Picture this: You’re alone in the woods. You find a young girl crying. To comfort her, you reach out, but when she turns around, she has completely black eyes. You scream and she runs away. Do you think anyone will believe you? Do you believe it yourself? I doubt it, but more than one person has seen the Black-Eyed Child in Cannock Chase.
An ideal day out for families, the Staffordshire forest has woodland walks, children’s play areas, and even a Go Ape, but you may think twice about visiting after learning about the Black-Eyed Child. The first reports date from the early 1980s, but multiple sightings have even occurred in recent years…
Who is the Black-Eyed Child?
A few different theories exist. Some have called her a “demon”, others an “alien”, while The Mirror once argued, “the ghost may be linked to a Celtic tribe known for their blood sacrifices.” The most common belief is that she’s the ghost of a young girl murdered in the area during the 1960s. In 2014, however, the Daily Star reported on a “plague of black-eyed ghost children” in Cannock Chase, so there goes that theory…
Tell me more about these paranormal sightings…
Local ghosthunter, Lee Brickley, says, “the woodland is home to spirits, werewolves, black-eyed children, a pigman, and allegedly, even Bigfoot.” It was in 2018, he first glimpsed the infamous Black-Eyed Child in an area of Cannock Chase called Birches Valley. “She appeared about a hundred metres in front of me, stared right at me for about 30 seconds, then vanished without a trace.”
Interestingly, Lee’s aunt was apparently one of the first to spot a similarly black-eyed girl in 1982. But sightings do come from outside of this family, too. In 2022, a couple camping in the woods claimed a giggling ghost moved around their tent “in ways humans simply can’t move”, while drone footage “caught” a mysterious figure on camera in the woods in 2023.
As Lee says, another local legend includes a Pig Man regularly spotted in the 1940s at the Pye Green BT Tower, while everything from UFOs to British big cats has been seen in the area… At the very least, Cannock Chase gets the imagination flowing, or it could all be tied to the Iron Age monument, Castle Ring?
How can I see the Black-Eyed Child myself?
As you might guess, the best way to see the Black-Eyed Child for yourself is to get down to Cannock Chase, which is about a 45-minute drive from Birmingham, but there’s no guarantee you’ll see anything. Enlisting professional paranormal investigators might help, however, with Haunting Nights now running an interactive ghost walk.