The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor

Imagine if two disembodied, hairy hands appeared before your eyes while driving, grabbing the wheel, and causing you to violently swerve your vehicle.

This may sound insane, but multiple people have claimed this exact scenario happened to them between Postbridge and Two Bridges in the United Kingdom. But, is it believable?

The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor

What urban legends persist between Postbridge and Two Bridges in the UK?

Have you ever found yourself inexplicably losing control of your vehicle?

What if it wasn’t you, and there was a supernatural force at play?

What is up, Bizarros?! This week we try to get our hands on the hairy hands of Dartmoor.

Sources up top: We are South Devon, Unexplained.IE, Dartmoor. Gov, dark tales

What are the Hairy Hands?

So, imagine you’re driving along a winding road out in the United Kingdom. 

And as you’re driving, out of nowhere, you suddenly feel the steering wheel start shifting.

You look down, and there are a second pair of hands on your steering wheel.

Sometimes the hands are invisible or unseen, but other times people claim that these disembodied hands that are incredibly hairy. And incredibly strong.

The invisible hands overpower you and cause your car to swerve off of the road.

It sounds crazy, right?

I’d say so. But it’s a thing.

Apparently, since around 1910, drivers and cyclists have reported suffering unusual accidents between Postbridge and Two Bridges.

In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had jolted or swerved violently and steered off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control.

Where does this take place?

This urban legend mostly occurs between Postbridge and Two Bridges on the B3212.

B3212 is a stretch of road, and Postbridge and Two Bridges are two locations in Dartmoor. It is right by the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England.

This path along B3212 from Postbridge to Two Bridges is about an 8-minute drive, and it’s pretty rural, as again, it is right through the Dartmoor National Park.

So, now that you kind of have a better understanding of the urban legend along with the path where it takes place, let’s get into some encounters.

June 1910 Encounter

The first tragedy that is tied to the hairy hands’ urban legend can’t perfectly be attributed to the phenomena, in my opinion, and you’ll find out why.

So, in June of 1910, there was a medical officer named Dr. E. H. Helby who was working at the nearby Dartmoor Prison.

One night, while driving on B3212, he lost control of his motorcycle and sidecar, which unfortunately had his two children.

While he was struggling to keep control of his motorcycle, he pleaded for his children to jump out to safety.

They did, and thankfully lived, but unfortunately, Dr. Helby was thrown from his motorcycle and died instantly.

It was claimed that before jumping off, the children witnessed their father struggling with an unseen entity.

Although, I’m sure there was a fair amount of shock and confusion as to what was going on and of course, they lost their father, which is just a tragedy.

While this story itself doesn’t hold much weight other than something very sad and tragic, it begins a trend that folks start noticing on this specific road.

August 1910 Encounter

A couple of months later, in August of that same year, 1910, there was another incident.

It was a dull, foggy day on August 26th when British Army Captain, who was known as a very experienced rider, was thrown from his motorcycle.

It was very much the same as what happened with Dr. Helby, except the army captain thankfully did not die.

Due to going to the hospital and receiving care, and being a high-standing individual who you would assume wouldn’t lose focus or control of his bike, he was asked about what happened.

He was quoted as saying,

“It was not my fault. Believe it or not, something drove me off the road.

A pair of hairy hands closed over mine. I felt them as plainly as ever I felt anything in my life – large, muscular, hairy hands.

I fought them for all I was worth, but they were too strong for me. They forced the machine into the turf at the edge of the road, and I knew no more till I came to myself, lying a few feet away on my face on the turf.”

Summer 1924 Encounter

In the summer of 1924, there was another encounter with these strange hairy hands.

There was a popular and widely respected scholar of folklore in Devon, Theo Brown, who was camping in a trailer about half a mile from the patch of road with all of the encounters.

She has written multiple books, such as The Dartmoor Legend of Mrs. Childe, The Black Dog in English Folklore, Devon Ghosts, and more.

At a later point, she detailed a particularly terrifying encounter he had that was relevant to the urban legend of the hair hands.

She said,

“I knew there was some power very seriously menacing us near, and I must act very swiftly.

As I looked up to the little window at the end of the caravan, I saw something moving, and as I stared, I saw it was the fingers and palm of a very large hand with many hairs on the joints and back of it, clawing up and up to the top of the window, which was a little open.

