Entry Posted January 05, 2009
As I mentioned him briefly yesterday in my post of Gut Hole Cave, I thought I might add a little further information on Spring-Heeled Jack in today's entry.
Spring-Heeled Jack is one of the most bizarre characters in the entire annuls of British crime history and his first sighting was reported in Victorian London during the autumn of 1837. His appearance, described by numerous witnesses and victims alike, was of a fantastically grotesque half-human half-devil creature with huge protruding eyes, two sharp horns growing from his forehead and a pointed beard. His laugh was said to have been peculiarly ringing and to have echoed in the minds of those who heard it for days afterwards. Wearing a tight oilskin suit and a close fitting mask, Spring-Heeled Jack became infamous for his ability to leap over huge hedgerows and even from the street to a rooftop in one jump. He was even seen leaping over church steeples and from bank to bank in a frivolous gallop along a wide, winding river. His attacks were numerous and devastating and seemed mostly aimed at women. These involved leaping onto his unsuspecting victims and breathing blue fire into their faces. As they lay in a state of shock, he would then tear at their faces and bodies, ripping off their clothes with his razor sharp claws. One of the few instances of him attacking a man occurred in 1870, some 33 years after his first assault. An on-duty sentry was suddenly confronted by Spring-Heeled Jack, as if he had appeared from nowhere. 'Jack then slapped the sentry's face with his ice-cold hands before jumping atop the guard box and, leaping again, disappearing from view.
As I mentioned him briefly yesterday in my post of Gut Hole Cave, I thought I might add a little further information on Spring-Heeled Jack in today's entry.
Spring-Heeled Jack is one of the most bizarre characters in the entire annuls of British crime history and his first sighting was reported in Victorian London during the autumn of 1837. His appearance, described by numerous witnesses and victims alike, was of a fantastically grotesque half-human half-devil creature with huge protruding eyes, two sharp horns growing from his forehead and a pointed beard. His laugh was said to have been peculiarly ringing and to have echoed in the minds of those who heard it for days afterwards. Wearing a tight oilskin suit and a close fitting mask, Spring-Heeled Jack became infamous for his ability to leap over huge hedgerows and even from the street to a rooftop in one jump. He was even seen leaping over church steeples and from bank to bank in a frivolous gallop along a wide, winding river. His attacks were numerous and devastating and seemed mostly aimed at women. These involved leaping onto his unsuspecting victims and breathing blue fire into their faces. As they lay in a state of shock, he would then tear at their faces and bodies, ripping off their clothes with his razor sharp claws. One of the few instances of him attacking a man occurred in 1870, some 33 years after his first assault. An on-duty sentry was suddenly confronted by Spring-Heeled Jack, as if he had appeared from nowhere. 'Jack then slapped the sentry's face with his ice-cold hands before jumping atop the guard box and, leaping again, disappearing from view.
Spring-Heeled Jack, as Illustrated in an Ad for 'The Boy's Standard' in 1886
Spring-Heeled Jack brought terror not only to the Capital City but also across the country as a whole. This, along with his last recorded sighting being in 1948, in Monmouth, Wales - some 101 years after his first appearance - lead to many believe that his was not a unique character but that his antics were shared amongst numerous Spring-Heeled Jacks. It is interesting to note here that during the height of Spring-Heeled Jack's notoriety, in the 1880s, it was the majority belief that the attacker was not some supernatural creature but some insane practical joker that had procured for himself some specialist boots enabling him to jump such amazing heights. His fire breathing was believed to be akin to the fire breathing tricks practised at circuses. However, given that such miraculous boots have yet to appear even in the 21st Century, perhaps the growing voice that Spring-Heeled Jack had a more supernatural background should be taken more seriously. Some people have even suggested that he was a stranded alien - this might go some way to explain the longevity of 'Jack and his anti-gravitation antics.Whatever the true nature of Spring Heeled Jack may have been, it is obvious that pranksters did try and emulate him for their own fun. Such was believed to be the case with the various sightings of Spring-Heeled Jack in Gower. At the time, interest in Spring-Heeled Jack had reached a crescendo across the country as a whole with many penny dreadfuls and cheap theatre presentations being devoted to the character. It was against this background that Spring-Heeled Jack began his reign of terror over Gower villagers.
