In 1987 I visited the Devon Farm Park, and in the gift shop a booklet caught my eye: it was 'The Beast Of Exmoor, Fact or Legend?' by Trevor Beer.  Having just seen a lynx in the wild myself I read it avidly, and struck up a correspondence with the author - a naturalist, artist, and photographer - who was most encouraging . We met up and celebrated my fourteenth birthday at Tarr Steps - where sightings of the Exmoor Beasts have occurred - eating chocolate cake!
I also met Nigel Brierly author of 'They Stalk By Night, The Big-cats of The South-West'. He helped me to identify cat pawprints and kills, and inspired me to investigate big cat sightings around the country, and particularly in my home county, Wiltshire.
The reports keep coming in and the expectation is that good photographs and video footage of these big cats will eventually be obtained. They are a fascinating addition to British wildlife and hopefully can be left in peace rather than hunted down. Please report any further Wiltshire sightings or other information to me here at  marcus@dorsetbigcats.org
I hope you enjoy these pages.

Marcus Matthews

Wiltshire big cats  in history

Wiltshire - modern big cat sightings and research sources

1960s
Early in February 1965 Michael Lewis, a gamekeeper, with his brother David found large footprints which were thought to be puma’s at Farley, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, and were sent by the Salisbury Field Club to London Zoo for identification.

1970s
A rumour once went round that there was a train crash in the Wylye Valley and a black panther on the way to a circus escaped into Great Ridge Woods in the 1970s. There was a search for the panther, which proved unsuccessful.

Mr. David C. Holton, a chiropodist, of Crockerton, mentioned in Arthur Shuttlewood’s “The Warminster Thing”(1965), wrote to me in March 1987:

“I have never heard of any such animal as a panther escaping from a train crash in the Wylye Valley in the 1970’s, but I noted with great interest reports of a lion having been seen by a number of witnesses in the Norton Bavant area, as they were travelling by train to Bristol. Intensive inquiries and searching by both the police and military failed to show any physical justification for the reports, though a phantom lion has been seen in that vicinity on many occasions. The Romans had an encampment at Norton Bavant and their witchcraft (of which we have very little knowledge) centred very largely on animals / astral forms through their lunar cult of Diana.People who are sensitive to such sightings may interpret them, on occasion, as physical beasts and have very disturbing experiences on this account.”

1980s
 An article appeared in the “Warminster Journal” on Friday, 8^th February 1980:

“And The Lion Danced with the Kangaroo.

A dozen policemen led by Insp. Roger Eades, with air cover supplied by helicopters of the Army Air Corps, went on safari to the windswept wastes of Codford last Friday morning in search of a wandering lion and a rogue kangaroo. This quaint rural pursuit was the inevitable response to a message from the guard riding on a train between Portsmouth and Bristol earlier the same morning that at least one of his passengers had seen a lion browsing in a field near the village. The information that a kangaroo had been spotted in the same area the previous day came a little later, just for good measure. Longleat Safari Park was quick to deny that there had been any break-out from its neck of the woods, but even so, to be on the safe side, the police hunt had to be organised. Neither hide nor hair of anything remotely resembling either creature was found however. Mr. Eades said later no-one living in the vicinity had seen anything untoward, and the local livestock all seemed perfectly at peace with the world, and notin the least “jumpy”, when one might have expected the faintest scent of a marauding lion to put a cow off its fodder for a month. And so for the time being the Codford lion scare is being put down as a false alarm and kangaroo mystery remains unsolved. Whether a quiet country walk can ever be quite the same again for the people who live here remains to be seen.”

In February 1987 Mr. Roger Cawley of Longleat Safari Park wrote:

“ In reply to your letter addressed to Mrs. Chipperfield neither she nor anyone else here has kept any record of wild animal sightings in Britain. On occasions we have been involved in searches for alleged wild animals but they have always turned out to be large dogs. We are not convinced that there are any wild-cats living free in this country.”

