Georgek
George
Paranormal Nottingham
CHAPTER 1
UFOs
UFO - “A mysterious object seen in the sky for which it is claimed no orthodox scientific explanation can be found, often supposed to be a vehicle carrying extraterrestrials”.
U.F.O. Phenomena
Today, the Oxford English Dictionary defines UFO as a word with an inferred, rather than a specific meaning. This has not always been the case, as the word began life as an acronym, - U. F. O. = 'Unidentified Flying Object'. It was created by the United States Air Force in 1952 to describe sightings of 'flying disc shaped objects', previously referred to as 'flying saucers'. This spate of sightings began in 1947 when aviator and businessman Kenneth Arnold, reported seeing nine such objects flying in formation over Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, on 24th June of that year. Arnold's sighting was widely reported in the media and between 1947-1952 there followed many thousands of reports of 'unidentified flying objects' of various shapes and sizes, (not necessarily discs), from all over the U.S.A.
The wave of sightings of mystery objects apparently invading US airspace, coincided precisely with the start of the 'Cold War' with Russia. There was a strong belief amongst the American military and security forces that some of the reported objects might be Russian 'secret weapons' and potentially a threat to National security. The acronym U.F.O. was therefore applied to the reports until the object was identified and its threat evaluated. The paradox came when the terminology U.F.O. entered the public domain. Arnold had a strong belief that the flying disc he observed over Mt. Rainier, - identified by the media as 'flying saucers'- were of extraterrestrial origin. It was this idea which was to enter the public conscience and the military term U.F.O., has now become the word UFO, synonymous with extraterrestrial space craft.
'Foo-fighters'
It would seem that by the time of Arnold's sighting, the US military had already had experience of U.F.O's and their potential threat to National security. In November 1944, pilots of the 415th Tactical (Night) Fighter Squadron, flying over Germany by night, began to report seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing red, white, or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling Christmas tree lights and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. It wasn't long before similar reports began to filter in from other US squadrons and from the British Bomber Command. Pilots and aircrew reported that the objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control, but never displayed hostile behaviour. However, they could not be outmanoeuvred or shot down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights earned a name – in the European Theatre of Operations they were often called "kraut fireballs" but for the most part "foo-fighters". The military took the sightings seriously, suspecting that the mysterious sightings might be secret German weapons, but further investigation revealed that German and Japanese pilots had reported similar sightings.
'M.I.B (s)
Like U.F.O. the acronym M.I.B. - Men In Black – originally intended to describe a specific part of the U.F.O. phenomena, - has become a cult phenomena of its own, spawning the successful Si-Fi film franchise 'Men In Black'.
As early as 1947, American U.F.O. witness Harold Dahl, reported receiving an intimidating and threatening visit from men dressed in black suits who claimed to be government agents. Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s reports of visits by M.I.B’s, to homes or work-places of both U.F.O. witnesses and Ufologist became more frequent. Popular opinion was that M.I.B’s were either genuine government agents or in some cases actual alien entities. These may have originated from mistaken or exaggerated accounts of US security agencies investigation into reported U.F.O. incidences. However, M.I.B's have their parallel in folklore accounts of encounters with the Devil as the 'Blackman' or man dressed in black.
A typical encounter with M.I.B's describes them as; 'Sinister looking men, - usually two in number, - with pale completions, dressed in identical black suits, white shirts, black ties, black hats and sunglasses, arriving in a black often old-fashioned vehicle. There demeanour is always described as being hostile. The visits often begin with the M.I.B's feigning an interest in the U.F.O. sighting and end with open threats against the witness for their future silence regarding their U.F.O. experience.
UFO Entities
By the early 1950’s the U.F.O. phenomena in the U.S. had gained cult status. Fuelled by Arnold’s sighting of ‘flying saucers’ in June of 1947 and in the following July, – 'the rumour that an alien craft complete with occupants, had been found to have crash-landed in the desert near the small town of Roswell, New Mexico', – there was a popular and genuine wide-spread belief that the Earth was being visited by extra terrestrial beings. There were two schools of thought regarding these beings; either they were alien invaders intent on conquering our Planet, or a race of super beings, inter galactic policemen, attempting to pull us back from the brink of nuclear war and the threat of mutual annihilation. In a case of ‘art mimicking life’ – or in this instance popular belief, – two black and white Si Fi films took-up these themes; ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, released in 1951, took up the idea of the 'Galactic Policemen', whilst Earth vs. the Flying Saucers’, released in 1956, echoed the idea of hostile invasion.
Today's Ufologist have three main classes of purported UFO entities; Nordic Humans, Greys and Reptilians. From the first reported sightings of, or contact with, UFO entities, to those of the mid to late 1960's, by far the most numerous were the Nordic Humans. Around 47% of modern encounters in the USA are with the Greys, who have now become the dominant 'species' of the UFO world. Theses little grey-men, (the little green men of the Si Fi genera), first make an appearance in the Barney and Betty Hill case. The Hill's, a mixed race couple from New Hampshire, reported being kidnapped by diminutive UFO entities on the 19th/20th September 1961. Their reported abduction was first recorded in a 'best-selling book, 'Interrupted Journey', published in 1966. Following this report, rumours began to spread that the bodies of grey aliens had been recovered from the wreckage of the Roswell crash.
“The men stood about five feet to five feet four inches tall, and wore matching blue uniforms, with caps similar to those worn by military cadets. They appeared nearly human, with black hair, dark eyes, prominent noses and bluish lips. Their skin was a greyish colour”. Barney and Betty Hill case 1961.
Contactees
George Adamski: It wasn’t long before claims of contact with, and later, abductions by such beings began to appear in the media. One of the first of these so-called ‘Contactees’ was Polish/American, George Adamski. Adamski's first UFO sighting (a 'cigar shaped craft, later known as a 'mother ship'), took place over his Californian house on 9th October, 1946, a full nine months before Arnold's flying saucer sighting. After witnessing UFOs for a period of some five years, he claimed to have met and spoken-to a very human looking occupant of a Flying Saucer in the Mojave desert, California in 1951. In his book ‘Flying Saucers Have Landed’ published in 1953, Adamski stated that his alien visitor was a Venusian called 'Orthon', a member of a ‘Space Brotherhood’ who’s mission to Earth was to warn of the dangers posed by nuclear power/weapons and pollution. This encounter was supposedly witnessed by six of Adamski's friends, although it transpires that they were mere bystanders who saw nothing of the alien craft or its occupant.
Adamski's first book was an instant success. However, It had not been entirely his own work as it was co-authored by Desmond Leslie. Leslie, who's father was first cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, had been a Spitfire pilot during the War. He went on to become a celebrity in his own right as a film maker writer and musician. In 1953 Adamski wrote his second book 'Inside The Space Ships', in which he describes his continued contact with the Space Brotherhood and his travels with them aboard their spaceships. By 1960, both books had combined sales of 200,000 copies. Adamski published his third and final book, 'Flying Saucers Farewell' in 1961.
Adamski went on to turn his alleged encounters and continuing contact with aliens into a one-man industry, travelling all over the U.S. (and beyond) spreading the message of the Brotherhood to anyone who would listen, (and pay him for the privilege). Although now greatly out of favour with modern Ufologist, 'The Adamski Foundation' – which claims to hold all of Adamski's original material, - continues to support its founders original claims.
George Hunt Williamson: One of the early followers of Adamski's 'flying saucer cult', - set up at a commune at his home in Palo mar Gardens, long before the supposed meeting with Orthon, - was archaeology/anthropology student George Hunt Williamson. Williamson as a teenager, had been somewhat mystically inclined and had been attracted into Ufology by the idea of contacting 'higher beings' from space by using the age old methods of psychic communication, the Ouija-board, automatic writing and telepathy, - and later 'short-wave radio'.
George King: This side of the Atlantic, – yet another George, – a former London 'cab driver' George King, also claimed to have contact with a 'Space Brotherhood', a race of 'Galactic Super Beings'. King claimed to have had his first telepathic message in 1954 from one of the beings, yet another Venusian, calling himself, 'The Cosmic Master Aetherius'. King went on to found a pseudo religion called the 'Aetherius Society'. George King died in 1997 aged 79. The Aetherius Society continues to operate as an International organisation.
Nottingham U.F.O. Group
It was their war time experience of 'foo-fighters' that drew together a group of ex- R.A.F. pilots and air crew to form, - in the late 1950's, - the core of one of Nottingham's first U.F.O groups. For the most part, during their time on active service, they had been forbidden to talk about their encounters with these true U.F.O's and after, had kept their experience secret through fear of ridicule. Despite their often terrifying and traumatic war time bombing missions, these 'hard nosed' veterans had been deeply effected by their U.F.O. experience and had come together to try to make sense of what they had seen.
One of these men, 'Stan W.' [full name withheld], airman on a Lancaster Bomber, had flown over 35 missions and had twice been 'shot down'. Stan had witnessed the foo-fighter phenomena on several occasions and in the mid 1960's described to this author one of his most memorable encounters; “Witnessed by the whole crew of the Lancaster, a number of glowing balls of light flew alongside the aircraft in an apparently controled formation. After flying alongside for some distance, one of the spheres broke from the formation and with apparent ease, entered the plane's fuselage on the left-hand side close to the tail section. Slightly larger than a 'football', once inside the aircraft, the sphere hovered for some time as if observing the astonished crew. It then travel forward at some speed along the length of the fuselage, before exiting on the right side just behind the cockpit. Outside, the sphere joined it companions which were now flying alongside the aircraft on its right side. The whole formation then banked sharply to the right and accelerated out of sight”. It was this experience which had led Stan into the study of U.F.O's, seeking an understanding of the intelligence that he was convinced had been behind his own encounter.
A close friend of Stan and leading member of the Nottingham group was Alex Kenyon [name already in the public domain]. Kenyon was a devout follower of Adamski and in 1965, he contacted the U.F.O. celebrity and asked if he would include a stop-over in Nottingham during his next tour of the UK. To his everlasting, bitter disappointment Adamski died in the April of that year. By the time of his death, many of Adamski's claims had been proven false or at best spurious and the man himself exposed as an artful con-man. Like many other U.F.O. groups at the time and since, Adamski and the other contactees were largely ignored by the majority of its members in favour a more scientific approach. Their primary interests lay in examining U.F.O. reports for evidence of 'nuts and bolts', - (real and solid) alien space craft, which they were convinced existed. Kenyon's adherence to a belief in Adamski, despite the fact that he had been discredited, led to a schism in the group and with a few followers, he left under something of a cloud. Soon after, he began to let it be known that he too was a 'contactee'.
Around the time the schism took place another more sinister event happened. The groups 'Honorary Secretary', was a man in his late fifties who had studied the U.F.O. phenomena for a number of years and had amassed a library of books and files. At an extraordinary meeting of the group he announced that he had received a visit from M.I.B’s at his home in Wollaton. These two men had told him in no uncertain way that unless he gave up his interest in U.F.O’s, his house would be fire-bombed. Within days of the alleged visit he had sold or given away his entire collection of books, photos and journals and removed every reference to U.F.O’s from his home. Fellow members of the club, even those who had been his fiends for many years, never heard from him again.
The Nottingham U.F.O. group did not survive the lost of two of its prominent members and by the turn of the decade had cease to exist. However, Kenyon and his cronies continue their search for and supposed contact with UFO's.
