FT252

Thus wrote the 16th-century histor­ian, Raphael Holinshed in his Description of England: “Lions we have had very many in the north parts of Scotland, and those with manes of no less force than those of Mauretania; but how and when they were destroyed as yet I do not read”.

Destroyed, eh? Holinshed might have been interested to find that lions still crop up in modern Britain.

Early on the morning of 29 July 1976, two milkmen saw what they insisted was a lion with a bushy-tipped tail in a field at Toller­ton near Nottingham airport, prompting a fruitless big game hunt by the police. It was seen three times in succeeding days before vanishing into limbo. Peter Giles and his wife Maureen also saw a lion as they cycled through the countryside near Bramley in Hampshire one Sunday morning in 1994. “I’m 100 per cent certain it was a lioness,” Mr Giles said. “I have no doubts whatsoever. It was 3ft [90cm] high and 7ft [2.1m] long but a bit skinny. It looked quite incongruous, but seemed quite at peace with itself. We watched it for about 20 seconds and it padded off.” The police took the reports seriously, stating: “The animal is obviously there”, but nevertheless failed to find it. D.Mail, 21 Sept 1994.

In 1998, a male lion appeared in Devon. Paul Gourley spotted it near Wrangaton Golf Club and described it as “tawny in colour and very big”, shabby-looking, 5ft (1.5m) long and weighing as much as 20 stone (127kg). It had a mane. Asked if he could have been mistaken, Mr Gourley said: “I know a lion when I see one.” D.Telegraph, 21 Nov 1998.

The most recent lion enlivened the day – and subsequently the press – for three NHS Direct workers at Almondsbury near Bristol on 22 May this year. One of them, Paula, said: “I was on a call and I glanced out the window and thought I saw what looked like a deer under the tree on the other side of the motorway.

“I tapped my colleague Liz on the arm to say ‘look at that’ and as I looked out Liz caught the same view as I did when the animal stood up. Liz said: “It was blondey like a Labrador… slightly darker on the back, but the tail… definitely belonged to what I thought was a lion.

“We watched it for a couple of minutes just walking around opposite and then suddenly it disappeared from view… I thought ‘what the hell am I looking at?’ I was just in shock.”

When she went for her evening break, Liz met another colleague who had also seen what she described as a lion in the car park. The women called Avon and Somerset police, who scrambled their helicopter and sent officers to the scene, but found nothing. Sun, 22 May 2009.

A month later, on 22 June, a Norfolk man was startled to see what he described as “a young lion” near Gooderstone, crossing the road to Swaffham in front of him and alarming some nearby cattle. But does the smaller size of this particular ‘young lion’ identify it as actually one of the puma-like ABCs regularly sighted throughout Britain? It was in the adjoining county of Cambridgeshire that Eddie Smith had a close encounter with one such animal in May, and at a favourite ABC venue (also favoured by Devon’s Wrangaton lion, mentioned above) – a golf course. Eddie was walking down the 11th fairway of the Abbotsley Hotel golf course in St Neots when he was overtaken by a beige-coloured ABC. He said: “I have never seen anything like this before. The animal that passed me – at great speed – was definitely a puma. It was bigger than a dog, and looked as if it were chasing something.”

Nicky Briggs, general manager at the club, was not altogether surprised. In February, she had found huge paw prints in the snow which led to a decapitated badger, and had suspected the presence of a big cat. Cambridge News, 22 May 2009.

In Suffolk a week later, another golfer met an ABC – but this time one of the more common (for ABCs) black panther-like big cats. He reported: “I was looking for my golf ball on the 2nd tee on the Ufford Park Hotel Golf Course, when I noticed this big long animal walking across the fairway of the 1st tee. It was black, very long and quite stocky. Its tail was very long – much longer and thinner than that of a dog.” Its ears were, anomalously, “tufted”. He watched it walk slowly to a fir tree in the middle of the fairway and lie down. “As you can imagine, seeing such a large cat out in the open when you are alone is quite frightening. I continued playing but kept looking back to see if it was following me, but it wasn’t.” BCIB report, 29 May 2009.

Did this ABC wander north to Lincolnshire? For on 9 June two forestry workers had the shock of their lives when they almost trod on something similar. One reported: “While out spraying trees with my colleague in newly-developed forest, about a mile [1.6km] from Belvoir Castle, I noticed something in the long grass stand up and bound towards the rape field to the left of our position. It was a big cat, completely black and about the same size as a German shepherd dog – very muscular and sleek. It had rounded ears and a long, thick tail with a bulbous tip.

“I was approximately 1m [3ft 3in] away from this animal. The grass around us was about 3ft [90cm] high and the cat made light work of leaping over this, taking three very large leaps, one directly after the other. After our encounter, my colleague and I were uncomfortable staying in the area…” BCIB report, 9 June 2009.