The Devil's Footprints

on the morning of the 9th of february 1855 the people of mid devon awoke to find their homes smothered by a thick blanket of snow but it soon became apparent that whilst they had been sleeping some unknown entity had apparently cut a path straight through their county leaving a mysterious trail where its feet had passed upon the ground who or what was responsible for the devil's footprints but first a shout out to our sponsor surfshark given the current socio-political landscape practically everyone should be using a vpn what is a vpn well it stands for virtual

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had been depositing thick flurries of snowflakes onto his land and the surrounding properties for several hours and as he bade his excitable daughter's good night he promised he would find time to build them a snowman before he left for his shift the following morning when he awoke several hours later loose more hurriedly dressed before confirming that both girls were still fast asleep in their beds he was just in the process of pulling on his boots in order to make good on his promise when there was a sudden and loud hammering at the front door frowning

jon rose to his feet and made his way across to a window to see who was outside the unexpected visitor to the loose more household that morning turned out to be the son of a local farmer who had been hurriedly dispatched by his mother with orders to fetch the local constable inviting the youth inside john had cautiously listened to the boy's tale before changing into his tunic and reaching for his stovepipe hat as a result of what he had been told constable lucemoor took the liberty of locating a small lead kosh from one of the

downstairs cabinets which he would occasionally use to supplement the official wooden truncheon he had been issued with he also ordered the boy to build a snowman for the girls outside the front door ensuring that his fatherly responsibilities were fulfilled alongside those of the wider community loose more was some distance away from the town centre when he had heard the sounds of men shouting increasing his pace the officer hurried down the lane in the direction of the disturbance minutes later he was at the town square to find a small posse of agitated locals assembled there as

he surveyed the various weapons and tools each were brandishing john found his hand dropping to the cache in his pocket before he inquired what was transpiring with some persuasion the throng parted eventually revealing the cause of their consternation there pressed deep into the snowfall was a trail of footprints running from one end of the village right through to the other as he stepped forward for a closer look loosemore noted that they appeared to have been caused by the hooves of an animal rather than those made by a human when he asked why such a trail

should be any cause for excitement the constable found himself being jostled and shoved in the same direction the tracks were heading with each subsequent step he took the realization of what had perturbed the residents slowly began to dawn on him the footprints he was now following did not stop even when faced with any form of obstruction upon reaching the edge of any building the tracks would then perfectly recommence on the other side where low-lying obstructions such as stalls or laden carts were in the way the prince traveled up and over them in an unbroken line

wrestling with the evidence which was being presented to him loose more called for a ladder before clambering up to survey the roof of a nearby single-story dwelling when the officer climbed back down the assembled gathering could see that his face was pale he explained to them that the tracks had continued across the roof of the building as if whatever had made them had walked up and over it without a care in the world a quiet hush now descended upon the gathering as each person present was caught up in their own thoughts someone or something had

passed through their village in the night walking upon hooves instead of feet in defiance of the laws of nature and if the rumors were to be believed this might not be the first time such a visit had taken place realizing that the local constable may not be the salvation they required the crowd immediately set off in search of the town priest the first few weeks of 1855 had been unusually cold and the southwest of england had been battered and bruised by repeated snowfalls in the county of devon the accentane rivers had both frozen over at

times failing to thaw and becoming covered with each successive storm hapless residents were almost prisoners in their own homes with the local roads and pathways rendered completely unaccessible by early afternoon on the 9th of february reports had begun to filter through to the exeter constabulary that something inexplicable had allegedly taken place during the previous evening as the day had slowly progressed a steady stream of riders had arrived from various hamlets and villages dotted along the county's southern coastal path all wanting to inform the police about a mysterious trail that had been found trodden into the

freshly fallen snow officers were dispatched to a number of neighboring towns later returning to confirm to the borough superintendent that there was indeed an unbroken line of hoofprints which appeared to travel in a path of roughly 100 miles by the end of the day reports had been received from over 30 separate locations all situated along a trail which stretched from tanemuth right across to weymouth whilst the tracks themselves were unremarkable resembling a horse's hoof with a width of two and a half inches the manner in which they were laid out made little sense to those

who encountered them the pattern which had been left trodden into the snow resembled that of a biped rather than a horse or any other type of ungulate the footprints of this mysterious intruder travelled in two parallel lines situated six inches apart with a gap of roughly eight inches between each of the steps the technique with which this unknown creature had walked paled into insignificance when compared to the apparently impossible path it had travelled in order to complete its mysterious journey the owner of the footprints had seemingly been able to traverse fast-flowing stretches of open water

