A FARMER has captured footage of what she believes could be the legendary ‘Huttock Top Beast’.

Sightings of the puma-like creature roaming the moors above Rossendale have been reported over the past six years.

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But reports have now emerged from just over the border in Rochdale which are believed to be the first time it has ventured this far south.

Farm owner Wendy Wright has released CCTV footage of a mysterious creature which savaged a chicken in her farmyard in Norden.

The footage shows a chicken in the yard of the farm, with a black animal with a fluffy tail coming into view from the left of the screen.

Wendy has released the footage after fearing that the animal may attack neighbours’ livestock.

She said: “One of our chickens went missing, so I told my husband to check the CCTV.

“All of a sudden it shows this huge black animal come up and jump over the back wall.

“It just grabbed one of the chickens out of view. It was a strange looking animal, it looked like a monkey – higher at the front than the back.”

She added: “There’s definitely something up here – it’s as big as a dog. The chicken is just a dot in comparison to it. What is worrying me is anyone else with livestock.

“We have a couple of people with highland cattle and it could attack one of them.

“It’s some horrible huge animal.”

Dog walker Stewart Lord made a similar sighting last Sunday.

He said he saw a ‘big cat the size of an Alsatian’ stood on a dry stone wall about 100 yards from him near Greenbooth reservoir in Norden.

Mr Lord, of Norden, said: “I am 110 per cent sure of what it was.

“It was a browny grey colour, its hind quarters were slightly higher than the front and it had a long, thick tail, at least three quarters of the length of its body that curled down underneath.”

The first reports of the Huttock Top Beast, so-called because the original sightings were near Huttock Top Farm, in Bacup, took place in 2008.

Terry Bork, owner of Huttock Top Farm, said he doubted the creature he saw would travel as far as Rochdale.

He said: “It wouldn’t pass through town centres. It could well be a different wild cat though.

“It’s taken a few of our sheep and large turkeys down before, about three or four years ago. We had the carcasses examined by a large cat expert and they confirmed our suspicions.”