Monsters of the Midlands

There's a new post from me at Mysterious Universe that delves into a number of stories I've collected over the years of what may be large eels roaming the waters of the UK, and specifically the Midlands area. In fact, very large eels!

The article begins likes this:

"Any mention of large, serpent-like monsters lurking in the waters of the British Isles inevitably conjures up imagery of the nation’s most famous cryptozoological creature, Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. Or monsters. Indeed, if not some strange Fortean phantasm (which I don’t actually rule out), then there would have to be an entire colony of such things in the loch, given that sightings have been reported for many a year. But, regardless of the true nature of Nessie, sometimes it’s not necessary to travel to ancient lochs to find tales of terrible things lurking in the dark depths. Sometimes, you can find them right in the heart of the city, which is something I note in my new book, Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures.

"Back in the late 1980s, when I was working as both a fork-lift and a van driver for a company in the West Midlands, England town of Walsall, I heard a number of noteworthy stories pertaining to sightings of huge violent eels, which were said to roam the dark, winding canals of both the nearby city of Birmingham, and certain rural areas of the adjacent county of Staffordshire. Rather like some 1950s era street gang from the Bronx, they seemed to travel in packs, prepared to take on just about anything and everything that had the misfortune to cross their path."

And here's the complete article.

The photo above - taken by me a couple of years ago - shows one of the stretches of Birmingham canal in question where at least one of the eels was reportedly seen back in the '80's.