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This week I saw a report about the multi-millionaire Paul Lister's plans to reintroduce bears and wolves onto a vast swathe of Scottish countryside, specially adapted for the purpose. I rather like the idea myself, but it put me in mind of a fantastical story from Carlisle's past - the mystery of the Allendale wolf.
Over 100 years ago, in the winter of 1904/05 tales of a mystery beast terrorising townsfolk and attacking livestock were rife across the fields and woodland surrounding Hexham in Northumberland. For a month, in December 1904, stories abound of a wolf on the loose in the Allendale area, with numerous reported sightings and many more gruesome discoveries of slaughtered sheep. Local newspapermen filled their columns with bloody tales of mutilation and the hunt for this elusive and mysterious beast.
The wolf was thought to be an escapee from the home of Captain Bain of Shotley Bridge who reported a cub missing three months earlier, however, at the time of the disappearance local news insisted that the animal was of no threat to either livestock or human. By December things were looking very different and by Christmas 1904 the legend of the Allendale wolf was born. Each report of a new sighting or a newly mutilated corpse was met with an ever-growing party of hunters, sometimes 100-200 strong, scouring the countryside to put a stop to the slaughter. The wolf evaded every one, and slowly but surely he began to assume a mystical status... folk songs were written and stories were told of a creature not of this earth but from the realms of fantasy and horror. Each new sighting was eagerly relayed in the Hexham Courant to the increasingly frenzied local population, and the story of the Allendale wolf spread wide; expert trackers, including a celebrated Indian game hunter, Mr W Briddick, were enlisted, but still the wolf roamed free.
But not for long. Carlisle's place in the story of the Allendale wolf was cemented at the end of December 1904 when a Midland Express train to Scotland collided with a beast near Cumwhinton. This macabre postcard, published by the local firm of James Beaty & Sons (with a photo by Carlisle photographer F. W. Tassell) tells the whole story, including the animal's violent end. The wolf was severed in two but was 'skilfully joined together' for this grotesque posed shot. There are a number of postcards depicting the wolf's demise, many simply a photo of the dead animal lying on a wooden board, but here they've surrounded the corpse with pictorial recreations of his exploits - there are the hunters tracking their prey, the wolf himself devouring a sheep and, of course, the moment when he meets his untimely end.
Was this the end? As with all good folk tales the discovery of the "famous Allendale wolf" only fuelled the speculation and the theories and stories live on to this day. More sightings of a 'wolf' were reported during January 1905, and yet more mutilated livestock were found. Even the London-based newspaper, The Bystander, ran a story suggesting the wolf was still on the loose, a suggestion aided by the reluctance of Captain Bain to accept that the animal killed at Cumwhinton was the same that he lost some months earlier. Whether to avoid blame or calls from compensation from the farmers affected, he resolutely denied that this was the same animal, being so much larger and fully-grown than that which he lost. This denial, along with more apparent sightings and the refusal by many to accept that the wolf had travelled such a distance (30 miles) into unknown territory, simply added to the excitement that the wolf was still at large. By the time this postcard was sent in February 1905 the tale of the Allendale wolf was consigned to history.
Who knows from whence it came and whether, indeed, the wolf pictured here is the beast that stalked the woodlands of Allendale over 100 years ago. The mystery remains.
Published by James Beaty & Sons, Carlisle (Northern Series)
Postmarked: Carlisle, 10th February 1905
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