Universal Alien Contact Society
“There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds”
'Starman' David Bowie1972
The UACS, was established sometime in 1965 by a group of 14 to 15 year old schoolboy U.F.O. enthusiast at Margaret Glen-Bott Secondary Modern School, in part of Wollaton Park Nottingham. This author was one of the founder members. For the purpose of this book and it's narratives the other principle member were; [First names only] Peter, George, Gerry, Will, John, Graham, Roy, Tony, Kieth and later Wendy.
This was the year of the 'Warminster Thing' when the town of Warminster in Wiltshire was at the epicentre of a 'U.F.O. Flap'. At first the group was simply an unofficial 'after-school U.F.O., club at a time when the subject was hardly ever out of the media. We met irregularly at the various homes of members, principally that of George, a house on *********** Wollaton. His home had a brick garage which amply accommodated us. We did not know it at the time but this ordinary suburban house was to become the centre of some extraordinary paranormal activity. For a short time, perhaps no more than a month we functioned as any other U.F.O. group, - studying reported sighting and where possible contacting witnesses. We even went as far has having our own witness questionnaires printed.
Our proudest moment was when we had a completed questionnaire returned by a Police Officer who had become a National celebrity after witnessing a U.F.O. whilst on duty in North Yorkshire. Although we established contact with other U.F.O. groups and societies, including the National group, BUFORA and later the local Nottingham group mentioned earlier, because of our age, we were never taken seriously.
First Contact
”Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft
You've been observing our earth
And we'd like to make a contact with you
We are your friends.”
Carpenters, 1976.
We were an enthusiastic crew and avidly read every book on U.F.O's we could find in our local library including those by George Adamski, however one school-day, one of our group, - I think Will, - produced from his bag a book that was to change our lives forever, 'The Saucers Speak' by George Hunt Williamson. To us, this was like a self-help manual on how to contact the intelligence behind UFO's – Flying Sauces. After a few days of passing the book from hand to hand we were ready to make our attempt to contact aliens using the age old tried and tested method of psychic communication, the 'ouija board'. I can't remember where and when we first gathered around our home made 'board', but is likely to have been at a weekend at our little garage 'club-house'.
The five or six teenage boys, - including myself, - who carefully placed their index-fingers on the upturned glass that first time, were totally unprepared for what happened next. Almost immediately the glass began to move seemingly of its own accord. Indicating each letter in-turn the message 'Agfa Affa calling Saras', was spelt-out. All though none of those present had read Williamson's book from cover to cover, we knew enough to know that we had achieve our first contact with the UFO entities. Agfa Affa was one of the leading contacts in Williamson's book and Saras 'their' name for our Earth.
The House On R..........................
Little did we know at the time, but this first session with the ouija board had opened the door to a 'paranormal world' we would never be able to fully close. It was to be the occupants of the house on R................ Drive, Wollaton, George and his family, who were to 'suffer' the full force of what we had unwittingly released. Of all the years I've known George, I believe I only met his father fleetingly on two occasions. He was an engineer working away from home most of the time, which meant that the permanent occupants of R................ Drive were George, his younger brother, there mother and elderly grandmother, - both the latter were of Greek Cypriot decent, - an important fact the relevance of which will become clear later. All four members of the family witnessed the paranormal events which began almost from the moment the glass began to circle the letters of our home-made ouija board.
If it were not for the fact that we were talking about the subject of U.F.O's I would say that the house became haunted by a poltergeist type phenomena, witnessed on more than one occasion by the family and any guests who were present at the time. The centre of this activity appeared focused on the outside area around the garage (our meeting room) and George's bedroom. The bedroom activity included the noise of someone moving around inside whilst the room was known to be empty. This often coincided with the appearance of large 'wet footprints' on the old-fashioned linoleum floor, which on occasions continued beneath the bed. These prints often took hours to disappear. On one occasion a perfectly formed six-fingered human hand print appeared on the outside of the bedroom window and remained until the next visit by the 'window-cleaner'.
Perhaps the most alarming and potentially dangerous occurrence was a kind of electrical discharge phenomena. George takes up the story: “I think it was one Saturday evening back in 1966 when my brother and I were watching The Fugitive on TV as my mother made her way to the garage to collect her ironing board to press our washed clothes. Suddenly there was a great big explosion outside as the TV picture frame shrunk to a single horizontal in the centre of the screen, only to return to normal after a couple of seconds. My mother however came running into the house in a state of shock. Just before opening the garage door to pick up the ironing board, a streak of light shot through the gable roof above her head, only to travel down the light chord near the window and split into two, like a fire cracker with a thunderous explosion. A matter of two seconds and she would have been at that very spot. As we opened the garage door (all doors were locked and windows shut), there remained a very strong smell of ozone. Perhaps like a burnt out sulphur rock which lasted for about five minutes and was then gone”.
It is a matter of record that U.F.O. activity also increased in the skies above Nottingham. Again I will let George take up the story: “Lights and fireballs continued to flash across our skies, so much so, that The Evening Post started reporting a UFO flap in Nottingham. When Jenny Randles [well known Ufologist] invited me for coffee in Manchester, we discussed some of these sightings and her data base indicated a sharp peak in UFO activity in Nottingham at that time. In actual fact...things were so common we began take a lot for granted....but our electricity supply could not stand the strain and we had continuous black outs as these UFOs zoomed across our skies. On one occasion, the UFO activity was so fierce with lights in the sky, that they blew our master fuses of 2X 50 amps. If these had not blown, then the substation at the top of the road would have burnt out. I recollect the service engineer removing two cartridge type tubes as the main two inch pipe cable went underground and refitting new ones. What are we looking at 24Kw of power sucked through our roof by inductance”.
Lights in the sky above the Wollaton property, or search-light type beams illuminating the garden became common place and George and his brother (never a member of the group), began to signal back in 'Morse code' using a torch: “These flicks were so common that on one occasion when a familiar bang emanated from around our house my brother and I ran outside and shone a torch into the night sky as a signal. Only for a bright flash to be returned back to us by a light that lit up our garden as if it was daytime. We proceeded to return these flashes in sequence and after a three second delay the light was returned back to us in exactly the same duration of Morse signals as we sent out. Perhaps twenty times as we received twenty replies all in regulated responses! As we sent our last signal, after a five or six second delay, the late flashed BEYOND the horizon”.
One specific incident appears to have sealed the approval of our group's new name and its logo. Following our first contact, our little band met together to decide the name for our 'new look' group. My suggestion the Universal Alien Contact Society - UACS, - was excepted. It was a few days later that Will came up with a logo. Whilst doing his 'technical drawing' homework one evening Will was inspired to produce a design based on what he thought would be the 'front elevation' and 'plan' of a UFO type known by our contacts as a 'Master Craft' – described by them as 'heel shaped'. His design consisted of a simple rectangle over a heel shape. Approved by senior members of the group Pete and I set-about having sample ID cards printed to show other members, none of which had seen Will's original design. A day or so later Pete and I were on our way up R........... Drive to show our new cards to George. As we approached the house we were surprised to see him waiting for us by the gate and even more surprised when he ran to greet us. It seems that he was anxious to tell us about an event which had happened the previous evening. It appears that during one of the now familiar flash and bang incidents, George and his brother had rushed outside. Immediately, using a torch, George began to repeatedly flash out a message in old fashioned 'Morse Code';[-.. - /.- / -.- /… = U, - A, - C, - S,]. The reply came almost immediately in the form of a bright light image projected onto the 'coal-house wall'. George produced a drawing of the symbol he had made later that evening. He recalls the dramatic moment when I withdrew from my breast pocket one of our newly printed cards bearing our new logo. The two symbols had only one slight difference, the pointed ends to the ends of the heels shaped plan. Perhaps Will had gotten his version wrong and the light symbol was the true shape of the Master Craft? However, we could not afford to have our precious cards reprinted and our version of the logo became the groups badge until it broke up in the mid 1970's. This kind of synchronicity happen to use all so frequently it became common place.
Radio Contact
Over the next few weeks following our first experiment with the 'Ouija board' our contact sessions were almost on a daily basis. When ever two or more of the group gathered together, we would produce some kind of home-made board and attempt, - usually successfully, - contact. Individually, we used another form of psychic communication, 'automatic writing'. This method involves using a pencil or pen held over a piece of paper whilst in a meditative state of mind. However, these methods of contact did not seem to be enough for the UFO entities and we were constantly requested to acquire a radio transmitter.
George was always the 'technical one' of our group for two very good reasons, the first of which was that he has a scientific mind. More importantly he was the fact that he was lucky enough to have parents who could afford to indulge his passions for the latest gadgets. It is no surprise then that our first radio receiver/transmitter was created by George using a 'reel to reel' tape-recorder linked to a plastic, Russian transistor-radio. An electric cable attached to a 3m bamboo pole in the garden acted as a 'dipole areal'. After some time and following at least two occasions where the transmissions were intercepted by a mobile unit from the G.P.O., George manage to uses the metal guttering of the house as an areal.
I do not know the technical details of how this primitive device worked and the reader must forgive me if I have gotten any thing wrong. The first experiments with the device proved that using 'Amplitude Modulation', a voice transmission could be broadcast on 2000m Long Wave which was received at a distance of around 137m from his home. Will was later to insist that he had received George's transmissions at his home in Radford over 1.5kms. Away.
Needless to say, George's efforts were rewarded appropriate replies to our transmissions were received in the form of very raped Morse Code signals on the same frequencies as used by the Contactees in Hunt Williamson’s book. Within a year, two members of the group, Keith and Roy, had acquired second-hand army surplus radio transmitters and had become licensed 'radio-hams'. They too became a part of 'The Saucers Speak' phenomena, receiving messages transmitted from an unknown origin in a rapid Morse Code signal.
Paranormal Incident
Georges improvements to his primitive equipment were not without the direct help of the UFO entities. George takes up the story: “Alone in the house, I was in the living room, when I heard loud movement [footsteps] up towards the ceiling, which I understood it to be coming from my bedroom. Then the sound of my tape recorder being operated, as I could clearly hear the spring loaded toggle switches move in a series of thuds followed by the whirling of tape. I cannot remember every movement, but the sound was a person operating my tape recorder which was positioned on the linoleum floor almost directly above my head. When I say ‘loud’ there was no imagination or concealment of noise. My curiosity was greater than my fear and my stupidity greater than all! I ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time in order to catch whoever was doing this. I had spent a long time ‘rattling my brain’ what they looked like, and now was my chance to find out. I swung my bedroom door wide open and ran in. Silence! I carefully wondered in to see what I could find, and the reason why I could hear all these noises. It was most strange that all physical activity seemed to have stopped! The tools I used were quite limited and consisted of a pair of scissors which I always used for cutting the plastic sheath of battery wire. For a screwdriver I used kitchen knife (eating knife) with a round end. Instead of being in its usual place, the knife was along side the recorder and seemed to have pieces of red plastic on the cutting blade. Perhaps it is possible to cut wire in this way, but I never tried. This shocked me, as the wire was shaved similar to the way you would sharpen a pencil with a pen knife. I looked at my recorder to find that my wiring had been undone and new wires that had just been cut with the knife were reinserted in a different way. Using the 'phono radio socket' instead of the speaker socket. It was as if someone was showing me the correct way to wire it. Whatever the case, I could not see how it would work, as I was using a term called ‘negative feedback’. But work it did and in a much more effective way.
