Spring-heeled Jack is one of Victorian England’s most enduring urban legends, a figure shrouded in mystery, fear, and much speculation. First reported in the 1830s, this enigmatic figure was said to leap impossibly high walls and rooftops, leaving witnesses in stunned terror.
Descriptions of him varied wildly: a devilish figure with glowing red eyes, clawed hands, and a terrifying ability to breathe blue flames. Was he a mischievous prankster, a malevolent spectre, or as I postulate perhaps a travelling acrobat, an early parkour practitioner? A dash of embellishment in the media and sightings.
Sightings spanned decades, sparking both panic and fascination, as his escapades seemed to defy human capability. Despite his infamous reputation, Spring-heeled Jack was never caught, leaving his legend to persist as a chilling and captivating slice of folklore.
Linby, is a place I call a Fortean Village, seemingly every kind of phenomenon, from UFOs, apparitions, phantom battle scenes, eerie light phenomena emanating from the ground to name but a few of the high strangeness. Linby is full of the tapestry of history and relevance. In 2015, I made a short film entitled “Spring Heeled Jack In Nottingham” and the centre piece of the information, is this wonderfully detailed and colourful map opposite the Horse and Groom in Linby. Highlighting 4 Linby Legends, Those brave Linby women fighting Norse Danish invaders and creating the pancake! The tragedy of a wolf eating the baby of Lord and Lady Stanhope and there is a prominent mention at the top of “Spring Heeled Jack!”
“A ghost that is said to have left giant footprints in the snow on Quarry Lane”
Quite why the figure from the 1800s made himself present in Nottinghamshire is unknown, and I feel it is more a superstitious claim or an attribution due to the footprints being wide strides in the snow, some 20ft apart left to right bounding along the field to the side of Quarry Lane rather than it actually being the acrobat or mischief causing character of London. The direction of travel to what is locally known as Devils Wood, beyond you have Weir Mill and the Newstead Abbey Grounds, to the right across the adjacent field stands Papplewick Hall.
The video can be watched below, it was filmed on a wonderful day in the Summer of 2015.
A little more Jack, he went on an extended leap across the east coast of the US, before pulling double duty on both sides of the Atlantic.
“During the 1970s, Jack returned in both England and the US. In 1973 family in Sydney, NC reported a gaunt, long haired man with pointed ears and glowing red eyes, taking leaps they estimated at 50 or 60 feet. In 1979, more than a dozen residents of Plano, TX saw a creature, described as ten feet tall with pointed ears, cross a football field with just a few strides-like those taken by an astronaut on the moon.”
https://www.thecobrasnose.com/xxghost/shj.html
Source: Inside the former Museum at Linby, there was a small piece about the people who didn’t see Jack, but they discovered the footprints in the snow-covered field, a number of miners.
The Linby-Cum-Papplewick parish council map opposite the Horse and Groom Linby Local Legends
Historian in Linby, “Steven” whom we spoke to at the Horse and Groom.
Want to continue your handshake with the mysteries of Nottinghamshire? We have a 12 part series of articles ready to roll out and a supplementary audio series.
Phenomenal Nottinghamshire #4
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