Mary Chipperfield wrote two fascinating books entitled “Lion Country” and “Lions On The Lawn” which features their lions, tigers and a black panther. Victor Canning wrote a fictious novel entitled “The Runaways” which concerns a cheetah escaping from Longleat and living feral on Salisbury Plain. In August 1986 a seal escaped from Longleat but was soon recaptured on the River Avon.

The Daily Telegraph of 27 October 1987 carried an item “Lion Lifted

Thieves have stolen a 100 year old stuffed African lion from a furniture shop in Ludgershall village, Wiltshire. “It probably took four men to carry him”, said a police spokesman.”

A shooting Party from Westhill Farm, Hetyesbury including Mr. Steven Ware encountered a large, black, big cat on the ranges in 1984. 

Edward Bridges, aged 14, and his father, of Trowbridge, observed a large black cat crossing the road between Bratton and Earlstoke in January 1987 in the headlights of their car. He described the cat as being “larger than a Scottish wildcat with a bushy tail”. He thought it was not as large as a black panther and likened it to a Kellas Cat.

 He had heard of a tabby cat captured near Westbury, which resembled a ferocious Scottish wildcat and was released into the countryside.

James Barrett-Gray,aged 14, of Edington, informed me he had seen a black panther-type cat “longer in the body than a labrador” jumping alog in woods on the edge of Salisbury Plain in 1987. He had also seen a deer carcass in the same woods.

Duncan Robinson,aged 15, of Potterne, Devizes, saw a strange creature one evening at about 10.15 PM . It was large, white and cat-like-but not like a normal cat. When he saw a picture of a genet  he identified that as being most similar to what he saw.

1990s
On 7^th March 1994 there were  sightings of a lion roaming in a field at West Kennet, near Marlborough beside the A4. A major air and ground search followed unsuccessfully.

In October 1994 the carcase of a still-born calf was found with its rib cage eaten away. The afterbirth and 20lbs of meat and offal had been consumed and the animal dragged about 10feet. Earlier, a two-week-old calf in Grittenham had bled to death after his tail had been hacked (or bitten?) off . A "strange creature" had been seen crossing the road in the area. A BBC documentary programme featured a lady seeing a large black big cat from her landrover on the Chitterne-Tilshead road in 1995.

Also in 1995 Mr. Rodney Garton, Longleat Forester found paw-prints in Longleat Woods which resembled those of a big cat. 

 In March 1990 Mr. R.V. Brown, Chief Public Health Inspector, for Wiltshire County Council wrote:

“There is no record of any such incidents at this office, however, having spoken to ex-police officers of my acquaintance I understand there is a certain folklore about black dogs always being held responsible for accidents involving motor vehicles at night. I do not think that this should be taken too seriously.”

In 1995 a jungle-cat (Felis chaus) was run over at Black Dog Farm, Beckington, Warminster, on the Warminster -Bath road and taken to Paignton Zoo, Plymouth, Devon where it was identified.

From March to August 1996 there were multiple sightings of panther-like big cats in the Upavon/Salisbury area.

The vicar of Upavon, the Revd D.G. Sloggett wrote to me describing the attack on his twin sons aged 13 years by a large panther-like black cat at 6.55pm on Sunday, 17^th March, 1996, so here is his description:

“On the embankment of the track that starts at the pottery and leads to the golf course. The lane is on a steep slope upwards with high steep embankments at the lower part. The boys and their older sister have been saying that they have seen a large black cat in the area to the back of the vicarage for about two years. We have always put it down to fertile imagination, much to their protests until now.

On Sunday 17^th March, Jonathan and Matthew were playing in a den, or base as they call it, situated at the top of the north embankment of pottery track, when they observed what looked like a large black animal crouching on the south bank looking at them. When it saw that they had seen it, it ran at high speed (they said that they had never seen an animal move so fast before)up the south bank in an easterly direction and out of sight. As they started to talk about what they had just seen, the animal reappeared close to them on their side of the track.

