Deborah Hyde: The Hull Werewolf

Was a werewolf really loping around Hull’s Barmston Drain in 2016? Folklorist Deborah Hyde investigates this modern manbeast mystery.

In 2016, a peculiar story hit local headlines – a werewolf was loping around Barmston drain, an eighteenth century canal in Hull. Such tabloid gold couldn’t stay local for long and national newspapers amplified the reports to the point that international publications like the Huffington Post repeated them. Rock star Alice Cooper even commented on social media. But what lay behind the sensational spin? How many eye-witnesses were there and what did they really say? The Hull Werewolf’s context – both folkloric and contemporary – is rewarding to examine, to illuminate the content and transmission of this popular twenty-first century cryptid tale.

A specialist in belief, folklore and the supernatural, Deborah is a writer, broadcaster and producer who explores the strange corners of culture. She has appeared on ‘Strange Evidence’, ‘Mysteries at the Museum’ and the hit BBC podcasts ‘Uncanny’ and ‘The Battersea Poltergeist’, and was Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Skeptic’ for a decade.

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