Trentzilla

The "Trentzilla" is a giant snake or serpent-like monster purported to live in the River Trent. It is reported to be green and/or white, snake-like, around 10-12 metres long and at least a metre in diameter.

First sighted in 1876, various theories have been put forward to try to classify the creature, ranging from a hoax or drunken tom-foolery to the suggestion that the creature is a surviving species of dinosaur or that it is a previously undiscovered species of long necked seal. In the absence of a carcass or a living specimen, identity explanations depend only on eyewitness accounts and low-quality photographs.

The monster was most famously spotted in the River Trent on the outskirts of Etruria in 1906 by tag-team wrestling duo Barry & Terry Dynamite. The two witnesses claim to have seen a long figure with stumpy horns and warts on its long neck, catching an opium pipe in its mouth when they kicked it at the monster.

Trentzilla?

In 1976, "Kelly S" sent two photographs, apparently of Trentzilla, to the Stoke Daily Gargoyle, along with a covering letter. She wrote: "It looked like an elephant trunk, but the trunk was more like a long neck with a small head at the end, like a snake's head. It had humps on its back and it moved in a sexual way. It frightened me. I would not like to see it any closer. I do not like the way it moved when swimming." Neither Kelly S nor the negatives have ever been traced. Noted local mystery writers (and key cutters) Dave and Jenny Binky have examined the copy prints, and conclude that "these photographs could well be genuine… either that, or they are fake."

Trentzilla is also the inspiration behind the 1977 horror novel 'The Trentzilla Wakes!', by local writer Phil Skank, set in a futuristic Stoke where the Trentzilla starts to destroy boats travelling on the River Trent.

Cynics have claimed that Trentzilla is nothing more than a bunch of old heroin needles and condoms that have gotten stuck together. This would be consistent with the contents of the River Trent but doesn't explain some of the sightings.