I knew it wished to do harm to my husband sleeping below. I knew that the owner of the hand hated us and wished harm, and I knew it was no ordinary hand and that no blow or shot would have any power over it.”

Almost unconsciously, I made the Sign of the Cross, and I prayed very much that we might be kept safe.

At once, the hand slowly sank down out of sight, and I knew the danger was gone. I did say a thankful prayer and fell at once into a peaceful sleep.

We stayed in that spot for several weeks, but I never felt the evil influence again near the caravan.

But, I did not feel happy in some places and would not for anything have walked alone on the moor at night or on the Tor above our caravan.”

Unknown Time Encounter

This one doesn’t have an exact date, unfortunately – so let’s just say it happened sometime!

Journalist Rufus Endle had a strange experience that he told Michael Williams, author of Supernatural Dartmoor.

Anyway, Endle claimed that he was driving near Postbridge when a pair of hands gripped the steering wheel, and he had to violently fight for control.

Luckily, he was able to avoid crashing and regained control of the vehicle, and the hands seemed to vanish into thin air.

Due to this story being what even Endle would call unusual and strange, he requested that it not be published until after his death out of fear of ridicule.

Anonymous Encounter

One of my sources is We are South Devon, including an anonymous post, which of course, all know holds a ton of weight.

This is the quote: “I live on the road that goes toward Princetown, but I have heard it happen to people elsewhere in Devon…

My uncle was working for builders late on a site when he got held up and came home a different way and had to go down that same road. He was driving a small van and said it was very dark & at first, he felt like the van was being followed or someone was watching him and just felt spooked anyway. Then he thinks he saw someone on the side of the road, but he knew no one was there.

When he went further down the road, he felt his van grabbed by a force, and he could not keep the steering wheel straight so he was going to go into the side of the road.

He is a builder and a big strong man, not a weakling, and was trying to turn the wheel as hard as he could but no way.

Then he felt something ON the wheel and looked down – as his eyes were just on the road till then – and saw pair of large hands covered in hair on the wheel, grabbing it and pushing the other way.

His van went up on the verge and banged hard onto the grass moor and almost wound up hitting a tree but stopped. Just then the hands disappeared, but he was really scared and lucky someone came up the road a few minutes later behind him in another car and stopped to see he was alright as he was up on the bank so had clearly come off the road – and he was alright but was in shock.

My uncle still swears blind that this happened to him, and he is not someone who admits to things like this. That was 20 years ago, but he did not know about the story of hairy hands till he was told about it.”

January 2008 Encounter

Michael Anthony was a supplier of photo-copying machines in Great Britain, and his work him to Postbridge.

On January 16, 2008, he was meeting a potential client, and while irrelevant to the story, he killed it and successfully sold it to him.

So, good for him. I don’t like sales, that’s why I’m in marketing personally.

Anyway, after his meeting, he found himself on B3212 late that night, around 11 pm heading back to the city of Bristol.

He had barely left Postbridge when his skin began to feel distinctly cold and clammy, followed by a deep sense of dread.

This confused Anthony as there was no legitimate cause for this dread. It was a leisurely drive, and he landed and made his sales – he should be feeling on top of the world.

Instead, all he felt was fear overtaking his body and senses.

A few minutes later, a powerful, oppressive wave saturated the car. It felt malevolent, and his hands started going numb.

At this point, he was thinking that he may be suffering from a stroke.

A quote from the article,

“Anthony could only look on in both complete horror and disbelief as a very large pair of hair-covered hands, or “paws,” as he described them, encased his own hands and then suddenly attempted to forcibly steer the car towards the edge of the road. To his credit, Anthony struggled valiantly with the wheel and, on three occasions, fought off the actions of the spectral, hairy intruder in his midst.

Interestingly, after the third attempt, said Anthony, the hands simply vanished into thin air amid a brief flash of light. The shaken driver floored the accelerator and did not stop until he reached one of the service stations on the M5 motorway.”

Reddit Story

“My name is Sally, and I experienced what I believe was the hairy hands of Dartmoor in 2016.

I’m from the USA, but I was visiting extended family in the area of Dartmoor.

I knew nothing about the area or anything. I just got my passport and was excited to finally travel outside the country, which I had never done in my 24 years before. Not even to Canada.

I had a great time with my family during my visit until the one fateful night.

