Deborah Hatswell

DEBORAH LILITH HATSWELL is a phenomenonist, writer, podcaster, Investigator and the founding member of the Being Believed Research and Investigations group. Deborah is the UK’s leading expert on the British Bigfoot and Dogman phenomenon and she has taken or researched over 3000 personal witness reports from all across the globe. Deborah is based in Lancashire and has formed a team of volunteer investigators researching the many witness reports that are reported each week to BBR.

Deborah is a witness herself to an impossible creature that she saw in 1982: “It took 30 years for me to find an official body that would take myself and my experience seriously. During those years, I found thousands of people in a similar position. Their experiences were with Reptilian or Cryptid Creatures, Alien Beings and Shadow People, Invisible Entities and all manner of Dimensional Entities. Many of the witnesses are abductees who have had a lifetime of interaction. Some families have had to deal with phenomena for generations. There are cattle mutilations and missing people all across the UK.”

Deborah set up BBR to help those people find somewhere they could report their experiences to and encourages them to investigate the cases and theories for themselves.

Now it is time to bring all of the so-called ‘alternative subjects’ under the same roof and let’s share our knowledge bases in the hopes of answering some of the still unanswered questions...

SHE HAUNTS THE MOOR - SARKLESS KITTY & TINY WET FOOTPRINTS

Hutton-le-Hole is a small popular scenic village nestled within the North York Moors National Park. The village is so sleepy sheep still roam the streets at will. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book which is dated 1086. The name Hutton-le-Hole means the ‘place of the burial ground near the hollow.’ One of the streams beside the salon is called ‘Fairy Call Beck’. One local legend tells the tale of Kitty Garthwaite, a servant girl from Gillamoor, a village a short walk away. The legend claims Kitty has haunted the North Yorkshire Moors for several centuries. Kitty Garthwaite was engaged to Willie Dixon who abided in Hutton-le-Hole. After they quarrelled one day in 1787, Willie rode off on his horse and Kitty’s body was found later floating in the river. Rumours swirled around Kitty’s fate, many locals believing she was with child, around 7 months in fact, and that Willie had no real interest in marrying her. Kitty waited at the ford (a crossing place over the river) for Willie to return with a marriage licence. Willie never turned up. Heading back to the village Kitty heard rumours that Willie had been seen that day with the daughter of a wealthy farmer in Castleton, over the moors purchasing a marriage licence. The next time Kitty saw Willie, he was evasive about where he had been and who had accompanied him. On May 29, 1787 - Which was Whit Sunday - the pair met again by the ford for the fateful last time. A quarrel ensued and ended with Willie riding off, leaving the distraught Kitty standing alone, by her tree. The next morning Kitty’s body was found, her white sark, a kind of shirt or smock, was found in the pool below the ford. Her other garments were strewn across four fields.

Aware of the trouble between Kitty and Willie, villagers concluded that the jilted girl had set off back for Gillamoor but had decided to drown herself. Distraught, she had cast off her clothes as she ran to the ford, where she plunged in naked except for her sark. Kitty’s body was laid out in a barn at Lowna Mill, situated near the ford. The miller’s wife, Mrs Agar saw to Kitty and she removed and washed the sark and hung it by the body to dry. Kitty was carefully covered up with clean sacks. Willie went to see Kitty. But he discovered that Kitty’s body and her sark had completely vanished. Only the sacks remained, neatly folded in a corner.

Willie spent the rest of the day searching for Kitty. On his horse, he called for her everywhere. At dusk he was seen riding along the old bridleway between Low Mill and Lowna. But by the next

morning his horse was found grazing near Lowna Mill. His body when found was laying in the same pool in which Kitty had been drowned. ‘Sarkless Kitty’, as she was henceforth called, had claimed her first man.

A few weeks later two Huttonle-Hole children arrived home breathless, claiming to have just seen Kitty at the ford - and she was ‘stark nak’t’. The children said Kitty was sitting on her usual tree, she smiled down at them and waved her sark as if to beckon them closer. Accused of being dishonest the parents stated that the children were no doubt ‘dirty little liars’, so the children were smartly scolded and sent up to bed.

In October of that same year, the horse of a well-known traveller who was often seen across the moors trotted riderless up to the Royal Oak Inn, Gillamoor. The poor man’s body was found in the morning floating in Kitty’s pool. Over the next few years 16 more men in total, were drowned in the pool. Locals were convinced that Kitty’s ghost startled the men’s horses, which reared up and threw the riders. Several local men claimed to have seen Kitty’s ghost as they were ‘aiming f’t cross tha ford’. The men said Kitty was always clutching her white sark, the ‘nakt’ Kitty was sometimes seen sitting on her tree, sometimes running on the bank, and sometimes in the ford itself. Not wanting to be one of Kitty’s victims, the local men turned back.

But it was the death of the final victim, Kitty’s 18th victim that caused the most upset, for he was not a stranger travelling across the moor, this lad was a popular and hard-working young farmer, his death persuaded people something must be done. So they ordered a priest to bless the ford and the young man’s body. The vicar conducted the blessing with the assistance of two choristers, one holding a lighted candle, the other ringing a bell. Kitty’s ghost has never reappeared. A short walk away across the moor from where the dog salon sits is the slightly larger village of Kirkbymoorside which was no doubt visited by Kitty and the fly by night Willie at some point in their lives, being the closest marketplace to their home village. Kirkbymoorside was known as a trading hub even before 1254. It was on that date the area was officially recorded as a market town.

People from all of the neighbouring villages and farms from far and wide would have attended the market and the fairings that were held there. Farmers, Tinkers, Merchants, Landowners, Pedlars, Craftsmen and women would sell their wares, shop for goods, meet friends and loved ones and also to find employment or your future love. For some working class people they would only be able to attend the market on their one afternoon off each month.

Whilst researching Kitty’s case I came across a landlord who was based at one of the village pubs in Hutton le Hole who explained he and one fellow inn keeper saw small footprints form on the wet stone floor.

Little Wet Footprints - “Many years ago when I was a landlord of the White Horse Kirkbymoorside I would sometimes go over to see Steve, my friend who was the landlord of the Black Swan to see how his night had gone. We would normally just chat about the night in general. One night when I went over he was mopping the floor behind the bar when I arrived.

We were standing there chatting for a few minutes when Steve noticed some small footprints that had started to show up on the wet stone floor. The footprints were the size of a small child’s foot. Whatever was leaving them walked right up to where we were both stood talking and then they walked away again. It was very strange indeed.”

...Until next time, Deborah

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