Paranormal Images
I make no claims for any of the images reproduced in this book and do not offer them as proof of any form of paranormal phenomena. Along with a description, I have given as far as possible, an accurate account as to how the images were obtained. One thing I can say for certain is that they have not been deliberately manufactured to deceive, they are not fakes!
The Six Frames: In May 1966, George received a 'Boots Super 8 Film Cine Camera' as a birthday present. He remembers that this cost his parents the princely sum of £8 and was purchased from a Boots store in Bilborough, Nottingham. With his first roll of film George ventured into the world of movie making. Images on that film are burned into my brain for many reasons, not least of these is the fact that when ever any of the group called around to see him, George insisted on treating us to a film show. There is only so many times you can watch someone's home movie without becoming bored. It is for this reason then that when, some months later, having been urgently summoned to his house, I was a little cross when he greeted me at the door and declared “You must see the film. Something has happened to it”.
George ushered me into the front room where he had already drawn the curtains and set up the projector. I was surprised then, that instead of putting the film in the waiting machine, he began to unroll it, occasionally holding it up to the light to see the images on it. He stopped at a point where he had casually filmed an aeroplane flying across the sky, whilst standing on the drive between the house and the garage. Excitedly he thrust the film and a small magnifying glass into my hands and told me look at a section which appeared to have turned a deep shade of green. At first I could see nothing until George held up a table lamp to provide more back-light. I will never forget what I saw next.
In the vain hope of capturing an unseen UFO, whilst standing on the drive between the house and the garage, George had photographed an aeroplane flying across the blue sky. Towards the end of this 'footage' six of the individual frames appeared to have taken on an over-all green hue through which could be seen colour images not part of the original film. Examining the film carefully, I found that it had no surface irregularities and had certainly not been 'spliced', a fact confirmed to me a number of years later.
The first two frames showed the head and shoulders of a young man seated at a table, rather in the fashion of a TV news-reader. I estimate that he was around 30 years old, - certainly much older than any member of the group. Looking to his right, slightly 'off camera' and had a warm smile on his face. His long sandy coloured hair reached to his shoulders and framed his handsome olive skinned face. He appeared to be wearing some kind of pale blue robes bellow which was a round necked shirt of the same colour.
The second two frames showed a room setting with the camera pointing towards an open window and connected door on the left. Through the window could be seen the branches and trunks of leafless trees and in the distance a range of hills. The overall impression was that the 'room' was somehow above ground level by several feet. This was impart confirmed by the fact that at the bottom of the door could be seen the head of a figure with long hair, apparently standing outside. Directly bellow the window and running its full length was what I can only describe as a 'control panel'. Again this is confirmed by the fact that at the door end were what appeared to be two leavers with spherical knobs on the top.
The final two frames showed the figure, from the waist up, of a man I estimate to be in his 50's. He appeared to be wearing a long sleeved, tight fitting top with a round neck. On his head, - which had short hair, - he wore a 'skullcap'. Turned towards the camera, his face was animated and his mouth open as if shouting. His left arm was raised with the index finger extended as if gesturing an objection to being filmed. The object or figure to the left of the frame has always been something of a mystery. Positioned just in front and to the left of the camera operator some have suggested that it is the back of a persons head close enough to the camera to be out of focus. However, I have always taken it to be an unknown piece of machinery again out of focus. Whatever the object is, it would have been at head hight to the camera.
Later that day the whole group gathered to watch the film, but the problem was that the projector could not be slowed-down enough to get a clear view of the six frames. Later that week George solved the problem by mounting the six frames as a photographic slide. Shown on a slide-projector, we had our first clear look at the images that had somehow imposed themselves on the cine-film we had all watched many times. Our contacts on the other-side of the 'Ouija board' remained silent on the subject, but the radio was something else. At about the same time he had discovered the six frames, George had received and recorded a radio broadcast in Morse Code, lasting many hours. When translated the message was a single three word sentence 'Ship Under Tree', repeated over and over again.
There followed many hours if not days discussion. The consensus of opinion was that the images were a deliberate subliminal message from our friends. Around this time film companies and advertisers had been experimenting with the idea of subliminal messaging. It is a fact that a single frame on a reel is not registered by the conscious mind but is absorbed by the subconscious, thus planting a message or idea in the brain. It had been the idea of the motion picture industry to use this technique to enhance mood in a film by using a single frame containing an appropriate word or image. Although there are rumours that certain films contained such subliminal messaging, the idea was fervently rejected as being fundamentally abhorrent.
For some reason now forgotten, the slide containing the six frames was placed into my care. It is a fact that outside the group, few people ever saw the slide. One exception to this was one of the science teachers at our school. One evening after school, a small delegation from our group presented the slide to a physics teacher whom we trusted. He was told nothing of our activities, only the strange appearance of the images on the film. We watched as for several minutes he studied the slide using a light and magnifying-glass. Slowly the colour began to drain from the man's face and his only comment when he handed the slide back was, “I don't know what you boys are into, but I suggest that you stop right now.” He never mentioned the subject again.
The next time the slide was shown to a third party was in 1968 when I was 17. I was given the opportunity to 'flat-sit' for family. It was thus that I found myself along with Peter, spending a weeks holiday in London. We had decided that this would be a good opportunity to introduce ourselves the Aetherius who's head office was on Fulham High Road. We expected to be greeted as fellow 'Contactees' and our slide excepted as evidence. However, we were bitterly disappointed and never made it past reception. We were told that we could only present our evidence if we became full members of the Society, in which case anything we had would become their property. Needless to say, this was not expectable to us and we made our retreat never to have contact with the Society again.
Over the time whilst the slide was in my possession the green colouration to the film had become more intense and it was increasingly difficult to see the images unless under very strong light. I began the practice of keeping and carrying the slide in a tin which had once contained miniature cigars, as it was just the right size and seemed to offer the right sort of protection. To my great shame, soon after returning from London, I sat-down on a hard chair with the tin in the back pocket of my trousers. When I removed the bent container, I found that the glass on the slide had shattered. As I carefully removed the tiny fragments I noticed that there was an ultra-thin 'green skin' or coating flaking off one side of the film. As it did so it turned from a 'bottle green' to black and seemed to evaporate without trace. Revealed bellow were the six frames showing the original 'blue sky' images. With all of this green material gone, the 'paranormal images' had complete disappeared.
The Pop Group: It was to be another 7 years before George was to receive an unexpected paranormal image on a roll of film. By this time I was no-longer a member of the UACS, - in fact the group had all but disbanded, - and I had deliberately lost all contact with George. It was to be nearly another 40 years and the writing of this book, before we resumed our friendship. After seeing the image in-question for the first time I gave it the name 'The Pop Group'.
In late December 1975, George loaded his 'Topcon IC1 35mm' camera with a Kodacolor II, 100 I.S.O. film. Having taken the 12 exposures over the Christmas holidays, in January 1976, he sent the film to Kodak to be processed. Pleased with the resulting slides George examined the negatives only to find an additional image on what was supposed to be the 'trail of the roll'. The position of the image on the negatives indicates that the exposure occurred at least two stops beyond the last image on the roll. Rather than taking up the full area of the frame the image is confined to the centre. George returned the negatives to Kodak with a letter asking for a print of the exposure and an explanation as to how it might have occurred. Kodak returned a slide of the image along with the original negative but could offer no logical explanation has to how it had been produced on what is 'normally' an unreachable part of the film.
At first glance the image appears to show a three young men on or against a stage type environment. The figure on the left seems to be wearing sunglasses and holding a microphone in his outstretched left hand, - hence the Pop Group tag. The trio are dressed identically in short jackets with pointed collar shirts. The photograph has been taken from the right-hand side of the 'stage'. The faces of the figures on the extreme right and left of the frame are seen in profile, whilst the one in the centre is more 'face-on'. A closer look reveals what might be the top of the head, (long hair) of a fourth member of the group, standing close to and bellow the camera.
It has been suggested, - and I must admit it was my first thought, - that the image is a deliberate or accidental photo of alive TV screen. However, using modern technology, it is now possible to look more closely at individual parts of the image. The idea of it being the image of a live TV screen can be instantly dismissed. On an over-all magnified picture there is no evidence of the box which would surround a TV screen of this date or of any other part of the room in which such a TV might be located.
Before discussing individual parts of the image, the first thing that can be said is that it is illuminated by an intense electric blue light. There is something of an over-all bizarre quality about it with strange and uncountable distortions both laterally and horizontally. On closer inspection, what at first appears to be young men on a stage, turns into half manifested paranormal entities.
A magnified view of the figure on the left and furthest from the camera, shows that the apparent sunglasses is in-fact an absence of image, a black hole with irregular edges. Looking again at his upraised left hand it can be seen that it is open and not holding the object I have described as a microphone. The hand itself is strangely proportioned with six long and slender fingerers. The microphone or probe like object appears to emanate from the ground in a curving of 'wirer', passing between the hand and the left side of the face as a straight rod which terminates in a small sphere by the left ear. What at first appears to be a white, broad band to the edge of the short jacket the figure is wearing, can be seen to actually be a bar or arm rest sticking out of the wall behind him.
The other two entities are seen to be almost disembodied 'floating heads'. The face of the central figure has a serene and 'Lionesque' appearance. Although there is a strange distortion and partial double image to the head nearest the camera, the features are very similar to the face on the far left. Both have high curving foreheads, long slender noses and similar hair-styles.
I make no further comment on this picture and leave it to the reader to formulate their own opinion.
Unexpected Slides: Again in preparation for the Christmas celebrations in 1979, George loaded his camera, - this time an Olympus OM1, - with film, - a 'Kodachrome 25, 12 exposure'. A total of three photos were taken on Christmas Day and the camera was then put safely aside. Shortly after this, George suffered a family bereavement and took no further photos. In February 1980, expecting there to be 9 blank exposures he sent the roll of film to the Kodak laboratories for processing. When the resulting slides were returned George was surprised to find there were a total of 7 slides. In addition to the three Christmas photos there were; Two apparent 'flash photos' taken in his bedroom – one of the window and the other of a book-case above which is a framed print of 'The Last Super', by Salvador Dali. A third exposure contained an unidentified image. However, the most interesting of the four slides is a photo which appears to have been take looking directly down on the Earth from space. At the bottom of the image is the edge of a 'platform like structure'. The whole image has a strange light intensity about it. The exact location of the area of ground covered by the photo has not yet been identified. George did not know it at the time, but this image was mealy a prelude to the amazing Cyprus photo.
The Cyprus Photo: In 1987, following a driving tour of France with his partner Julie, George sent-off a roll of film to Kodak for processing. Unlike the rest, the last exposure on the film did not show the photos of the French countryside the couple had expected. Instead it appeared to show a blue sky with unusual cloud formations. For this reason, George took the slide and negative to the Meteorological Station in Watnall, Nottinghamshire. On examination he was informed that rather then being a photo taken from the ground looking up at the sky, it was completely the opposite. It was pointed out that below the clouds, the clear definition of a coast line could be seen. George realised that this image must be of a place significant to him and on returning home began to search through an atlas in order to identify the location. It soon became clear that the contours of the coast exactly matched the area around Larnaca Bay Cyprus (home to his mothers family). Recognising this image as something special, George had the foresight to place copies of the slide in a sealed envelope and post them to himself by recorded delivery.
