The Owlman Of Cornwall Origins

Ola Monsterinos!

Situated between a sleepy old town and a dark, creaking forest, lies the church of St Mawnan and St Steven. Why this church has two saints I don’t know. But perhaps its need to be doubly blessed to ward off the wicked winged fiend that lives in its towers.

The church grounds are filled with gravestones and ley lines, adding to the spookiness of it all. However, these are nothing compared to the resident of the bell tower, the Owl Man of Cornwall.

If you are a holiday maker looking for a peaceful English countryside trip, may I NOT suggest making camp near this 13th century church. Particularly if you are female. If you don’t heed my warnings, you may just be surprised by a visit from this avian cryptid.

The Owl Man of Cornwal is a relatively new comer to the cryptid game. This guy was first spotted in the 1920’s, much to most’s surprise. Why I say much to most’s surprise is because a lt of people tend to think the first sighting of Owl Man took place in the 1970’s. But if you were one of those people, you’d definitely be wrong.

Before I get into the various accounts of the Owl Man, let’s first discuss what this critter looks like.

The Owl Man of Cornwall’s Appearance

So, this guy is definitely the stuff of nightmares. I know quite a few people who have a fear of birds and let’s just say seeing the Owl Man would definitely send them into heart attack mode.

  • People generally say the Owl Man of Cornwall stands 5ft tall and upwards
  • Eye witnesses have reported seeing large, red, glowering eyes
  • All witnesses account for him having pointy ears
  • The Owl Man’s body – bar his legs – are completely covered in brown grey feathers
  • The legs are very bird like, bar the feet which have been reported more as pincers than owl claws

Apart from the terrifying appearance of this beast, there are a few other key things to take note of.

The Owlman is said to live in Mawnan Smith, Cornwall. Specifically, he calls that double barrel saint church his home. Visitors to the Church of St Mawnan and St Steven have often reported hearing a strange static noise coming from the surrounding woods of the church. Furthermore, and probably, spookiest yet, the small back door of the church is often marked with small hand and finger prints which tend to appear and disappear at random.

So now that we know what this dude looks like, and have been thoroughly chilled by facts about the church, let’s get into the meat of the story; the eye witness accounts!

The Owlman of Corwall Sightings

First Sighting: June 4th 1926

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people seem to think that the Owlman was first spotted in the area in 1976. However, it seems that locals have forgotten the widly published tale of two small boys who encountered the Owlman.

On June 4th, 1926, the Cornish Echo published an article describing how two small boys had been attacked by, and I quote, “a very peculiar, very large and very aggressive feathered thing.”

The attack was reported to have taken place between Mount Hawke and Porthowan. Now keep in mind, this is a good 14,5 miles away from Mawnan Smith – the now residence of the Owlman – but this oke is huge. A 34 minute car ride is nothing for a man sized bird in flight. None the less I digress.

So, these two boys are found between Mount Hawke and Porthowan and they’re running wildly screaming at the top of their lungs through the streets. And I’m not making that up. The article states that the boys were screeching so loudly as they were being attacked by this flying creature, that local adults came out to help them.

The adults then proceeded to kill the creature. However, once they had done so, none could identify what kind of creature this was at all, nor could they confirm that it was even avian. So just hang on to that little fact because it comes back in another eye witness account soon.

The OG Encounter – April 17th 1976

Now we jump literally fifty years ahead and find ourseves at April 17th, 1976. Sister, June and Vicky Melling were on holiday in Mawnan Smith with their family. Originally from Lancashire, the family had decided to spend their Easter Holidays in the country side. But their trip was cut short when the sister came across the most terrible sight.

The pair were making their way past the Mawnan Church of many names. I couldn’t find the time that they were passing by, so for spook’s sake I’m going to say it was the evening. However, if I was a parent there’s no way I’d let me 12 and 9 year old little girls wander any country side at night alone.

But back to the story! The Mellings are making their way past the church when suddenly they saw a large man hovering above one of the church towers. In place of arms, the humanoid had wings.

Naturally, they ran like hell back to their parents. The girls were so terrified by what they had seen, that the family decided to cut their vacation short by three days and high tale it back to Lanceshire.

July 3rd 1976

Only a few months later, another pair of girls were camping near the church grounds. Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry were making camp for the night when suddenly, around 10 pm, both girls heard a strange hissing sound from their surrounds.

The girls went to investigate but regretted their decision almost instantly. They came across what they later described as “an abnormally large bird, silver grey in colour”.

In an interview conducted with Anthony Shiels, Sally recalled her encounter with the Owlman as follows “… [it] was big like an owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first, I thought it was someone dressed up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it, we both did, then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up, you could see its feet were like pincers. It’s true! It was horrible. A nasty owl-face with big ears and big red eyes. It was covered in grey feathers. The claws on its feet were black. It just flew straight up and disappeared into the trees.”

