Deborah Hyde: 'I was intrigued by dark folklore as a child and now I research why we're fascinated by the supernatural - like reports of the Hull werewolf'

Whilst the Yorkshire Wolds has long been awash with rumours of paranormal activity, perhaps the most memorable in recent times was the whisperings of a werewolf near Hull back in 2016.

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Media around the world picked up on claims that a “half-man, half-dog” creature had been spotted stalking the banks of a local watercourse and the so-called “Beast of Barmston Drain” was connected by folklorists to the legend of “Old Stinker”, a werewolf said to stalk the Wolds countryside and surrounding areas. It sparked fascination way beyond the UK, with rock legend Alice Cooper among those taking to social media to comment on the reports and ask whether or not the sightings were “real”.

Author, anthropologist and folklore expert Deborah Hyde has written and spoken about the tale. “There was a local researcher in the area who was actually looking for evidence of black-eyed kids, another urban myth,” she says. “But he found a lot of people saying they had seen a werewolf-type creature. There were a few stories written in the local paper about it but then it went massively all over the world because it’s such a cool story.”

“It was tabloid gold really, that’s why it took off,” she continues. “I wrote a book chapter (exploring) actually what is behind this? How many witnesses are there? Could they have got this wrong? Have there been other mentions in years gone by? You go through all these reasons and you think well probably there isn’t actually a werewolf in Hull.”

Deborah, who for ten years was the editor of The Skeptic Magazine, has spent her career exploring why people believe in the supernatural, using psychology, cultural anthropology, history and folklore to shed light on an intractable strand of human nature.

This week, she’s appearing in Harrogate as part of the Raworths Salon North series which for its latest instalment dives into the extraordinary inner workings of the human mind. Deborah, who has appeared on TV shows such as Strange Evidence and Mysteries at the Museum, will explore why we find the supernatural so intriguing, unpacking an enduring fascination with ghosts, vampires, and the unexplained and revealing what such beliefs can tell us about ourselves.

“I’m going to be talking about why people believe in ghosts, for example. I don’t happen to believe in them but I know an awful lot of people do - and that means something, it has to be relevant,” she says. “I’m interested in the dark stuff, because even though we no longer believe in werewolves and vampires for example, an awful lot of people honest to goodness did. What are the reasons – the social, psychological and neurological reasons – behind these kinds of stories and these creatures?”

Deborah’s fascination in the matter stems back to her childhood, when she would make regular trips from her home in West London to visit her great aunts in Northumberland. “It was very much part of their culture really to tell scary stories and experiences. I remember sitting at the feet of my great aunties and everybody smoked so there were rafts of smoke and the light was coming through the windows in a very cinematic way and they were telling horrific stories as though they were real - because they believed them,” she recalls.

"I loved it. It was so thrilling...There was one where one of their friends had fallen down the stairs and she had looked back to the top and could see this malignant looking demon or elf. If you hear things like that at seven or eight, they’re simultaneously terrifying and thrilling.”

“I think when this gets you, it gets you at a very early age. You’re just fascinated,” she adds. “I always remember being really scared of ghosts when I was a kid and being really interested in the idea of witches and folklore and that kind of stuff.”

As an adult, Deborah became interested in anthropology – the study of what makes us human, and 20 years ago discovered Skeptics in the Pub, a group for people interested in how science, history, psychology, philosophy, and investigative journalism can be used to examine extraordinary claims. "Suddenly I found an awful lot of people like me who were interested in strange beliefs but who wanted to look for a rational process behind it,” she says.

For two decades, Deborah has been a researcher in that field, and since 2018 has been a fellow of The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. "Until recently this wasn’t a particularly respectable line of inquiry in academia,” she says. “People who wanted to do this would be encouraged by their institution to have a respectable string to their bow as well...But this isn’t about talking to ghosts, it’s about uncovering the nature of people.”

In a parallel life, Deborah has also spent more than 20 years providing production management services in the film industry, working alongside her husband, a special effects artist. On occasion, she’s ventured in front of the camera too, most notably as the five-hundred-year-old Thurlingian Queen in Terry Gilliam’s Brothers Grimm and as a puppeteer for a leaf on the Devil’s Snare Plant in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. “My jobs are very different, I like using different parts of my brain” she says.

- Deborah is at Raworths Salon North, The Crown Hotel, Harrogate, on September 24 at 7:30pm. Joining her is neuroscientist Professor Adam Zeman, who will delve into the world of imagination and psychologist Dr Madeleine Pownall who will discuss psychologists who transformed our understanding of the human mind. Tickets are available at harrogateinternationalfestivals.com or by calling the Box Office on 01423 562 303.

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