Carrying out a little research on this image myself I showed the photo, without further comment to a friend who works at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute. Here is his unedited reply: 'It's very difficult to interpret. I can see some linear features but it's way too hazy to say if it's a coastline or not (although it's very typical of a coast). I would say it's definitely a photograph and not a typical image from a satellite as that would be from a scanner and would not look like that - the geometry would be different. It could be a photo taken by an astronaut on a standard camera - see Tim Peake's stuff for examples - but it could also be a picture of something else”. It is to be remembered that it can be proven that this photo is one of the negatives on a roll of film taken a camera back in 1983.
Nottingham UFO Case Book
The Radford UFO
Report in 'Haunted Skies' [Encyclopaedia of British UFOs] Volume 4, 1966-1967. Original source, unknown.
In reference to a Nottingham 'UFO FLAP' in 1967: “It started, perhaps, on February 13, 1967 in Radford, an area of mainly Victorian terraced houses a very short distance to the north west of the city centre. It was ten minutes to nine in the evening and Frank Earp and Gerald Montague were hard at it on their allotment. It must have been almost totally dark, dark enough, at least, to see a diamond shaped object motionless in the night sky. It had a red light underneath and suddenly changed shape before flying off at fantastic speed”.
Clifton Saucer Landing
Witness: Mass sighting Place: Clifton Estate Nottingham. Date and time: 4th July 1967, 17:45 Source: Nottingham Evening Post 5th July, 1967 and 'MUFORG' Bulletin, October 1967:
“Did a flying saucer really land in Clifton or, as the police believe, was it just an optical illusion caused as a result of the sun shining on a barn roof or on greenhouses? Last night frightened housewives and dozens of people rushed out of their homes when it was reported that a flying saucer “about 30 feet long” had landed somewhere in Clifton. According to at least a dozen people who said they saw the object, it was disc-shaped and silvery in colour and was seen travelling across the sky at about 4.45 p.m.
The object was described by independent witnesses who gave an identical account of its size, colour, direction and movements. They said they saw it clearly from the High Bank area of the estate. It had travelled about two miles from Wilford Hill to a point on the Bradmore to Plumtree road where it became confused with a barn roof.
Police in patrol cars who were called out to investigate the report later told over a hundred people gathered on high ground near Fareham Comprehensive School that it was an optical illusion caused by sunlight. But Mrs Marjorie Cowdell, of High Bank said she was amazed by the incident and teenager Denise Stanley said she saw the object clearly. “I was scared”, she added.
Several schoolboys, too, claimed it was not the first time they had seen strange objects which had scared them. A few days ago they had seen one hovering above the trees in the vicinity of a wood on the estate. Earlier on Monday, several reports of strange objects in the skies were received at the Guardian Journal offices. At one point three objects were claimed to have been sighted by three boys on their way home from school. Last night’s descriptions tally with these earlier reports.
Most of the people who say they saw the object say it seemed to have a cloud of dust or smoke around it. The “Clifton Disc” had the Air Ministry [sic] and Meteorological Office baffled. They could not account for the sighting. And at Watnall Meteorological Office a spokesman said he could not rule out the possibility of the disc being a weather balloon although at that time of the day it would be unlikely. “Whatever the cause people have no need to worry. These things have been with us a long time now and they have never done anyone any harm”, he said.
The Strelley UFOs
Witness: Frank Edmund Earp Snr. & fiancée. Place: Strelley, Nottingham. Date and time: Winter, 1971/72, c 22:00. Source: First published in Nottingham Post Lite article;
“On a clear winters evening [1971/72] at around 10 pm, I was driving my then fiancée, (now my wife), home to Chilwell. Our route took us along the B6004, Strelley Road, west towards the village of Strelley. Before entering the village, the B6004 crosses over the A6002, Bilborough Road [formally Coventry Lane], at a 'traffic light' controled junction. This crosses road is in a semi-rural location on the western boundary of the City of Nottingham. The arms of crossroads align almost perfectly with cardinal points of the compass”.
“My intention was to turn right at the junction, onto the A6004, heading south, but was briefly prevented from doing so by a 'red-light'. In those days, there were very few cars using this now busy main road, especially at this time of night. When the lights changed to green I proceeded to turn onto the A6004 and it was at this point that both of us saw high in the sky, a moving bright star like object approaching us from the south. Making a modern comparison I would say that it was like observing the International Space Station or other artificial satellite. I stop the car a little way past the crossroads and we both got out the vehicle to get a better look. Almost immediately we saw that there was a second identical object approaching from the north. The two seemed to be on a collision cause, becoming larger and brighter as they approached. Slowly the lights drew together and at a point almost directly above our heads stopped and hung side by side in the sky like two very bright stars”.
“We continued to observe them in silence for what must have been 3 or 4 minutes. Suddenly the northern light again began to move. At this stage it became apparent that this object was lower in the sky than its companion, which now seemed brighter and larger than before. Moving a little faster than its original approach, it continued south and appeared to pass bellow its still stationary companion, which now shone with the intensity of Venus, (certainly, the brightest object we could see in the sky). After several minutes the moving object was lost to view leaving our attention fixed on the bright object above our heads. It was at this point that something dramatic happened. A small pale blue, star-like light dropped from bellow the bright object. For a few seconds it appeared to free-fall and then it shot off at great speed to the west. Seconds later a second identical light dropped and shot off to the east. This was repeated twice more with one light going south and the second north. The bright object now began to move and continued its original course north. The cold night air had gotten to us at this point and we realised that we had been observing the phenomena for over half an hour. Once back in the car we continued our journey back to Chilwell. I got a telling off from my future father-in-law for bringing his daughter home late. We did not tell him the reason why”.
The Bilborough UFO
Witness: Matthew Earp + children and staff of school. Place: John Player Infant School, Bilborough. Date and time: 1984/85, Unknown. Source: Personnel account of witness and recollections of author:
“At the time I was living with my wife and two sons, Frank Jrn and Matthew, at a house in Bilborough quite close to the local school, 'John Player'. It was one lunch time in 1984/85 and my wife had brought the two boys home from school. The youngest, 6 or 7 year old Matthew was very excited and was extremely anxious to tell me about something which had happen during the morning break. The children and some members of staff were all outside in the school 'play-ground' when, in a clear blue sky they all saw what Matthew described as a “space rocket” with a fiery red and yellow exhaust flame. Unable to fully describe the UFO I asked Matthew to draw what he had seen. It turned-out to be a rather strange looking object consisting of a 'spiky' ball attached to a cylinder, from which came a bright flame. The members of staff on duty in the play-ground had reassured the frightened children by telling them that this was a rocket ship. For a time the incident was the talk of the school and I was able to confirm Matthew's account from other witnesses”.
The Beeston UFO
Witness: D.B. Maycroft. Place: Beeston. Date and time: December 1989, 23:00. Source: B.B.C. web page 'Eyewitness Accounts' (UFOs):
“I was walking home from and afternoon at work. It was about 11pm in December [1989] and it was a cold frosty clear night. I was drawn to look upwards to a noise like a loud buzzing bee. Looking towards Long Eaton. I saw a triangular shaped object. It was about 60ft long on each side and along the underside of each edge there was alternating read and blue lights. The whole thing was slowly rotating in a clockwise direction. After approximately ten minutes the lights started to go out and the object vanished.”
The Attenborough 'Triangle'
Witness: Frank Edmund Earp Jnr. & three friends. Place: Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottingham. Date and time: 1992, late summer, around 19.30/20.00. Source: Report to this author:
“It was 1992, myself, Lee, Emma and Shaun were playing some 'live role-play game' or other in the Car Park of the nature reserve.
It was summer and it was just getting dark so probably around 8.30 pm. - 9 pm. (I remember this because as we chased it I was worried that I might be late home). A dark triangular, seemingly metallic object flew slowly over the hill from the Clifton side. It was flat on the underside and convex on top and made no noise. It stopped above the river, it was odd because there was no sound, I don't remember lights or markings either. It hovered in the air motionless with no wobble, so not like a helicopter or Harrier. It then turned a swift right angle and flew off at high speed left [west] down the river towards Long Eaton. We chased it in the car but lost sight of it. The following two evenings, myself, Shaun and Emma, went out with binoculars to places further along the river. I don't remember where these were but one of them was on a hill with a lay-bye. There were lots of people about, maybe twenty or so, all in cars with binoculars. They had all come to see the same thing. We all watched the 'aircraft,' perform the same manoeuvres along the Trent. It was as if 'they' were showing off. On all three occasions it stopped and hovered above onlookers and then goes off in another direction at high speed. We never saw it again after that, but I remember speaking to lots of people that had. At the time we thought it was probably an experimental stealth aircraft, as it later reminded us all of a stealth bomber which were relatively new at the time, I think”.
Speaking to Frank he emphasised the facts that the object was solid and metallic looking, had no lights or markings and was completely silent throughout the observation periods. It transpires that the 'live role-play' game they were playing was, ironically, 'Star Wars'.
The Attenborough 'Triangle' (With Lights)
Witness: Richard Earp Jnr. & Mrs L. Earp Place: Attenborough Nottingham. Date and time: 1992, late autumn early winter, 18:00/18:30. Source: Interview with both witness by this author.
“It was around 6pm/6.30 pm. My wife Lynne and son Richard were in the kitchen of our home in Attenborough getting ready to go out of the back-door. This door opens out onto a drive-way around 10' wide. A 6' fence divides our house from the neighbouring property, with a drive-way and back-door directly opposite to ours. When looking up between the roof lines of the two properties, this gives a total space of around 20'. Richard was the first to leave the house and stepped-out onto the drive to wait for his mother. Outside, he began to look up at the dark sky between the two houses. Suddenly, what he describes as a large black triangle emerge from above the roof of our house, travelling slowly across the gap between the buildings [west to east]. Shouting back through the open door he attracted the attention of his mother, who looking up also saw the object, which by this time was clearly visible between the buildings. With Richard standing in the drive-way and my wife in the doorway, they both watched as the object slowly and silently passed between the buildings. As it began to disappear behind the roof of the neighbouring house, Richard ran out onto the front to get a better view only to find that it had gone. They were both extremely agitated at what they had witnessed. The object was described as a large black triangle with a pattern of chevron shaped red lights on its underside”.
The Breadsall Triangle
Witness: Garry Stapleton, his daughter Emma and her boyfriend Shaun Byrne Place: Breadsall, Derbyshire. Date and time: 11th November 1992, 21:50. Source: OVNI Newsletter: November 1992, report from the Phenomenon Research Association by Group Leader Omar Fowler.
“From my own correspondence with Emma she recalls that on the evening in question she and her then boyfriend Shaun [one-time friend of Frank Earp Jrn] were staying at here parents home in Sandiacre, just across the boarder into Derbyshire from Stapleford. She was unable to sleep and the three witnesses were in the garden. A sudden flash of light in the sky alerted them to a distant bright moving object which then disappeared. Her father, Garry, who was a member of the above group, the PRA, suggested that they should take a drive in the general direction in which they had seen the U.F.O. They had reached a point on a road near the Derbyshire village of Breadsall. At this point Fowlar suggests there was another flash of light before the three witnesses saw through the vehicle's open windows a 'single point of bright light approaching the car. All three got out of the car to better observe the U.F.O. Garry, a seasoned Ufologist was ready. He had a pair of 8
0 binoculars through which he was able to discern a number of other light associated with the object. The object was by all accounts pretty large, Garry described it as "awesome". Emma became agitated as the lights drew closer and wanted to return, to the car, but remained by her father. Travailing at an estimated speed of around 200 mph the triangular formation of lights passed over the witnesses at an estimated height of around 1,500', which is considered low for conventional aircraft unless landing or taking off. It made no discernible noise. With no change of speed the object continued on it south easterly line of flight in the direction of Castle Donnington [around 7 or 8 miles away] until it was out of sight”.