July 4th 1976

Literally the next day, at the same location, yet another pair of sisters were spooked by the Owlman. Apparently, July is prime Owlman spotting time. Jane Goodman and her sister were too on holiday in Cornwall. She later sent a letter to the Falmouth Packet describing her encounter with the horrid beastie:

“it was in the trees, standing like a full grown man., but the legs bent backwards, like a bird’s. it saw us and quickly jumped up and rose straight through the trees. My sister and I saw it very closely before it rose up. It has red slanting eyes and a very large mouth. The feathers are silvery grey and so are his body and legs, the feet are like big black crab’s claws. We were frightened at the time. It was so strange, like something from a horror film. Fter the thing went up, there were crackling sounds in the treetops for ages. Our mother thinks we made it all up just because we read about these things, but that is not true. We really saw the bird-man though it could have been somebody playing a trick in a very good costume and makeup. But how could it rise up like that? if we imagined it, then we both imagined it at the same time.”

1995 Account

The next account takes us a few years into the future once more. this time, the victim is a young, female student, holidaying in Cornwall. Once she returned home, she wrote the following letter to the Western Morning News:

Dear Sir

I am a student of marine biology at the Field Museum, Chicago on the last day of a summer vacation in England. Last Sunday evening I had a most unique and frightening experience in the wooded area near the Old Church at Mawnan, Cornwall. I experienced what I can only describe as a ‘vision from hell’.

The time was 15 minutes after 9, more or less. And I was walking along a narrow track through the trees. I was halted in my tracks when about 30m ahead I saw a monstrous ‘Birdman’ thing. It was the size of a man with a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes and pointed ears. It had huge clawed wings and was covered in feathers of silver grey colour. The thing had long bird legs which terminated in large black claws. It saw me and rose, floating towards me. I just screamed then turn and ran for my life. The whole experience was totally irrational and dreamlike.

Friends tell me that there is a tradition of a Phantom Owlman in that District. Now I know why. I have seen the phantom myself. Please don’t publish my real name and address. This could adversely affect my career. Now I have to rethink my ‘worldview’ entirely.

Yours very sincerely scared Eyewitness.

The Canadian Cousin

Interestingly enough, Owlmen are not synonymous to Cornwall. The first ever documented encounter with an Owlman can be found in a 1798 Canadian settler’s diary. Once again, the creature is found within a church’s ground. His story tells of a man – or gohst of a man – who had the ability to transform into a man-sized owl.

In years to come, 1811 to be precise, several news papers reported on various accounts from farmers and servents alikewho saw a “kind of winged man with tiny features, save for the huge luminous eyes.”

More than 100 encounters of the Ontario Owlman were logged  in the early 19th century, describing a small, thin man either with wings coming from his back, or replacing his arms. This particular owlman frequented graveyards and forests and could mainly be found after nightfall.

What Can The Owlman Be?

There are a few suggestions as to what this creature could actually be.

A Eurasion Eagle Owl

The most popular explanation by a long shot is that the Owlman of Cornwall is nothing more than a local  Eurasian Eagle Owl.

This bird is quite a good fit. It has the pointed ear feathers, creepy large eyes and large body. However the owl is no where near man sized. The size of the owl varies between 50 -70cm long, with a wing span of 2m. this is large as far as owls go, but no where near the size of a 5 ft man. We’re missing about 3 feet in that department.

A Hoax

Another popular suggestion is that the Owlman is, in fact, a man. Many have often suggested that the Owlman of Cornwall is nothing more than a prankster dressed up and ready for a laugh.

The first two eye witness accounts from the 70’s were reported by British media personality, Anthony ‘Doc’ Shiels. Apparently, Shiels was a notorious prankster and people were certain he’d made up both stories given by the four girls.

Now that’s all good and well. Perhaps Shiels made up those to accounts. But that doesn’t explain the others. Perhaps this is an on-going local joke, but I’m not too convinced about that.

What Does Abi think The Owlman Is?

Cryptid, duh. But, actually, no I’m a little torn on this account. I don’t think that the Owlman is a person, based on Jane Goodman’s description of the backwards facing knees. But I’m not sure this thing is a cryptid either. If it were, it would need to be an actual breed of creature based on its longevity of the stories.

Owlman has also been compared to Mothman quite a few times, and that got me thinking. Perhaps the Owlman of Cornwall is a similar alien. But like the useless cousin of Mothman since he’s never appeared before a disaster as a warning.

Perhaps the Owlman is a UFO who lost his way and has been banished to living in the turrets of an old country side church.

I’m leaning either towards alien or other worldy being. Its just weird that the Canadian Owlman was tied to a church as well.

Perhaps the people in the surrounding areas were merely swept up by the thrill of a graveyard. Or maybe, just maybe, they really saw what they claimed to have seen.

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