They described the cat as being black, broad at the front with a sleek rear, with a long thick tail with a rounded end, not pointed, and about the size of a German Shepherd dog. It moved quickly, quietly and had a strong smell which they described as metallic. They also said it had large teeth and very bad breath and it had turty hair coming out of the ears. I showed them a picture of a lynx with its turfts of hair on the ear, but they said the hair came from inside the ear.

When they had first sighted the creature, they had been playing with a long piece of bailer twine and two yoghurt pots as a phone, and Matthew was winding the twine up on his arm. When the cat reappeared it made a high noise which they described as a hissing growl and snatched at the twine around Matthew’s arm and started to pull at it. Jonathan kicked at its head with a drop kick to which it made a noise and lashed out with its paw but did not let go of the twine, then he kicked it for a second time. They were both, of course screaming. Matthew managed to get his scissors out that they had been using on the twine and cut the twine making the cat fall a little backwards. It then caught hold of Jonathan’s coat, which slipped through its mouth catching the zipper clasp.

Jonathan hit it hard with the open palm of his hand twice on the nose. At the second blow the end of the zip broke away and the cat slipped off and fell backwards down the embankment. As it struggled to climb the slope the boys ran for home which was only about fifty yards away.

As they ran, Matthew still had the twine round his wrist and the cat carried on chasing the twine catching it several times before they reached the proximity of home. Our boxer dog was in the garden, and when it saw them coming went to greet them as she usually does, then seemed to look past them and then ran to the house. It ran into the workshop at the back of the house and hid behind the door terrified. Even now, she will not go out in the dark before bed unless I go out with her and during the day time she will go and stare through the fence in the direction that the boys had run from, before she can settle.

After the boys burst into the house, it took a while to calm them down and to get the story, by which time it was dark and I had no inclination to go out and check their story. It seems to me, from what they said, that it almost sounds as if this cat was trying to play with the twine that Matthew had been winding up and had no intention of hurting them. This makes me think that perhaps the cat was tame or semi-tame.

Since the account of Jonathan and Matthew’s encounter several people have contacted me to say that they also have seen a big cat in the area. Their sightings are as follows:

A lady phoned to say that a large black cat was standing in the road as she drove home late one night at Everligh, near Upavon. She said it just looked at her then walked off slowly as if it was unconcerned by her presence. Another lady from Upavon said that she had seen a large black cat by the side of the road just outside the village. She said it was about twice the size of a domestic cat, but looked as if it were young. There were also five different people who saw it over two nights at Avebury.

A woman stopped me in Pewsey to say she and her husband had reported seeing a large black cat stalking some children but running off without attacking. This was 19 years ago and she was told by the police to keep it quiet as they did not want to start a panic.”

On 13^th July 1there was a sighting of a large black Big-cat at Earlstoke, near Devizes.

On Monday, 5^th August, 1996 there was a sighting of a big-cat climbing up a roadside bank between Farley and Pitton near Salisbury. Ordnance Survey Surveyor Mr. John Hutton of Alderbury was driving his car along the winding stretch of road at about 5.45 am with his son Peter and Peter's’girlfriend as passengers when all three caught sight of the cat. He told the “Salisbury Journal of Thursday, 8^th August, 1996:-

“We saw the back end of the animal, with its long black tail as it lumbered up the bank and disappeared. I stopped the car but we didn’t get out. Quite frankly it was all a bit eerie and all three of us were breaking out in goose pimples. We couldn’t really afford the time to look around anyway as I was driving Peter and his girlfriend to Gatwick Airport. I’ve always been sceptical of the big cat stories up to now but I don’t doubt what I see with my own eyes.” Mr. Hutton said the long-tailed animal was at least twice the size of a domestic cat and probably as big as a large fox. 