Garry later telephoned the East Midlands Airport, (Castle Donnington), who informed him that no aircraft should have been in that area at the time and certainly not flying that low! A Royal Perforce source also stated that the description of the object does not conform with standard aircraft identification lighting.
The Attenborough UFO (Accidental Photo)
Witness: Mr Adrian Prior Place: Attenborough [Nature Reserve] Nottingham. Date and time: 1st May 2006, 18:32. Source: UFO Digest web site, - based on original e:mail from Mr Prior, [June 26, 2006].
“Mr Prior and his girl friend Liz were walking his dog along a footpath leading from the car park of Attenborough, south-east towards the River Trent. At a site just over 300m along the path, the couple stopped to admire the view of the spire of Attenborough St. Mary's Church, around 600m almost due north of their position. At this point Liz took the opportunity to take a photo using her new digital camera. The resulting image appears to show a classic disc (flying saucer) shaped U.F.O to the right (east) of the church spire. Neither of the couple saw the UFO at the time the photo was taken”.
Saucers Return
Witness: Un-named University student. Place: House in the Park Estate, Nottingham. Date and time: 14th February 2016. No time given. Source: West Bridgeford Wire web page:
“When I witnessed the UFO I was putting the bins out at my University house. I decided to look up at the stars as it was a very clear night and they seemed particularly bright and visible on that particular night. As I looked up I noticed what at first glance appeared to be a small grey object travelling across the sky from left to right. As the object was emitting no light and making no sound I originally assumed that it was simply a night bird such as an owl flying relatively close to the ground.
However after watching the object curiously for a few seconds it suddenly and rapidly changed direction and made a sharp left turn, advancing rapidly. It then made an equally sharp right turn straight after this and once again accelerated forwards rapidly once the turn was complete.
I knew then that this could not have been a bird as I have never seen any bird make such rapid turns and accelerate so quickly and effortlessly in my life. There are planes that often fly over my house to the local airport however these are easily recognisable as planes due to their lights and the sound of the engines, the same goes for any helicopters that fly over. These facts make me firmly believe that this object was genuinely a UFO. This was my immediate reaction when i saw the object make such seemingly impossible manoeuvres in the sky. I lost sight of the object after 25-30 seconds as it simply seemed to disappear.”
This small sample of Nottingham U.F.O. cases are examples of how U.F.O's have changed shape, both literally and metaphorically, in my life time. Reflected in the sample is the fact that the U.F.O's, like other paranormal phenomena can be seen to be focused on or around families or related groups of people.
Beginning in 1967 to the present day, they also represent examples of the three major U.F.O. 'flaps' in Nottingham during this time frame. The first and second examples from 1967 mark the start and end of a mini flap which occurred throughout the County at this time. This truly remarkable 'flap' included a saucer landing (Clifton) and Nottinghamshire's, (Mansfield), own 'Rosswell incident', a crashed U.F.O. with attendant military, M.I.B. and security agents involvement.
The first case, The Radford U.F.O., represents the dangers of merely repeating historic cases. 'Haunted Skies' is the premier source for information on British U.F.O./UFO sightings. To find my name and that of my school friend, mentioned in such a work would have been something of a cue for this book, if it was not for the fact that the account is entirely untrue. Certainly, at this time we were both members of the UACS and Contactees, (a third member of the group, Will, also lived within the Radford area. One of the most frequently U.F.O's witnessed by members at this time, was in-deed a bright, electric blue spinning top. However, neither of us worked on an allotment and more importantly, as a group we never made public any of our sightings. The Clifton example is a classic mass sighting and UFO landing. What is most interesting to note about this case, is the fact that it centred on a boys school and was later seen to involve pupils of our age. It is also worth saying that it was at Clifton that Pete and I had our own encounter with an MIB whilst conducting a second interview with a fellow Ufologist.
The Strelley sighting is a classic of its kind, a “lights in the sky case study”. More importantly, it happen close to the end of my involvement with both the USACS and U.F.O's in general. I might be tempted to say that; - “it was a fond farewell from my UFO contacts”. Again the Bilborough case is a classic, this time an example of a mass sighting of a U.F.O. More importantly my own son, Matthew, was one of the witnesses and the whole incident occurred within yards of my home at this time.
Since around the around 1990 large 'Black Triangle' craft' have taken over from the usual 'flying saucers' as being, World wide, the most commonly report UFO type. Flying at a slow speed and low altitude these craft can be truly massive in size and with or without illumination. An interesting point is raised by Ufologist Omar Fowler in his study of 'Black Triangle' UFOs. When describing the common characteristics of the sightings Fowler says: "The appearance of an FT may be preceded by a flash in the sky similar to 'sheet-lightning'.”
The Beeston UFO may be one of the earliest sightings of what was to become locally known as the Chilwell or Beeston Triangle. This UFO was a part of a wave or flap of 'Black Triangles' sighted over Nottingham on a flight path from Arnold in the north east to Beeston and the Trent valley in the south west. Hardly had this flap ended when the Black Triangles returned. Beginning around the year 2000, sightings over Nottingham and parts of the County continue to this day.
I cannot account fully for the Attenborough accidental photo. However, assuming it to be a genuine UFO, using maps and computer programs, I calculated the location of the object. It appears to be hovering over the gravel works on Long Lane, Attenborough. In a straight line, slightly south east, it would have been around 472m from my home, - actually closer to me than 'Liz' and her camera.
For the last case, I have included the most up-to-date, (at the time of writing) U.F.O. over one of one of the oldest areas of the Nottingham close to the City centre.
CHAPTER 1
UFOs
UFO - “A mysterious object seen in the sky for which it is claimed no orthodox scientific explanation can be found, often supposed to be a vehicle carrying extraterrestrials”.
U.F.O. Phenomena
Today, the Oxford English Dictionary defines UFO as a word with an inferred, rather than a specific meaning. This has not always been the case, as the word began life as an acronym, - U. F. O. = 'Unidentified Flying Object'. It was created by the United States Air Force in 1952 to describe sightings of 'flying disc shaped objects', previously referred to as 'flying saucers'. This spate of sightings began in 1947 when aviator and businessman Kenneth Arnold, reported seeing nine such objects flying in formation over Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, on 24th June of that year. Arnold's sighting was widely reported in the media and between 1947-1952 there followed many thousands of reports of 'unidentified flying objects' of various shapes and sizes, (not necessarily discs), from all over the U.S.A.
The wave of sightings of mystery objects apparently invading US airspace, coincided precisely with the start of the 'Cold War' with Russia. There was a strong belief amongst the American military and security forces that some of the reported objects might be Russian 'secret weapons' and potentially a threat to National security. The acronym U.F.O. was therefore applied to the reports until the object was identified and its threat evaluated. The paradox came when the terminology U.F.O. entered the public domain. Arnold had a strong belief that the flying disc he observed over Mt. Rainier, - identified by the media as 'flying saucers'- were of extraterrestrial origin. It was this idea which was to enter the public conscience and the military term U.F.O., has now become the word UFO, synonymous with extraterrestrial space craft.
'Foo-fighters'
It would seem that by the time of Arnold's sighting, the US military had already had experience of U.F.O's and their potential threat to National security. In November 1944, pilots of the 415th Tactical (Night) Fighter Squadron, flying over Germany by night, began to report seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing red, white, or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling Christmas tree lights and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. It wasn't long before similar reports began to filter in from other US squadrons and from the British Bomber Command. Pilots and aircrew reported that the objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control, but never displayed hostile behaviour. However, they could not be outmanoeuvred or shot down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights earned a name – in the European Theatre of Operations they were often called "kraut fireballs" but for the most part "foo-fighters". The military took the sightings seriously, suspecting that the mysterious sightings might be secret German weapons, but further investigation revealed that German and Japanese pilots had reported similar sightings.
'M.I.B (s)
Like U.F.O. the acronym M.I.B. - Men In Black – originally intended to describe a specific part of the U.F.O. phenomena, - has become a cult phenomena of its own, spawning the successful Si-Fi film franchise 'Men In Black'.
As early as 1947, American U.F.O. witness Harold Dahl, reported receiving an intimidating and threatening visit from men dressed in black suits who claimed to be government agents. Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s reports of visits by M.I.B’s, to homes or work-places of both U.F.O. witnesses and Ufologist became more frequent. Popular opinion was that M.I.B’s were either genuine government agents or in some cases actual alien entities. These may have originated from mistaken or exaggerated accounts of US security agencies investigation into reported U.F.O. incidences. However, M.I.B's have their parallel in folklore accounts of encounters with the Devil as the 'Blackman' or man dressed in black.
A typical encounter with M.I.B's describes them as; 'Sinister looking men, - usually two in number, - with pale completions, dressed in identical black suits, white shirts, black ties, black hats and sunglasses, arriving in a black often old-fashioned vehicle. There demeanour is always described as being hostile. The visits often begin with the M.I.B's feigning an interest in the U.F.O. sighting and end with open threats against the witness for their future silence regarding their U.F.O. experience.
UFO Entities
By the early 1950’s the U.F.O. phenomena in the U.S. had gained cult status. Fuelled by Arnold’s sighting of ‘flying saucers’ in June of 1947 and in the following July, – 'the rumour that an alien craft complete with occupants, had been found to have crash-landed in the desert near the small town of Roswell, New Mexico', – there was a popular and genuine wide-spread belief that the Earth was being visited by extra terrestrial beings. There were two schools of thought regarding these beings; either they were alien invaders intent on conquering our Planet, or a race of super beings, inter galactic policemen, attempting to pull us back from the brink of nuclear war and the threat of mutual annihilation. In a case of ‘art mimicking life’ – or in this instance popular belief, – two black and white Si Fi films took-up these themes; ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, released in 1951, took up the idea of the 'Galactic Policemen', whilst Earth vs. the Flying Saucers’, released in 1956, echoed the idea of hostile invasion.
Today's Ufologist have three main classes of purported UFO entities; Nordic Humans, Greys and Reptilians. From the first reported sightings of, or contact with, UFO entities, to those of the mid to late 1960's, by far the most numerous were the Nordic Humans. Around 47% of modern encounters in the USA are with the Greys, who have now become the dominant 'species' of the UFO world. Theses little grey-men, (the little green men of the Si Fi genera), first make an appearance in the Barney and Betty Hill case. The Hill's, a mixed race couple from New Hampshire, reported being kidnapped by diminutive UFO entities on the 19th/20th September 1961. Their reported abduction was first recorded in a 'best-selling book, 'Interrupted Journey', published in 1966. Following this report, rumours began to spread that the bodies of grey aliens had been recovered from the wreckage of the Roswell crash.
“The men stood about five feet to five feet four inches tall, and wore matching blue uniforms, with caps similar to those worn by military cadets. They appeared nearly human, with black hair, dark eyes, prominent noses and bluish lips. Their skin was a greyish colour”. Barney and Betty Hill case 1961.
