The Rutland and Leicestershire Panther Watch log for 2002 records that at 6.30 am on 20 August 2002 three workers in the weighbridge at the Castle Cement works and quarry at Ketton saw a large, panther-like black cat walking down the adjacent field. Security guards and a driver could see an Alsatian-sized cat at about 100 yards as it walked beside a fence near the works' lagoons.
The log's author adds that panthers and lynx were often seen near the works or in the quarry by workers or drivers from the early 1990s, and that paw print casts from around the quarry go back to 1990. He notes a vast SSSI woodland on the old quarry workings, which gives cover, and rabbits for food. He also logged a cat crossing the Tinwell bypass at 5.30 am on 2 January 2002, a mile from the quarry, with a second person reporting the same place and time a fortnight before. A 2003 report from the Essendine and Collyweston area is described as less than two miles from the cement works.
The page is a witness log kept by an enthusiast, with no independent confirmation, no photographs of the Ketton cat in the text, and the author's own interpretation of what was seen, so this record is a single-source claim of a recurring local rumour. The pin is on the quarry.
Comments