During his brief stay on the peninsula, Spring-Heeled Jack was supposed to have made his home in a very unusual accommodation. Tucked away amongst the wildlife and undergrowth of Bishopston Valley lies a cave known both as Guzzle Hole and Gut Hole. Visiting this cave, it is not difficult to ascertain how this place became associated with such a scary figure as Spring-Heeled Jack. Deep within its cavernous belly, the sound of a turbulent underground stream echoes and regurgitates and spills from the cave's low slung mouth like a mighty roar. Standing before its gloomy entrance, with the sound of rushing water spilling over you, only those with the most robust constitutions do not fear some dreaded creature springing forward from its chilling darkness.
Most of Spring-Heeled Jack's appearances in Gower seem to have centred upon the Port Eynon area and the lanes and fields around Common Cliff and Slade Bay . A feature of the area here is the raised ground that lies directly behind certain field hedges. Someone crouching behind a hedge here and then leaping into the air and onto the lane would give the impression of having leapt an incredible height if seen from the road itself. Gower's Spring-Heeled Jack's remarkable anti-gravitation deeds can thus be easily explained and any other supernatural trait he was believed to have possessed here seemed similarly swept aside when Clifford Bevan, writing a short history on the area, remarked upon his father's role of vanquishing the fiend from the peninsula.
Apparently, Gower's 'Spring-Heeled Jack' was just a local prankster who, having visited Overton Farm to see the village seamstress, Mrs. Gibbs, to pick up an oilskin, took the opportunity of dressing himself in the garment to scare a couple of the farm's labourers. Although what this local joker did to scare the labourers has not been passed down to us, the fact that the two youths returned homes terrified has. Having obviously gained some kind of impish pleasure from frightening the two labourers, 'Spring-Heeled Jack' then began to make regular appearances until many of the women folk of the area were too afraid to leave their homes in the evening.
It was at this point that several farmers began to lay in wait for 'Spring-Heeled Jack's, next appearance. One night, with the full moon high in the sky, Clifford Bevan's father spied the prankster - in full oil skin regalia, crossing the lanes towards Common Cliff. Following him into a nearby field, both men prepared for the showdown.
'Jack was obviously more of a mischievous character than a villain, as even though he found himself with the upper hand in the confrontation - having found himself a plough trace as a weapon against the farmer's handfuls of earth clods - he offered his assailant a deal:
"If you promise not to tell my identity, I shall not hurt thee." He told the farmer.
The farmer was obviously in no real position to argue and grumblingly agreed to the truce. A devout man, he was true to his word and not once did he reveal the identity of the rogue who had frightened so many of his fellowvillagers. 'Spring-Heeled Jack' was never seen again on the peninsula.
The validity of Bevan's claims (his article can be read in the volumes of The Gower Society Journals held on file at Swansea 's Reference Library) is, of course, open to debate. But the nature of the event described to Bevan by his father is hardly flattering enough to be a vain boast by the farmer. In this respect, plus the fact that the appearances of Spring-Heeled Jack in Gower concluded immediately after the said confrontation, this version of 'Jacks demise in Gower seems highly plausible. Of course, others could equally argue that although the farmer could well have kept to his word about not revealing 'Jack's true identity to others in the village, had his story been true, wouldn't he surely have at least told his wife and son the full tale? Human nature being what it is, how log then before the denouement of such a fascinating tale reached enough ears for the Gower Peninsula's 'Jack's' identity to have been recorded for posterity? Perhaps, after all, it was the 'real' Spring-Heeled Jack who paid the Gower Peninsula a visit all those years ago.