Contactees
George Adamski: It wasn’t long before claims of contact with, and later, abductions by such beings began to appear in the media. One of the first of these so-called ‘Contactees’ was Polish/American, George Adamski. Adamski's first UFO sighting (a 'cigar shaped craft, later known as a 'mother ship'), took place over his Californian house on 9th October, 1946, a full nine months before Arnold's flying saucer sighting. After witnessing UFOs for a period of some five years, he claimed to have met and spoken-to a very human looking occupant of a Flying Saucer in the Mojave desert, California in 1951. In his book ‘Flying Saucers Have Landed’ published in 1953, Adamski stated that his alien visitor was a Venusian called 'Orthon', a member of a ‘Space Brotherhood’ who’s mission to Earth was to warn of the dangers posed by nuclear power/weapons and pollution. This encounter was supposedly witnessed by six of Adamski's friends, although it transpires that they were mere bystanders who saw nothing of the alien craft or its occupant.
Adamski's first book was an instant success. However, It had not been entirely his own work as it was co-authored by Desmond Leslie. Leslie, who's father was first cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, had been a Spitfire pilot during the War. He went on to become a celebrity in his own right as a film maker writer and musician. In 1953 Adamski wrote his second book 'Inside The Space Ships', in which he describes his continued contact with the Space Brotherhood and his travels with them aboard their spaceships. By 1960, both books had combined sales of 200,000 copies. Adamski published his third and final book, 'Flying Saucers Farewell' in 1961.
Adamski went on to turn his alleged encounters and continuing contact with aliens into a one-man industry, travelling all over the U.S. (and beyond) spreading the message of the Brotherhood to anyone who would listen, (and pay him for the privilege). Although now greatly out of favour with modern Ufologist, 'The Adamski Foundation' – which claims to hold all of Adamski's original material, - continues to support its founders original claims.
George Hunt Williamson: One of the early followers of Adamski's 'flying saucer cult', - set up at a commune at his home in Palo mar Gardens, long before the supposed meeting with Orthon, - was archaeology/anthropology student George Hunt Williamson. Williamson as a teenager, had been somewhat mystically inclined and had been attracted into Ufology by the idea of contacting 'higher beings' from space by using the age old methods of psychic communication, the Ouija-board, automatic writing and telepathy, - and later 'short-wave radio'.
George King: This side of the Atlantic, – yet another George, – a former London 'cab driver' George King, also claimed to have contact with a 'Space Brotherhood', a race of 'Galactic Super Beings'. King claimed to have had his first telepathic message in 1954 from one of the beings, yet another Venusian, calling himself, 'The Cosmic Master Aetherius'. King went on to found a pseudo religion called the 'Aetherius Society'. George King died in 1997 aged 79. The Aetherius Society continues to operate as an International organisation.
Nottingham U.F.O. Group
It was their war time experience of 'foo-fighters' that drew together a group of ex- R.A.F. pilots and air crew to form, - in the late 1950's, - the core of one of Nottingham's first U.F.O groups. For the most part, during their time on active service, they had been forbidden to talk about their encounters with these true U.F.O's and after, had kept their experience secret through fear of ridicule. Despite their often terrifying and traumatic war time bombing missions, these 'hard nosed' veterans had been deeply effected by their U.F.O. experience and had come together to try to make sense of what they had seen.
One of these men, 'Stan W.' [full name withheld], airman on a Lancaster Bomber, had flown over 35 missions and had twice been 'shot down'. Stan had witnessed the foo-fighter phenomena on several occasions and in the mid 1960's described to this author one of his most memorable encounters; “Witnessed by the whole crew of the Lancaster, a number of glowing balls of light flew alongside the aircraft in an apparently controled formation. After flying alongside for some distance, one of the spheres broke from the formation and with apparent ease, entered the plane's fuselage on the left-hand side close to the tail section. Slightly larger than a 'football', once inside the aircraft, the sphere hovered for some time as if observing the astonished crew. It then travel forward at some speed along the length of the fuselage, before exiting on the right side just behind the cockpit. Outside, the sphere joined it companions which were now flying alongside the aircraft on its right side. The whole formation then banked sharply to the right and accelerated out of sight”. It was this experience which had led Stan into the study of U.F.O's, seeking an understanding of the intelligence that he was convinced had been behind his own encounter.
A close friend of Stan and leading member of the Nottingham group was Alex Kenyon [name already in the public domain]. Kenyon was a devout follower of Adamski and in 1965, he contacted the U.F.O. celebrity and asked if he would include a stop-over in Nottingham during his next tour of the UK. To his everlasting, bitter disappointment Adamski died in the April of that year. By the time of his death, many of Adamski's claims had been proven false or at best spurious and the man himself exposed as an artful con-man. Like many other U.F.O. groups at the time and since, Adamski and the other contactees were largely ignored by the majority of its members in favour a more scientific approach. Their primary interests lay in examining U.F.O. reports for evidence of 'nuts and bolts', - (real and solid) alien space craft, which they were convinced existed. Kenyon's adherence to a belief in Adamski, despite the fact that he had been discredited, led to a schism in the group and with a few followers, he left under something of a cloud. Soon after, he began to let it be known that he too was a 'contactee'.
Around the time the schism took place another more sinister event happened. The groups 'Honorary Secretary', was a man in his late fifties who had studied the U.F.O. phenomena for a number of years and had amassed a library of books and files. At an extraordinary meeting of the group he announced that he had received a visit from M.I.B’s at his home in Wollaton. These two men had told him in no uncertain way that unless he gave up his interest in U.F.O’s, his house would be fire-bombed. Within days of the alleged visit he had sold or given away his entire collection of books, photos and journals and removed every reference to U.F.O’s from his home. Fellow members of the club, even those who had been his fiends for many years, never heard from him again.
The Nottingham U.F.O. group did not survive the lost of two of its prominent members and by the turn of the decade had cease to exist. However, Kenyon and his cronies continue their search for and supposed contact with UFO's.
Universal Alien Contact Society
“There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds”
'Starman' David Bowie1972
The UACS, was established sometime in 1965 by a group of 14 to 15 year old schoolboy U.F.O. enthusiast at Margaret Glen-Bott Secondary Modern School, in part of Wollaton Park Nottingham. This author was one of the founder members. For the purpose of this book and it's narratives the other principle member were; [First names only] Peter, George, Gerry, Will, John, Graham, Roy, Tony, Kieth and later Wendy.
This was the year of the 'Warminster Thing' when the town of Warminster in Wiltshire was at the epicentre of a 'U.F.O. Flap'. At first the group was simply an unofficial 'after-school U.F.O., club at a time when the subject was hardly ever out of the media. We met irregularly at the various homes of members, principally that of George, a house on *********** Wollaton. His home had a brick garage which amply accommodated us. We did not know it at the time but this ordinary suburban house was to become the centre of some extraordinary paranormal activity. For a short time, perhaps no more than a month we functioned as any other U.F.O. group, - studying reported sighting and where possible contacting witnesses. We even went as far has having our own witness questionnaires printed.
Our proudest moment was when we had a completed questionnaire returned by a Police Officer who had become a National celebrity after witnessing a U.F.O. whilst on duty in North Yorkshire. Although we established contact with other U.F.O. groups and societies, including the National group, BUFORA and later the local Nottingham group mentioned earlier, because of our age, we were never taken seriously.
First Contact
”Calling occupants of interplanetary craft
Calling occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft
You've been observing our earth
And we'd like to make a contact with you
We are your friends.”
Carpenters, 1976.
We were an enthusiastic crew and avidly read every book on U.F.O's we could find in our local library including those by George Adamski, however one school-day, one of our group, - I think Will, - produced from his bag a book that was to change our lives forever, 'The Saucers Speak' by George Hunt Williamson. To us, this was like a self-help manual on how to contact the intelligence behind UFO's – Flying Sauces. After a few days of passing the book from hand to hand we were ready to make our attempt to contact aliens using the age old tried and tested method of psychic communication, the 'ouija board'. I can't remember where and when we first gathered around our home made 'board', but is likely to have been at a weekend at our little garage 'club-house'.
The five or six teenage boys, - including myself, - who carefully placed their index-fingers on the upturned glass that first time, were totally unprepared for what happened next. Almost immediately the glass began to move seemingly of its own accord. Indicating each letter in-turn the message 'Agfa Affa calling Saras', was spelt-out. All though none of those present had read Williamson's book from cover to cover, we knew enough to know that we had achieve our first contact with the UFO entities. Agfa Affa was one of the leading contacts in Williamson's book and Saras 'their' name for our Earth.
The House On R..........................
Little did we know at the time, but this first session with the ouija board had opened the door to a 'paranormal world' we would never be able to fully close. It was to be the occupants of the house on R................ Drive, Wollaton, George and his family, who were to 'suffer' the full force of what we had unwittingly released. Of all the years I've known George, I believe I only met his father fleetingly on two occasions. He was an engineer working away from home most of the time, which meant that the permanent occupants of R................ Drive were George, his younger brother, there mother and elderly grandmother, - both the latter were of Greek Cypriot decent, - an important fact the relevance of which will become clear later. All four members of the family witnessed the paranormal events which began almost from the moment the glass began to circle the letters of our home-made ouija board.
If it were not for the fact that we were talking about the subject of U.F.O's I would say that the house became haunted by a poltergeist type phenomena, witnessed on more than one occasion by the family and any guests who were present at the time. The centre of this activity appeared focused on the outside area around the garage (our meeting room) and George's bedroom. The bedroom activity included the noise of someone moving around inside whilst the room was known to be empty. This often coincided with the appearance of large 'wet footprints' on the old-fashioned linoleum floor, which on occasions continued beneath the bed. These prints often took hours to disappear. On one occasion a perfectly formed six-fingered human hand print appeared on the outside of the bedroom window and remained until the next visit by the 'window-cleaner'.
Perhaps the most alarming and potentially dangerous occurrence was a kind of electrical discharge phenomena. George takes up the story: “I think it was one Saturday evening back in 1966 when my brother and I were watching The Fugitive on TV as my mother made her way to the garage to collect her ironing board to press our washed clothes. Suddenly there was a great big explosion outside as the TV picture frame shrunk to a single horizontal in the centre of the screen, only to return to normal after a couple of seconds. My mother however came running into the house in a state of shock. Just before opening the garage door to pick up the ironing board, a streak of light shot through the gable roof above her head, only to travel down the light chord near the window and split into two, like a fire cracker with a thunderous explosion. A matter of two seconds and she would have been at that very spot. As we opened the garage door (all doors were locked and windows shut), there remained a very strong smell of ozone. Perhaps like a burnt out sulphur rock which lasted for about five minutes and was then gone”.
It is a matter of record that U.F.O. activity also increased in the skies above Nottingham. Again I will let George take up the story: “Lights and fireballs continued to flash across our skies, so much so, that The Evening Post started reporting a UFO flap in Nottingham. When Jenny Randles [well known Ufologist] invited me for coffee in Manchester, we discussed some of these sightings and her data base indicated a sharp peak in UFO activity in Nottingham at that time. In actual fact...things were so common we began take a lot for granted....but our electricity supply could not stand the strain and we had continuous black outs as these UFOs zoomed across our skies. On one occasion, the UFO activity was so fierce with lights in the sky, that they blew our master fuses of 2X 50 amps. If these had not blown, then the substation at the top of the road would have burnt out. I recollect the service engineer removing two cartridge type tubes as the main two inch pipe cable went underground and refitting new ones. What are we looking at 24Kw of power sucked through our roof by inductance”.
