The legend of Springheeled Jack (From Basingstoke Gazette)

The legend of Springheeled Jack

2:48pm Saturday 15th August 2009 in Search Module By Keith Hamilton, Shipping & Heritage Reporter

Of all the stories of old Southampton there is nothing so bizarre or unlikely as the tale of “Springheeled Jack’’.

Was he real or just a figment of impressionable local people with over-active imaginations? Was the apparition some suburban ghost or were the victims actually attacked and left in such a state of shock that it somehow twisted their memory?

According to the stories, Springheeled Jack never seriously injured anybody but appeared to only want to scare and terrify before always making his getaway by jumping over high fences, walls, and bushes before fleeing into the night.

These days the supposed deeds of Springheeled Jack would be greeted with cynical disregard but in the Hampshire of the 1800s the character generated real fear.

Southampton was not the only place in Hampshire where Springheeled Jack was sighted. On a number of occasions soldiers on guard duty in the Army town of Aldershot also reported seeing the eerie figure.

In March 1937 the Daily Echo retold the tale of Springheeled Jack and his time in Southampton.

“This strange and disconcerting personage became a legendary character,’’ said the Daily Echo.

“He wore a fantastic garb with a hood over his head and sprang over walls or hedges in lonely places at night with the apparent object, in which he fully succeeded, of frightening women.

“He didn’t seem to have any other specially criminal intent but was noted for his springing escapes.

“Springheeled Jack appeared in Southampton probably in the 1870s or early 1880s and the reports of his amazing springs frightened nervous people into fits.’’ In London the threat of Springheeled Jack was taken so seriously that “vigilance committees’’ were established in various parts of the capital in an attempt to capture the spectral figure.

However, despite the many, seemingly unbelievable elements of the stories, there are a number of common facts that give some degree of credence to the story of Springheeled Jack.

Everyone who claimed to have seen this apparition all described him as having a “most hideous and frightful appearance, and eyes resembling red balls of fire’’.

In every case he was said to have worn “a large helmet, and his dress, which fitted him very tight, resembled white oilskin’’.

He was always enveloped in a large, dark cloak and one foot was encased in a high-heeled pointed shoe, while the other was like a cow’s hoof which was generally believed to imitate the “cloven hoof’’ of Satan.

It was the common belief of the time that the “springing’’ mechanism which allowed him to leap over gates, hedges and even stage-coaches with apparent ease was housed in the hoof.

Springheeled Jack was supposed to have made his disturbing appearances in many parts of the country but he was never apprehended.

There was speculation that he, like another Jack, the notorious Jack the Ripper, was a member of the aristocracy but nothing could be proved.

The reign of Springheeled Jack lasted only a few years and in the end no one was entirely sure whether he was man or myth.