Children investgate 'Creature From Curridge'

The bushy-tailed, long necked creature was spotted by West Berkshire businessman, Don Prater, at about 4.55pm on October 3.
The 67-year-old, who owns Yarn Fest at Hillier Garden Centre in Hermitage with his wife, Christine, was walking his Border Collie called Bozzy when he spotted the animal behind the Women’s Institute Hall in Curridge.
As yet, no-one has been able to identify the beast, so pupils from Curridge Primary School have decided to examine the case.
Teacher of year three and four pupils in willow class, Lisa Wilson said: “We started writing poems about the creature and then we created books about the creature with moving parts.”
In the pupils’ story the creature visits the school, playing in the playground, eating food in the kitchen before wrecking the headteacher, Marilyn Dollard’s office.
A number of the pupils, such as Ben Morris claim to have seen the animal
“It looks like a llama with a long neck and a long squirrel’s tail and cat-like ears that stand up,” he said.
While Lucy Shires said her one-year-old cat called Poppy has also seen the creature.
“When poppy first saw it she ran away, but then I was her jump on the creature’s back,” she added.
Others, like Emily Wallace have not seen the animal, but have heard strange noises in the village.
“I heard a hissing coming from the woods,” Emily said.
Friends Josh Northford and Jake Murray have composed a song about the creature, which they perform to classmates.
Mr Prater, who is yet to see the creature since October 3, said: “I think it’s a great idea that the class have done a project on the creature.
“I actually went to see the school the day after I spotted the creature to see if they had seen anything.
“Nobody can come up with anything credible as an explanation. The most staggering thing about the creature was the length of its neck.”
General consensus in the Newbury Weekly News newsroom is that the creature, depicted in Mr Prater’s sketch (pictured), looks like an alpaca or llama.