I WAS very interested to read about Beryl Ryan and Indie's encounter with the large black cat, the so-called 'Black Beast.'

Today, my boyfriend, Paul, and our dog, Ciro, were out walking in the Forest, having parked our car not far from the Cycle Centre in an area signposted Speculation by a Forestry Commission sign.

We left the car park, walking the path that takes you in the direction of the Serridge Enclosure. There is a house there where two Alsatians/German Shepherds often bark as you go by, which they did on this occasion, perhaps because of our dog. However, just as we were passing this house, we were aware of – and, I must add, distinctly heard! – an extra sound which got our attention instantly as for all intents and purposes it was like listening to the low-pitched growling of a lion or tiger at the zoo!

As you can imagine, on hearing such a sound, we stopped in our tracks, asking each other 'have you just heard what I've just heard?', and we had. In fact, the repeated growling went on for some time, and sounded very close, as if whatever it was might suddenly appear before us at any moment. To minimise any potential fear factor, I even tried to talk myself into trying to believe that what I was hearing might be a wild pig or boar or something but that just didn't fit – the growl was too much like that of what I would attribute to a big cat.

We stopped and looked into the ferns and trees to see if we could see this animal, saw nothing, but did hear more growls. We made jokes about 'what would you do if..?' and afterwards I even joked to Paul that when we got back home we would probably read something in the local paper about the local 'black beast' (which, of course, we did), as let's face it, many country areas abound with such stories and the people who track them.

Anyway, we decided to relate our experience to your paper, should you be collating details of reported sightings, or if you are perhaps in touch with any local person who is trying to track this big cat down and who would therefore be interested in receiving such information. If the latter, we would be happy to relay out story to them. We took a look at the Ordnance Survey map for the area and suggest 629143 as the grid reference for where we heard this cat. – Clare Benfield, Paul Whitton and Ciro, Jubilee Road, Lydney.