in the early hours I was checking old 8mm tapes from my old cam corder....then I heard strange rasping noises from my side gate so I went out the front to check that all was well and then I heard the scurry and light bump and banging as whatever it was that took exception to my gate being locked and SOLIDLY locked legging it up the gaarden when it heard me kick the gate to make sure it was tight shut "bluddy cat I thought" I then heard even more rasping and of a much much heavier clawing noise from down the end of my 70 foot garden and maybe over two gardens to the left of my house so I flipped a few pebbles in the general direction of the noise and it made no difference to whatever it was that was clawing the fence two houses over. I was out the back with my elder son just now to drop the gazeebo and then I looked down the side passage to my house to the gate and i noticed quite a few large lumps of the bottom of the gate had been bitten or clawed off........a rat perhaps ...no way due to the gate is about 4 inchecs off the concrete path so it has to be something much much bigger....went down to the bottom of the garden to see if there were any tracks or claw marks on the 6 foot fence but nothing but with what I heard last night and in the ealry hours it was very very scarey just thinking back to that loud clawing and sniffing snuffling noise and I doubt it would be a badger due to how would it climb the fence......I hope the Essex Lion was a fib or is the beast of Essex on the prowl again due to we live a 3/4 of a mile up from the roman river and there were sighting there some time ago too.......eeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww...I kid you not