On 14^th November 1996 the Salisbury Journal ran an article entitled “Mystery cat is on the prowl again

Mr. Barry Payne of North Street, Wilton, was driving home from a concert in Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday night at about 9.45pm he spotted the animal near the English China Clay site. Mr. Payne said:

“It was as big as a dog, but it was definitely moving like a cat and when I flicked the headlamps on to full beam to get a better look, its eyes shone red like a cats’s. “

Mr. Payne’s passenger, Jenny Hay, also saw the animal, which after crossing the road disappeared into fields on the Quidhampton side of the road. Mr. Payne said : “Jenny watched it go and said “ I hope there aren’t any sheep in that field.” Chief Inspector Roger Curtis of Salisbury Police said they had received no reports of big cat sightings in the area.

In the summer of 1999  a farmer at Thoulstone, observed a black leopard in his field.

In the summer of 1999  a lady from Corsley saw a large black cat crossing the road between Crockerton and Heaven’s Gate in Longleat Woods as did a neighbouring farmer.  

A retired RAF officer who lives on Dry Hill, Crockerton, looked out of his window one morning in the summer of 1999 to see a large black cat stalking in his paddock.

In 2001 a lady from Crockerton observed a large sandy cat, like a lioness, ambling through a field near the Warminster Bypass.

In 2001 Mr. Delany of Warminster and a friend were driving through Corsley, Wiltshire when they observed a Lynx crossing the road at night.

The Swindon Advertiser reported attacks on livestock earlier that year. During 1991-2001 there were said to have been 40 sightings described as being of a large black cat in North Wiltshire. Locations included Crudwell, Charlton, Lea, Oaksey, Little Somerford, Brinkworth, and Dauntsey, making it easy to plot the animal’s territory. Local police are said to have logged 30 sightings.

There was a livestock kill and pawprints were found at Coulston, near Westbury according to the  “Swindon Advertizer” and the “Western Daily Press”  of 6^th January, 2001.

There was a sighting of a big cat at Wingfield according to the “Trowbridge Star” of 29^th March, 2001, and another at Edington on Salisbury Plain according to the “Trowbridge Star” of 5^th April, 2001 and the “White Horse News” of 24^th May, 2001.

 There was a sighting of a big cat at Castle Eaton, near Highworth according to the “Wiltshire Gazette And Herald”, via This Is Wiltshire, on 3^rd May, 2002.

There was a sighting of a big cat between Great Bedwyn and Shalbourne according to the “Wiltshire Gazette and Herald” of 20^th June, 2002.. Another Big-Cat sighting occurred at Rowden Hill, Chippenham according to the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, via This Is Wiltshire,8^th August, 2002.

A sighting of a big cat occurred at Battlesbury Hill, Warminster according to the “Warminster Journal” of 23^rd August, 2002. A sighting of a big cat  occurred at Southwick, near Trowbridge according to the “Wiltshire Times” via This Is Wiltshire of 13^th September, 2002.

In July 2002 we found a dead Dorset  Polled sheep at Brixton Deverill with a front leg missing, the shoulder missing and the side of the face missing. When I sent these photographs to Mr. Nigel Brierly he thought they looked similar to the photos of suspected cat kills on Exmoor.

Johnny Kingdom wrote in his column in the Western Daily press on Wednesday, August 14 2002:

“Riddle Of The Big Cat

"Reader Maureen Pickup from Westbury in Wiltshire rang to tell me about something very interesting that happened to her as she was driving home along a country road recently. She came to a line of about ten cars, all moving slowly, and was amazed to see the reason for the hold-up - a big, black cat lying by the side of the road, which everybody was slowing down to get a good look at as they went past. “I couldn’t believe it, Johnny, she said. “It was about six feet long, jet black, and it was definitely a cat. I’ve spent a lot of time in Africa, and I know what a big cat looks like.

 “ This one seemed to be dead, I would have loved to get out and have a closer look, but I thought there was a chance it might just be stunned and could attack me, so I didn’t stop.” I thought she was wise. Many a time I’ve found birds or animals by the side of a road, apparently dead, but really just stunned.

