| Terrifying ‘Hell Hound’ also helped Formby beach girl escape death |
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| Written by Clifford Birchall | |
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AUTHOR of the Haunted Liverpool series of books, Tom Slemen, has written a special story for Formby Times readers. THERE are said to be invisible ley-lines of earth energies, known to the ancient peoples of Lancashire, that criss-cross Formby, and local folklore suggests the existence of spectral beings that frequent these old, unseen tracks. The most prominent paranormal entity of this kind is Skriker – often misspelled as ‘Striker’ – a huge, black, ghostly dog with fiery red eyes that roams the Formby waterfront. Some traditions maintain that he acts as a sentinel to something buried beneath Formby dunes in the remote past. In 1999, baffling prehistoric footprints of children, and unidentified dogs, were found on the Formby foreshore. The imprints had been made in the lee of an offshore sandbar up to 6,500 years ago. In 1967, a retired man named Richard Lomax was bird-watching on Formby beach when he spotted a woman burying something among the dunes. Gripped with curiosity, Mr Lomax went and dug up the thing the lady had buried as soon as she was out of sight. It was a small teak box, sealed by two nails that had been driven through each corner of the lid. Mr Lomax took the box home to his house near Little Altcar and prised it open to reveal a small stone cross with a concentric ring around it, rather like the design of a Celtic cross. The birdwatcher decided he’d take it to his brother-in-law George – an antique dealer – in the morning, to see what he made of the strange find. That night, Mr Lomax heard a dog snarling in his garden somewhere, followed by the sounds of the animal scratching at his front door. The following morning, Mr Lomax saw three long, black claw-marks in the front door and, when he inspected these marks, they looked as if they’d been scorched into the woodwork with a branding iron. Lomax showed the stone cross to his brother-in-law George, and he recoiled in horror and told him to get rid of the cross or he’d suffer a long run of bad luck, for he had seen such crosses before, and they were deemed to be cursed. Mr Lomax was amused at George’s claims and believed he was just superstitious. However, on the following day, Richard Lomax was starting his car when he realised he couldn’t feel the accelerator pedal. His right foot was numb. It transpired that this was because of a tumour in his spine. Then his sister died days later. Even more misfortune followed, and Mr Lomax ended up hurrying back to the spot where he had unearthed the strange artefact. He reasoned that the previous owner of the accursed cross had probably buried it to break its curse. Not long afterwards, a huge black dog with red eyes was seen by many people, sitting on the very spot where the cross was reburied. There are some rare reports which show the Formby ‘Hell Hound’ in a favourable light. For example, at Christmas 1977, a 13-year-old girl went out onto the sands of Formby after a row with her parents, and became stranded when the tide came rushing in. She tried to make her way back to safety, but became trapped up to her knees in the mud. The girl somehow managed to escape from the quagmire, and crawled along the beach with the water crashing over her. She stood up, and as she started to sink again, she saw an enormous black dog standing about twenty feet away. The girl instinctively scrambled towards the strange, oversized animal, and as she did it turned and walked off towards dry land, unaffected by the mud. The girl walked behind the hound in its tracks and the sand beneath her feet felt solid. When she got to the dry shore the black dog seemed to fade away into the twilight. Three years later, the girl was walking along Formby beach during a spectacular sunset, when she suddenly experienced a strange inexplicable urge to visit a particular dune. When the girl reached the dune she saw the same black dog that had saved her life three years before. It sat looking out to sea, with red glowing eyes and a phosphorescent glow around its muscular body. The mysterious hound turned its head to gaze at her for a while, then looked seawards. Seconds later it faded away. That girl is now a woman and she strolls along Formby beach most evenings, hoping to see the enigmatic black dog. Is it a sentry, guarding some ancient talisman? What is the story behind the stone cross and why does calamity strike those who move it from the dunes? We may know more one day. |
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