If what I’m about to tell you didn’t happen, it would have been an unremarkable evening that I’d never think of again. It was a cool evening; there wasn’t much moonlight, so it was pretty dark.

I was driving along, and I felt a weird feeling in my stomach just like something was wrong.

I thought maybe I forgot something at my family’s house, but then I quickly thought oh well, if it’s important enough, they can ship it to me.

I thought that would take care of the feeling, but it didn’t. It actually grew worse.

My hair started standing up on my neck. I didn’t know why my body was reacting this way, but then I realized there was a heavy pressure against the back of my head and neck.

But my head wasn’t leaning on the neck rest.

I quickly jerked my head around, which alleviate the pressure, but I didn’t see anything.

This made me swerve the car as my attention shifted behind me. I quickly clasped the wheel, focused ahead, and shook my shoulders to try and shake the jitters.

That is when I felt a very distinct feeling on my shoulder, a hand clasping it.

Before I could look down, seemingly from nowhere but the shadows behind me, two large, hairy hands whipped around me and snagged onto the steering wheel.

At the same time, it felt like my car started going faster. I panicked. First, I tried regaining control of the steering wheel; then, I tried pulling back the hand as my car started swerving left and right.

I don’t know how I came to this conclusion, but I closed my eyes and started reciting a small prayer my mother taught me when I was a child.

In hindsight, closing my eyes was pretty dumb, but I think I felt like I had nothing to lose at this point; the hands were too powerful.

Eventually, my car came to a halt. I peeked my eyes open, and I was parked off the left side of the road, my chest heaving in and out and my fight or flight senses raging, but I was alone.

I never told my extended family about what happened. To be honest, I don’t know how to tell this story without sounding crazy. I just feel lucky to still be alive.”

Possible Explanations For These Chilling Stories

Let’s go over some possible explanations.

Magnetic Rocks

A well-known writer in the area, Beatrice Chase, had a theory as to why people were getting flung from the road. She had expressed that she drove on the road and saw a car ahead of her swerve out of control momentarily.

Beatrice found this strange, considering that the particular stretch they were on was fairly straight, and the car was driven cautiously and slowly. When they approached the skidmarks on the road, she mention that they were “almost right angular” and that she had “never seen such a thing”.

“May I suggest that these things may be due to magnetic rocks of which there are many on Dartmoor?”

She considered the idea that the magnetic currents could have been more powerful due to the season being extraordinary.

Beatrice goes on to say that it could have a connection with the metal found in the motorized vehicles that were often the targets of the ghostly grip. The metal handles could work as a conductor for the magnetic rocks, causing a jolt to the driver.

This was dismissed pretty quickly… but a unique thought. If you have seen the movie OLD, that is what this kind of made me think of in a way.

Hairy Hands Was Dr. Helby

One theory is that it is the spirit of Dr. Helby.

Whether or not it is him causing to do harm, we don’t know. But his experience is what kind of started the whole thing, and what if it’s like a lasting memory or energy where he then tries to swerve the steering wheels of others?

It could be more of a loop thing that he’s stuck in rather than something vengeful, but I don’t know.

Incomplete Spirit

One idea from Dr. Ellis Powell, who is a journalist with a love for the paranormal, claimed that the Hairy Hands was a temporary, infrequent, or incomplete presence.

It was brought into the world through hateful or carnal thoughts and emotions. While this idea may seem a bit farfetched, we are talking about disembodied man hands here.

The second idea was from Ruth E. St. Leger-Gordon, who was the author of The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor.

She believed that the hands were a result of entities that were “disembodied matter” that existed somewhere in an unknown middle between the spiritual world and our own.

You, or someone, has mentioned Bigfoot being interdimensional. What if this is a big-foot type of beast that can seamlessly slip into another dimension when it chooses?

Skepticism

Skepticism is mostly around the idea that it is a poorly lit, rural-ish road surrounded by the national park. With all of the granite, sometimes it stacks and constricts the road, and it could be hard to see late at night.

Other theories are the idea that there are two pubs in Postbridge, and perhaps some of the folks indulged in a little adult beverages before jumping into their vehicles or on their bikes.

The Invisible Hairy Hands

What do you think, Bizarros? 

Are there a pair of ghostly hands causing motor vehicle accidents in the UK? 

Could it be mechanical failures and people are seeing a pair of hands in a stressful moment?

Or is it the Hairy Hands Of Dartmoor #unbelievable?