Hairy Hands | |
---|---|
An artist's rendition, courtesy of BBC | |
Background | |
Type | Haunting |
Continent | Europe |
Country | England |
One-Time? | No |
Theories | · Road conditions · Ghost · Speeding drivers |
The Hairy Hands haunting is a spirit rumored to haunt a stretch of road in Dartmoor, United Kingdom, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents during the early 20th century.
Manifestations[]
- A pair of disembodied hands that appear suddenly, grab at the steering wheel of a moving car or the handlebars of a motorcycle, and then force the victim off the road.
Background[]
Since around 1910, drivers and cyclists have reported suffering unusual accidents between Postbridge and Two Bridges. In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had jolted or swerved violently and steered off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control.
Notable Accounts[]
That's a story that's been repeated many times since its first suggested incident in June 1921 when a worker at Dartmoor Prison was killed as his motorcycle became uncontrollable and crashed.
The tale was related by his children who were riding in the sidecar, all they knew was their father shouting at them to get off the bike and apparently wrestling with the controls.
They jumped clear, he didn't.
This was repeated again sometime later, another motorcyclist, this time with a pillion passenger, seemingly driven off the road approaching the same spot.
This time the passenger saw things more clearly and insisted he saw a large hairy hand grasp the handlebars and forcibly upset the bike.
-BBCIn 1924 a young couple were camping in a caravan in the area and the woman was woken in the middle of the night by a heart-racing fear.
Her bunk faced the caravan window and up it she saw crawling a large hand, covered in hair and, she said, exuding an intent to do her and her husband harm.
Instinctively the lady made the sign of the cross and said the hand balked and made its way away.
-BBCTrivia[]
- In some cases, the hands are described as being invisible.