What happened
According to the most frequently repeated version, on April 17, 1976, sisters June and Vicky Melling, on vacation in Cornwall with their family, saw a large winged being – a “feathered bird-man” – hovering above the tower of the church in Mawnan. Their father, frightened by their account, reportedly cut the family holiday short. The story was publicized by Tony “Doc” Shiels, a magician and showman, who claimed that one of the girls had given him a drawing of the creature, and he named it the Owlman. According to Shiels, on July 3 of the same year two fourteen-year-olds, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, camping in the area, described “a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man,” with glowing eyes and black talons. Isolated reports from around the church were also made in 1978, 1979, 1989 and 1995.
Witnesses
According to Tony Shiels – sisters June and Vicky Melling, and later Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry; their accounts are known almost exclusively through him.
Explanations and hypotheses
Church towers are a favorite nesting place of barn owls, and Joe Nickell believes they are behind the sightings. Clergyman and broadcaster Lionel Fanthorpe pointed to the Eurasian eagle-owl – Europe's largest owl, with ear-like feather tufts – which could have escaped from captivity. Occult historian Gareth Medway noted that the witnesses were in contact only with Shiels, known for “monster raising” and hoaxes, and that those who wrote to the newspapers were never interviewed. He suspects that the whole affair was Shiels's own creation.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
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