Lights in the sky above the Wollaton property, or search-light type beams illuminating the garden became common place and George and his brother (never a member of the group), began to signal back in 'Morse code' using a torch: “These flicks were so common that on one occasion when a familiar bang emanated from around our house my brother and I ran outside and shone a torch into the night sky as a signal. Only for a bright flash to be returned back to us by a light that lit up our garden as if it was daytime. We proceeded to return these flashes in sequence and after a three second delay the light was returned back to us in exactly the same duration of Morse signals as we sent out. Perhaps twenty times as we received twenty replies all in regulated responses! As we sent our last signal, after a five or six second delay, the late flashed BEYOND the horizon”.
One specific incident appears to have sealed the approval of our group's new name and its logo. Following our first contact, our little band met together to decide the name for our 'new look' group. My suggestion the Universal Alien Contact Society - UACS, - was excepted. It was a few days later that Will came up with a logo. Whilst doing his 'technical drawing' homework one evening Will was inspired to produce a design based on what he thought would be the 'front elevation' and 'plan' of a UFO type known by our contacts as a 'Master Craft' – described by them as 'heel shaped'. His design consisted of a simple rectangle over a heel shape. Approved by senior members of the group Pete and I set-about having sample ID cards printed to show other members, none of which had seen Will's original design. A day or so later Pete and I were on our way up R........... Drive to show our new cards to George. As we approached the house we were surprised to see him waiting for us by the gate and even more surprised when he ran to greet us. It seems that he was anxious to tell us about an event which had happened the previous evening. It appears that during one of the now familiar flash and bang incidents, George and his brother had rushed outside. Immediately, using a torch, George began to repeatedly flash out a message in old fashioned 'Morse Code';[-.. - /.- / -.- /… = U, - A, - C, - S,]. The reply came almost immediately in the form of a bright light image projected onto the 'coal-house wall'. George produced a drawing of the symbol he had made later that evening. He recalls the dramatic moment when I withdrew from my breast pocket one of our newly printed cards bearing our new logo. The two symbols had only one slight difference, the pointed ends to the ends of the heels shaped plan. Perhaps Will had gotten his version wrong and the light symbol was the true shape of the Master Craft? However, we could not afford to have our precious cards reprinted and our version of the logo became the groups badge until it broke up in the mid 1970's. This kind of synchronicity happen to use all so frequently it became common place.
Radio Contact
Over the next few weeks following our first experiment with the 'Ouija board' our contact sessions were almost on a daily basis. When ever two or more of the group gathered together, we would produce some kind of home-made board and attempt, - usually successfully, - contact. Individually, we used another form of psychic communication, 'automatic writing'. This method involves using a pencil or pen held over a piece of paper whilst in a meditative state of mind. However, these methods of contact did not seem to be enough for the UFO entities and we were constantly requested to acquire a radio transmitter.
George was always the 'technical one' of our group for two very good reasons, the first of which was that he has a scientific mind. More importantly he was the fact that he was lucky enough to have parents who could afford to indulge his passions for the latest gadgets. It is no surprise then that our first radio receiver/transmitter was created by George using a 'reel to reel' tape-recorder linked to a plastic, Russian transistor-radio. An electric cable attached to a 3m bamboo pole in the garden acted as a 'dipole areal'. After some time and following at least two occasions where the transmissions were intercepted by a mobile unit from the G.P.O., George manage to uses the metal guttering of the house as an areal.
I do not know the technical details of how this primitive device worked and the reader must forgive me if I have gotten any thing wrong. The first experiments with the device proved that using 'Amplitude Modulation', a voice transmission could be broadcast on 2000m Long Wave which was received at a distance of around 137m from his home. Will was later to insist that he had received George's transmissions at his home in Radford over 1.5kms. Away.
Needless to say, George's efforts were rewarded appropriate replies to our transmissions were received in the form of very raped Morse Code signals on the same frequencies as used by the Contactees in Hunt Williamson’s book. Within a year, two members of the group, Keith and Roy, had acquired second-hand army surplus radio transmitters and had become licensed 'radio-hams'. They too became a part of 'The Saucers Speak' phenomena, receiving messages transmitted from an unknown origin in a rapid Morse Code signal.
Paranormal Incident
Georges improvements to his primitive equipment were not without the direct help of the UFO entities. George takes up the story: “Alone in the house, I was in the living room, when I heard loud movement [footsteps] up towards the ceiling, which I understood it to be coming from my bedroom. Then the sound of my tape recorder being operated, as I could clearly hear the spring loaded toggle switches move in a series of thuds followed by the whirling of tape. I cannot remember every movement, but the sound was a person operating my tape recorder which was positioned on the linoleum floor almost directly above my head. When I say ‘loud’ there was no imagination or concealment of noise. My curiosity was greater than my fear and my stupidity greater than all! I ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time in order to catch whoever was doing this. I had spent a long time ‘rattling my brain’ what they looked like, and now was my chance to find out. I swung my bedroom door wide open and ran in. Silence! I carefully wondered in to see what I could find, and the reason why I could hear all these noises. It was most strange that all physical activity seemed to have stopped! The tools I used were quite limited and consisted of a pair of scissors which I always used for cutting the plastic sheath of battery wire. For a screwdriver I used kitchen knife (eating knife) with a round end. Instead of being in its usual place, the knife was along side the recorder and seemed to have pieces of red plastic on the cutting blade. Perhaps it is possible to cut wire in this way, but I never tried. This shocked me, as the wire was shaved similar to the way you would sharpen a pencil with a pen knife. I looked at my recorder to find that my wiring had been undone and new wires that had just been cut with the knife were reinserted in a different way. Using the 'phono radio socket' instead of the speaker socket. It was as if someone was showing me the correct way to wire it. Whatever the case, I could not see how it would work, as I was using a term called ‘negative feedback’. But work it did and in a much more effective way.
Paranormal Images
I make no claims for any of the images reproduced in this book and do not offer them as proof of any form of paranormal phenomena. Along with a description, I have given as far as possible, an accurate account as to how the images were obtained. One thing I can say for certain is that they have not been deliberately manufactured to deceive, they are not fakes!
The Six Frames: In May 1966, George received a 'Boots Super 8 Film Cine Camera' as a birthday present. He remembers that this cost his parents the princely sum of £8 and was purchased from a Boots store in Bilborough, Nottingham. With his first roll of film George ventured into the world of movie making. Images on that film are burned into my brain for many reasons, not least of these is the fact that when ever any of the group called around to see him, George insisted on treating us to a film show. There is only so many times you can watch someone's home movie without becoming bored. It is for this reason then that when, some months later, having been urgently summoned to his house, I was a little cross when he greeted me at the door and declared “You must see the film. Something has happened to it”.
George ushered me into the front room where he had already drawn the curtains and set up the projector. I was surprised then, that instead of putting the film in the waiting machine, he began to unroll it, occasionally holding it up to the light to see the images on it. He stopped at a point where he had casually filmed an aeroplane flying across the sky, whilst standing on the drive between the house and the garage. Excitedly he thrust the film and a small magnifying glass into my hands and told me look at a section which appeared to have turned a deep shade of green. At first I could see nothing until George held up a table lamp to provide more back-light. I will never forget what I saw next.
In the vain hope of capturing an unseen UFO, whilst standing on the drive between the house and the garage, George had photographed an aeroplane flying across the blue sky. Towards the end of this 'footage' six of the individual frames appeared to have taken on an over-all green hue through which could be seen colour images not part of the original film. Examining the film carefully, I found that it had no surface irregularities and had certainly not been 'spliced', a fact confirmed to me a number of years later.
The first two frames showed the head and shoulders of a young man seated at a table, rather in the fashion of a TV news-reader. I estimate that he was around 30 years old, - certainly much older than any member of the group. Looking to his right, slightly 'off camera' and had a warm smile on his face. His long sandy coloured hair reached to his shoulders and framed his handsome olive skinned face. He appeared to be wearing some kind of pale blue robes bellow which was a round necked shirt of the same colour.
The second two frames showed a room setting with the camera pointing towards an open window and connected door on the left. Through the window could be seen the branches and trunks of leafless trees and in the distance a range of hills. The overall impression was that the 'room' was somehow above ground level by several feet. This was impart confirmed by the fact that at the bottom of the door could be seen the head of a figure with long hair, apparently standing outside. Directly bellow the window and running its full length was what I can only describe as a 'control panel'. Again this is confirmed by the fact that at the door end were what appeared to be two leavers with spherical knobs on the top.
The final two frames showed the figure, from the waist up, of a man I estimate to be in his 50's. He appeared to be wearing a long sleeved, tight fitting top with a round neck. On his head, - which had short hair, - he wore a 'skullcap'. Turned towards the camera, his face was animated and his mouth open as if shouting. His left arm was raised with the index finger extended as if gesturing an objection to being filmed. The object or figure to the left of the frame has always been something of a mystery. Positioned just in front and to the left of the camera operator some have suggested that it is the back of a persons head close enough to the camera to be out of focus. However, I have always taken it to be an unknown piece of machinery again out of focus. Whatever the object is, it would have been at head hight to the camera.
Later that day the whole group gathered to watch the film, but the problem was that the projector could not be slowed-down enough to get a clear view of the six frames. Later that week George solved the problem by mounting the six frames as a photographic slide. Shown on a slide-projector, we had our first clear look at the images that had somehow imposed themselves on the cine-film we had all watched many times. Our contacts on the other-side of the 'Ouija board' remained silent on the subject, but the radio was something else. At about the same time he had discovered the six frames, George had received and recorded a radio broadcast in Morse Code, lasting many hours. When translated the message was a single three word sentence 'Ship Under Tree', repeated over and over again.
There followed many hours if not days discussion. The consensus of opinion was that the images were a deliberate subliminal message from our friends. Around this time film companies and advertisers had been experimenting with the idea of subliminal messaging. It is a fact that a single frame on a reel is not registered by the conscious mind but is absorbed by the subconscious, thus planting a message or idea in the brain. It had been the idea of the motion picture industry to use this technique to enhance mood in a film by using a single frame containing an appropriate word or image. Although there are rumours that certain films contained such subliminal messaging, the idea was fervently rejected as being fundamentally abhorrent.
For some reason now forgotten, the slide containing the six frames was placed into my care. It is a fact that outside the group, few people ever saw the slide. One exception to this was one of the science teachers at our school. One evening after school, a small delegation from our group presented the slide to a physics teacher whom we trusted. He was told nothing of our activities, only the strange appearance of the images on the film. We watched as for several minutes he studied the slide using a light and magnifying-glass. Slowly the colour began to drain from the man's face and his only comment when he handed the slide back was, “I don't know what you boys are into, but I suggest that you stop right now.” He never mentioned the subject again.
The next time the slide was shown to a third party was in 1968 when I was 17. I was given the opportunity to 'flat-sit' for family. It was thus that I found myself along with Peter, spending a weeks holiday in London. We had decided that this would be a good opportunity to introduce ourselves the Aetherius who's head office was on Fulham High Road. We expected to be greeted as fellow 'Contactees' and our slide excepted as evidence. However, we were bitterly disappointed and never made it past reception. We were told that we could only present our evidence if we became full members of the Society, in which case anything we had would become their property. Needless to say, this was not expectable to us and we made our retreat never to have contact with the Society again.