with ease walking vertically up the side of houses and outbuildings and across the sloping roofs of structures of varying sizes nothing seemed to act as an obstruction or barrier to impede this phantom creature's progress the route taken by the nocturnal visitor was neither linear nor random in some places it had traveled up and across man-made structures without a care in others there were signs it had deliberately deviated from its path to approach windows or doorways before then resuming its travel the investigating officers were also baffled to find no signs of any damage having been caused

or property interfered with at any of the locations they had visited whilst bewildering in nature it appeared that no obvious crime had been committed witness testimony in relation to the footprints was dutifully recorded and incident reports filed but there was little more in the way of police investigation as the snows finally began to melt away and the footprints disappeared wild stories about who or what had created them spread in their wake for the people living in the communities affected by the incident there was only one plausible explanation for what had taken place they believed that

the devil himself had risen up from the depths of hell and walked amongst them whilst they slept his fiery hooves searing a lasting impression in the snow as he passed them by after all this was not the first time that lucifer had paid a visit to devon two hundred years before on a cold sunday morning in october 1638 the congregation of saint pancras church and whidakam was sitting quietly listening to a sermon being delivered by the rev george lyde all of a sudden the church was filled with a foul and accurate burning smell before something

came crashing through the roof sending debris tumbling down onto the assembled parishioners as the terrified onlookers watched on in horror a mysterious ball of blinding lights suddenly started to hurtle around amongst the throng it repeatedly bounced and ricocheted off every surface it came into contact with and collided violently with several of the fleeing worshipers one of those struck by this manifestation was an elderly lady who immediately fell to the floor crying out in pain those who tended to the woman's injuries as she laid dying would later swear that her clothes had remained perfectly undamaged despite

the catastrophic burns caused to her skin two men also sustained fatal injuries when they were thrown to the ground after the object struck them moments later the large wooden doors to the church crashed open and the glowing orb vanished as the terrified worshippers rose to their feet and began to tend to their wounded it became apparent that one of their number was missing a young man by the name of jan reynolds was nowhere to be seen witnesses claim that immediately prior to the tragedy jan had been asleep in his pew a pack of cards clasped

in his hand which he had been playing with as he had dozed off during the sermon rumors quickly began to circulate that it was the devil who had come crashing into the church to claim the soul of jan reynolds stories emerged of a phantom rider dressed all in black riding away from the building with the terrified youth slung over his saddle for many years to come the fate of the missing teen would be used as a cautionary tale by parents attempting to keep their children in line in the decades after the mystifying appearance of the

devil's footprints many competing theories were put forward in an attempt to rationalize the phenomenon and whilst these vary greatly in terms of credibility none ever managed to successfully explain what had occurred without some degree of doubt perhaps the most common theory regarding the footprints is that they were created by some kind of animal some have suggested that the trail was made by nocturnal creatures such as badges or foxes they argue that badges in particular have been known to grow to such a size that their tracks could be seen as comparable to those of a human

being and that a pack of these predatory animals moving around at night in search of food may have been responsible another proposition is that something like a rat or mouse could have potentially been the culprit by leaping through the snow over time and facing no small degree of ridicule these suggestions have gradually been modified to propose that the intruder may have been a kangaroo escaped from a travelling circus or private collection much like the many sightings of big cats on the uk mainland which we have already covered there have indeed been similar reports of wild

kangaroos and similar large marsupials throughout the british isles a slightly more believable explanation would be suggested half a century later by the british novelist jeffrey household the author of rogue mail recorded that he had been approached by a man whose grandfather had been working at the davenport naval base at the time of the incident this man suggested that the true cause of the marks was actually well known to the authorities the informant claimed that on the evening of the incident the strong winds that accompanied the snowfall had managed to pull an experimental military balloon free

of its moorings at the base two metal shackles had been left dangling behind it as it had then been subsequently dragged across the countryside by the weatherfront whenever these shackles had made contact with the pristine snow beneath them be this on the ground or the walls and roofs of buildings they left behind a pair of indentations that closely resembled hoof prints eventually having now traveled in excess of a hundred miles the balloon had come down to earth near the town of honnaton desperate to keep the affair secret naval officials had paid off a resident whose

greenhouse had been demolished by the crashed aircraft they quickly recovered the debris and took it back to the safety of their base given that this explanation is far more credible than that of a leaping field mouse it is hardly surprising that household's proposal is the closest the mystery has ever come to an accepted solution the final proposal is that the marks were caused by an as yet on observed and undocumented natural phenomenon such as an extreme weather event 15 years earlier a similar trail was discovered which stretched across 12 miles of loch lomond national park

