1877: Hartlepool, (Co Durham) James Bolland an Irishman had assaulted two women, raping one, and had gone to live in the woods begging food from nearby houses. Dai Gaz Middl 27 Aug 1877
1882: Rhosfawr (Wales) a semi nude man would run out of the woods and demand money or food from solitary travelers. A non-conformist minister had been roughly handled. The horror! It had been hypothesized that this was an escaped lunatic, but he had not been caught. Dun C 26 Jun 1882
1882: Shooter’s Hill Wood (London): Jean Saye, a Frenchman had come to London and had his money stolen. He had spent one night in a workhouse and been so horrified that he decided to stay in the wood. He was waiting for the summer to find his way back to France. Morn Post, 4 Feb 1882
1895: Hadley Woods, Barnet (London):William Hudson lived for some years in wood ‘clothing little better than rags’. Police had intervened when there were fears for his safety (‘[l]ately he has entirely neglected himself’.) ‘strange in his manner’ believed that ‘Hadley Common was his birthright’! Not Eve Post 24 Sept 1895
1888: Abbeydore (Herts), Castrey alias ‘The Wild Man of the Wood’ had been living in the forest since sheepstealing. He was finally captured, 20 Jan after living on raw meat among the trees. Dai Gaz Mid 21 Jan 1888.
1897: New Forest, a man had gone to live in the woods for several weeks. An ‘armed expedition’ was organized to capture him and he was dragged back to civilization. Hants Adv 22 May 1897
1897: Sherwood Forest, one John Smith arrested by a policeman. JS known as ‘wild man’ after living for months in the wood. JS was a soldier, who had fallen on bad times? He came from Nottingham. Linc E 15 Nov 1897
29 Aug 2015: British Wildman: Simon G sends in two modern examples from the UK. ‘Please find attached details of a modern day wild man in the West Midlands. And the Catman of Greenock