"It’s even worth trying to save them, if you can-birds of prey seem to do especially well if you pick them up and take them to a bird sanctuary. This particular big cat must have got up and walked away after a while, because nothing more was heard of it. But it just shows that the so-called Beast of Exmoor does exist and not just on Exmoor.”

Colonel Conrad Freeman of Parsnip Cottage, Bishopstrow wrote to the Warminster Journal on 23 August 2002:-

“Whilst I was exercising my pedigree Schnauzer Bertram in the area of Woodland just below Battlesbury Hill, I sighted what appeared to be a big cat of some description. It had the mottled markings of a panther or leopard and was bigger than an Alsatian. Luckily Bertram was on a lead because he made a hell of a noise barking at this thing. I was terrified in case it attacked. I consider myself lucky to have escaped with my life. I saw one of these brutes rip a poor chap in two in India half a century ago. Have any of your other readers seen this beast of Battlesbury”? Has one of the Longleat felines escaped? And what about our soldiers, will they be safe on Salisbury Plain?”

In the “Warminster Journal” of 8^th March, 2003 another letter appeared from an anonymous correspondent under the headline “Beast Returns”:

“With reference to a letter that appeared in the 23^rd August, 2002 issue - Beast of Battlesbury.

I too have had a close encounter with this black cat. My first encounter was in the early morning of Saturday, 14^th February this year. Standing on the railway bridge, looking over to The  Dene woods, in the fold next to the railway, I observed a big cat, panther-like, stalking rabbits. The grass was knee high so it wasn’t a domestic cat.

“My second encounter was last Saturday, 1^st March, early morning, while walkng down the road from Middle Hill towards Bishopstrow Farm. From the thicket above me in the cutting came the low growl of a big cat. I froze to the spot, looking to where the sound came from, and moving slowly backwards heard a second growl louder than the first. I decided to make sure there was nothing in the field behind the thicket - there wasn’t. There were people walkng dogs, but they were over on Battlesbury. I was alone. I tried to see if I could see it, but being black and in the thicket I couldn’t. It probably growled at me and left - thank goodness.

The only thing that concerns me is that kids playing in the woods may surprise this cat and if it's cornered who knows what might happen. I’m only glad I didn’t corner it and it warned me off with a growl. The Beast Of Battlesbury is alive and well.”

We found a pawprint near the railway bridge which was wider than it was longer without clawmarks and we measured it with a stick against a stuffed female puima’s foot at a Taxidermist’s stand at the Westcountry GameFair, Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset and found it had exactly the same dimensions. I took photographs of this and other pawprints on the footpath round the edge of Dene Woods.

2002
Mr. Brian Licence and his wife Mrs. Elizabeth Licence of Warminster had a sighting of a large black cat longer in the body than a labrador and lower with long strides going across a field behind the old waterworks and School of Infantry Beagles Kennels on 24^th March, 2002. I went with them on a walk round Battlesbury Woods on 26^th March and collected samples of droppings from rabbit burrows which could have come from a cat and saw three trees with clawmarks eight feet up the trunks. They told me of a friend who found three Roe deer carcases on the edge of Battlesbury Woods. They consulted a rangewarden but he had never had a sighting.

 Mr. Deane, a farm worker of Maiden Bradley, told me about an encounter he had with a large black cat which climbed a sapling tree causing it to bend over before running off. He knew several sightings of a large black cat in the area .

 In the Bath Arms, Crockerton, a gamekeeper from Kingston Deverill told me he had twice seen a large black cat once at Tytherington and once at Great Ridge when out lamping for Foxes in July 2003. He had no doubt it was a panther or puma.

Mr. Chinchen of Stour Row, near Shaftesbury telephoned me to report a sighting of a large black cat crossing the road at Ferne, Berwick St John, near Shaftesbury, on the Dorset/Wiltshire Border.   We met up on Thursday 14^th August, 2003. He had taken two plaster casts of pawprints which were the size of a large dog's but appeared to be consistent with those of a leopard or puma.

Copyright © Marcus Matthews 2005