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Spring Heeled Jack?

AKA Springheel jack.

Who was Springheel Jack?

The stories and myths surrounding Spring Heeled Jack (SHJ) seem to go back as far
as the early 19th century with its first official media report in a letter to the
Sheffield Times dating 1808 “Years ago a famous Ghost walked and played many
pranks in this historic neighbourhood, he was nicknamed the Park Ghost or
SpringHeel Jack” described as being able to leap enormous heights and frighten
random passers-by, “he was a human ghost as he ceased to appear when a certain
number of men went with guns and sticks to test his skin.”
Spring Heeled Jack has had many different descriptions over the period of the
legend, having bat like wings or a cape, glowing red eyes or pop-eyed, devil-like,
wearing tight white oilskin clothing or dressed as a nobleman, breathing blue and
white flames and having claws. There are many more descriptions of which many lead
me to believe there were many hoaxes and indeed many hoaxes were caught. In 1845 a
Worcester man named Thomas Lowland was sentenced to 3 years hard labour for
impersonating SHJ and terrorising the local neighbourhood, again there are many
more.
However there are many stories that are extra-ordinary, many ccentred around
London and its boroughs. Some involving the police and a British army barracks,
even the lord mayor of London was informed of disturbances in the Peckam area.
Again in Attercliffe, which resides in Sheffield, during the late 70’s another
sighting of SHJ where local witness’s complained of a red eyed prowler who
grabbed women and punched men (although there has been speculation that this was a
local man who was know to be a trouble causer). However the story goes on to say
that other witness’s saw SHJ bounding between rooftops and walking down the sides
of walls, apparently the local police were brought to the scene and pursued the
creature nearly trapping him, but vanished into thin air and disappeared from the
area. I have yet to see a police report or newspaper article relating to this. SHJ
can also be seen in a carving on The Queens Pub next to the Sheffield bus
interchange.
As to the latter part of the disappearing routine it seems to be a regular piece
to the stories, whenever the odds are against SHJ and however impervious he seems
to be, he vanishes or retreats for a while sometimes to return again.
There are many creatures with similar attributes to SHJ too all around the world,
The Grendel of Beowulf, The Mothman and many more besides. A good source for SHJ
is Mike Dash who writes for Fortean.
Lastly I would like to point out that the name Jack has been used in many folklore
tales, rhymes and nicknames for criminals. Jack the Ripper, the pagan association
of Jack-Lore, Jack-in-the-green, Jack Frost originally the Norse Jokul son of the
god of wind but renamed when brought to England. The nursery rhyme “Jack be
nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick” dating to around 1798
(first publication of the rhyme) just before the first sightings of SHJ.
I myself have a keen fascination with the legend and have found a link with SHJ in
North Yorkshire and once investigated you can be sure we will post it on this
site.