anecdotal evidence also suggests that there is a small stretch of land on the polish border with ukraine where exactly the same set of tracks are found pressed into the snow on an annual basis when all is said and done what are we to make of this haunting tale from devon's dark and distant past at the time of its occurrence the sheer size and scale of the mystery immediately pushed the witnesses into the arms of religious teachings despite the huge advances in scientific understanding being made throughout the land given the large number of locations where witnesses

came forward to report the footprints it is clear that something did indeed take place on that fateful evening and yet as much as the infamous whitaker thunderstorm was most likely a rare occurrence of bull lightning it is almost certain that society's undying need for intrigue naturally attributed more mystery to the devil's footprints than was perhaps warranted there are no recorded images of the tracks only pencil sketches and the size of the footprint seems to vary from witness to witness the reality is that as wild rumors about the devil having stalked the land began to circulate

every ungulate track and trail in the county was inevitably misconstrued as evidence of lucifer's visit stories of footprints traveling up walls under long roofs are probably the product of urban myth or exaggeration and the vast length of the trail was probably much shorter with other sets of ordinary hoof prints being added onto the original tracks by witnesses eager to become involved in the rapidly growing legend and yet the notion of so many people of the day buying into this story if the evidence was indeed this lacking or this easily explained away truly beggars belief as

we will go on to see in future episodes victorian england was no stranger to myth and mystery did the devil or indeed some form of unidentified cryptid visit devon on two occasions during the 1800s perhaps so as ever we leave you to decide for yourselves [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] hi guys this is rich from bedtime stories um if you're one of the few people who've been sticking around after the end credits uh you'll notice that we've been doing these silly outtakes and on this occasion i just thought we would uh

show you my office where a lot of the magic happens where i'll record the audio over there and edit the videos here um sorry about the silly hat uh i'm suffering with lockdown hair at the moment it's far too long so just cover that nonsense back up so yeah let's get on with the tour show you my desk uh starting to send what we've got my notebook and in here we've got a lot of the tracks that i use so i don't overuse them in in future tracks or whatever else and editing notes and research

and things like that we've got a copy of the 14 times which is essential for research really i mean a lot of the cases that we've covered have come from here um i've heard you guys don't get this in the us anymore um due to the fact that you you don't really print uh not sure how true that is it's just something i've heard um headphones don't need to go into those self-explanatory absolutely essential ingredient of any creative process which is beer it's good stuff um this is the editing program i use it's sony vegas

pro 16 a lot of people have asked just dropping that in there and here you can see i've got the audio track in which i'm chopping and changing i'm just waiting for the artwork to go in from mikey but he's not quite ready to send it over yet um got some receipts from merchandise that has been sent out which i need to log in the expenses and then finally we've got the manuscript for volume 2 which i've been editing as you can see over here we've got my uh puppy who's asleep in the corner aussie

kind of keeps me uh company when i'm reading these these uh scripts on dark nights late into the night takes the tension off uh i'm just glad to have the company to be honest and then here we've got the tablet that i read from the stand that that tablet sits on a lot of people asked what that funny sound was in the last outtake and it was basically this um i stepped on this wire this thing fell forward the tablet fell off and that's why i used the expletive that i did um here we've got

my microphone condenser mic with a pop guard that comes out on this extendable arm um over here we've got a picture of my five boys in the bedtime stories monochrome sort of charcoal style looks a bit creepy really but mikey did this uh the request of my girlfriend for father's day um but i you know in that monochrome style always makes them look a bit makes people look a bit creepy anyway here we've got a drawer full of uh goodies i can't do a job like this without snacking crisps and chocolate bars and biscuits let

me just translate chips chocolate bars and cookies what's in the other drawers and cupboards uh porn only joking it's more more useless stuff like sellotape and more crisps hard drive with the old bedtime stories stuff on um under the desk i've got my rig which is well it's pretty damn good to be honest it's got an rtx 3080 in there so quite quite a beast i got my youtube um plaque that i haven't quite got around to putting up on the walls yet um right a lot of people have asked how i get this sound

that i do on the vocals you'll be surprised how many people ask like technical questions the way we do is not very technical at all this is a set of panels which opens out like so and i basically move that over to here to this bay window and i put it around the edge of this bay window like this which um creates like a sound booth and then at the top we've got this blanket which i roll down over the top and that gives that insulates the sound even more and we get this kind of

warm sort of vocal so that boys and girls is my office hope you enjoyed this little insight into the bedtime stories universe and how we roll and uh yeah we'll see you in the next [Music] episode