Over the time whilst the slide was in my possession the green colouration to the film had become more intense and it was increasingly difficult to see the images unless under very strong light. I began the practice of keeping and carrying the slide in a tin which had once contained miniature cigars, as it was just the right size and seemed to offer the right sort of protection. To my great shame, soon after returning from London, I sat-down on a hard chair with the tin in the back pocket of my trousers. When I removed the bent container, I found that the glass on the slide had shattered. As I carefully removed the tiny fragments I noticed that there was an ultra-thin 'green skin' or coating flaking off one side of the film. As it did so it turned from a 'bottle green' to black and seemed to evaporate without trace. Revealed bellow were the six frames showing the original 'blue sky' images. With all of this green material gone, the 'paranormal images' had complete disappeared.
The Pop Group: It was to be another 7 years before George was to receive an unexpected paranormal image on a roll of film. By this time I was no-longer a member of the UACS, - in fact the group had all but disbanded, - and I had deliberately lost all contact with George. It was to be nearly another 40 years and the writing of this book, before we resumed our friendship. After seeing the image in-question for the first time I gave it the name 'The Pop Group'.
In late December 1975, George loaded his 'Topcon IC1 35mm' camera with a Kodacolor II, 100 I.S.O. film. Having taken the 12 exposures over the Christmas holidays, in January 1976, he sent the film to Kodak to be processed. Pleased with the resulting slides George examined the negatives only to find an additional image on what was supposed to be the 'trail of the roll'. The position of the image on the negatives indicates that the exposure occurred at least two stops beyond the last image on the roll. Rather than taking up the full area of the frame the image is confined to the centre. George returned the negatives to Kodak with a letter asking for a print of the exposure and an explanation as to how it might have occurred. Kodak returned a slide of the image along with the original negative but could offer no logical explanation has to how it had been produced on what is 'normally' an unreachable part of the film.
At first glance the image appears to show a three young men on or against a stage type environment. The figure on the left seems to be wearing sunglasses and holding a microphone in his outstretched left hand, - hence the Pop Group tag. The trio are dressed identically in short jackets with pointed collar shirts. The photograph has been taken from the right-hand side of the 'stage'. The faces of the figures on the extreme right and left of the frame are seen in profile, whilst the one in the centre is more 'face-on'. A closer look reveals what might be the top of the head, (long hair) of a fourth member of the group, standing close to and bellow the camera.
It has been suggested, - and I must admit it was my first thought, - that the image is a deliberate or accidental photo of alive TV screen. However, using modern technology, it is now possible to look more closely at individual parts of the image. The idea of it being the image of a live TV screen can be instantly dismissed. On an over-all magnified picture there is no evidence of the box which would surround a TV screen of this date or of any other part of the room in which such a TV might be located.
Before discussing individual parts of the image, the first thing that can be said is that it is illuminated by an intense electric blue light. There is something of an over-all bizarre quality about it with strange and uncountable distortions both laterally and horizontally. On closer inspection, what at first appears to be young men on a stage, turns into half manifested paranormal entities.
A magnified view of the figure on the left and furthest from the camera, shows that the apparent sunglasses is in-fact an absence of image, a black hole with irregular edges. Looking again at his upraised left hand it can be seen that it is open and not holding the object I have described as a microphone. The hand itself is strangely proportioned with six long and slender fingerers. The microphone or probe like object appears to emanate from the ground in a curving of 'wirer', passing between the hand and the left side of the face as a straight rod which terminates in a small sphere by the left ear. What at first appears to be a white, broad band to the edge of the short jacket the figure is wearing, can be seen to actually be a bar or arm rest sticking out of the wall behind him.
The other two entities are seen to be almost disembodied 'floating heads'. The face of the central figure has a serene and 'Lionesque' appearance. Although there is a strange distortion and partial double image to the head nearest the camera, the features are very similar to the face on the far left. Both have high curving foreheads, long slender noses and similar hair-styles.
I make no further comment on this picture and leave it to the reader to formulate their own opinion.
Unexpected Slides: Again in preparation for the Christmas celebrations in 1979, George loaded his camera, - this time an Olympus OM1, - with film, - a 'Kodachrome 25, 12 exposure'. A total of three photos were taken on Christmas Day and the camera was then put safely aside. Shortly after this, George suffered a family bereavement and took no further photos. In February 1980, expecting there to be 9 blank exposures he sent the roll of film to the Kodak laboratories for processing. When the resulting slides were returned George was surprised to find there were a total of 7 slides. In addition to the three Christmas photos there were; Two apparent 'flash photos' taken in his bedroom – one of the window and the other of a book-case above which is a framed print of 'The Last Super', by Salvador Dali. A third exposure contained an unidentified image. However, the most interesting of the four slides is a photo which appears to have been take looking directly down on the Earth from space. At the bottom of the image is the edge of a 'platform like structure'. The whole image has a strange light intensity about it. The exact location of the area of ground covered by the photo has not yet been identified. George did not know it at the time, but this image was mealy a prelude to the amazing Cyprus photo.
The Cyprus Photo: In 1987, following a driving tour of France with his partner Julie, George sent-off a roll of film to Kodak for processing. Unlike the rest, the last exposure on the film did not show the photos of the French countryside the couple had expected. Instead it appeared to show a blue sky with unusual cloud formations. For this reason, George took the slide and negative to the Meteorological Station in Watnall, Nottinghamshire. On examination he was informed that rather then being a photo taken from the ground looking up at the sky, it was completely the opposite. It was pointed out that below the clouds, the clear definition of a coast line could be seen. George realised that this image must be of a place significant to him and on returning home began to search through an atlas in order to identify the location. It soon became clear that the contours of the coast exactly matched the area around Larnaca Bay Cyprus (home to his mothers family). Recognising this image as something special, George had the foresight to place copies of the slide in a sealed envelope and post them to himself by recorded delivery.
Carrying out a little research on this image myself I showed the photo, without further comment to a friend who works at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute. Here is his unedited reply: 'It's very difficult to interpret. I can see some linear features but it's way too hazy to say if it's a coastline or not (although it's very typical of a coast). I would say it's definitely a photograph and not a typical image from a satellite as that would be from a scanner and would not look like that - the geometry would be different. It could be a photo taken by an astronaut on a standard camera - see Tim Peake's stuff for examples - but it could also be a picture of something else”. It is to be remembered that it can be proven that this photo is one of the negatives on a roll of film taken a camera back in 1983.
Nottingham UFO Case Book
The Radford UFO
Report in 'Haunted Skies' [Encyclopaedia of British UFOs] Volume 4, 1966-1967. Original source, unknown.
In reference to a Nottingham 'UFO FLAP' in 1967: “It started, perhaps, on February 13, 1967 in Radford, an area of mainly Victorian terraced houses a very short distance to the north west of the city centre. It was ten minutes to nine in the evening and Frank Earp and Gerald Montague were hard at it on their allotment. It must have been almost totally dark, dark enough, at least, to see a diamond shaped object motionless in the night sky. It had a red light underneath and suddenly changed shape before flying off at fantastic speed”.
Clifton Saucer Landing
Witness: Mass sighting Place: Clifton Estate Nottingham. Date and time: 4th July 1967, 17:45 Source: Nottingham Evening Post 5th July, 1967 and 'MUFORG' Bulletin, October 1967:
“Did a flying saucer really land in Clifton or, as the police believe, was it just an optical illusion caused as a result of the sun shining on a barn roof or on greenhouses? Last night frightened housewives and dozens of people rushed out of their homes when it was reported that a flying saucer “about 30 feet long” had landed somewhere in Clifton. According to at least a dozen people who said they saw the object, it was disc-shaped and silvery in colour and was seen travelling across the sky at about 4.45 p.m.
The object was described by independent witnesses who gave an identical account of its size, colour, direction and movements. They said they saw it clearly from the High Bank area of the estate. It had travelled about two miles from Wilford Hill to a point on the Bradmore to Plumtree road where it became confused with a barn roof.
Police in patrol cars who were called out to investigate the report later told over a hundred people gathered on high ground near Fareham Comprehensive School that it was an optical illusion caused by sunlight. But Mrs Marjorie Cowdell, of High Bank said she was amazed by the incident and teenager Denise Stanley said she saw the object clearly. “I was scared”, she added.
Several schoolboys, too, claimed it was not the first time they had seen strange objects which had scared them. A few days ago they had seen one hovering above the trees in the vicinity of a wood on the estate. Earlier on Monday, several reports of strange objects in the skies were received at the Guardian Journal offices. At one point three objects were claimed to have been sighted by three boys on their way home from school. Last night’s descriptions tally with these earlier reports.
Most of the people who say they saw the object say it seemed to have a cloud of dust or smoke around it. The “Clifton Disc” had the Air Ministry [sic] and Meteorological Office baffled. They could not account for the sighting. And at Watnall Meteorological Office a spokesman said he could not rule out the possibility of the disc being a weather balloon although at that time of the day it would be unlikely. “Whatever the cause people have no need to worry. These things have been with us a long time now and they have never done anyone any harm”, he said.
The Strelley UFOs
Witness: Frank Edmund Earp Snr. & fiancée. Place: Strelley, Nottingham. Date and time: Winter, 1971/72, c 22:00. Source: First published in Nottingham Post Lite article;
“On a clear winters evening [1971/72] at around 10 pm, I was driving my then fiancée, (now my wife), home to Chilwell. Our route took us along the B6004, Strelley Road, west towards the village of Strelley. Before entering the village, the B6004 crosses over the A6002, Bilborough Road [formally Coventry Lane], at a 'traffic light' controled junction. This crosses road is in a semi-rural location on the western boundary of the City of Nottingham. The arms of crossroads align almost perfectly with cardinal points of the compass”.
“My intention was to turn right at the junction, onto the A6004, heading south, but was briefly prevented from doing so by a 'red-light'. In those days, there were very few cars using this now busy main road, especially at this time of night. When the lights changed to green I proceeded to turn onto the A6004 and it was at this point that both of us saw high in the sky, a moving bright star like object approaching us from the south. Making a modern comparison I would say that it was like observing the International Space Station or other artificial satellite. I stop the car a little way past the crossroads and we both got out the vehicle to get a better look. Almost immediately we saw that there was a second identical object approaching from the north. The two seemed to be on a collision cause, becoming larger and brighter as they approached. Slowly the lights drew together and at a point almost directly above our heads stopped and hung side by side in the sky like two very bright stars”.
“We continued to observe them in silence for what must have been 3 or 4 minutes. Suddenly the northern light again began to move. At this stage it became apparent that this object was lower in the sky than its companion, which now seemed brighter and larger than before. Moving a little faster than its original approach, it continued south and appeared to pass bellow its still stationary companion, which now shone with the intensity of Venus, (certainly, the brightest object we could see in the sky). After several minutes the moving object was lost to view leaving our attention fixed on the bright object above our heads. It was at this point that something dramatic happened. A small pale blue, star-like light dropped from bellow the bright object. For a few seconds it appeared to free-fall and then it shot off at great speed to the west. Seconds later a second identical light dropped and shot off to the east. This was repeated twice more with one light going south and the second north. The bright object now began to move and continued its original course north. The cold night air had gotten to us at this point and we realised that we had been observing the phenomena for over half an hour. Once back in the car we continued our journey back to Chilwell. I got a telling off from my future father-in-law for bringing his daughter home late. We did not tell him the reason why”.
The Bilborough UFO
Witness: Matthew Earp + children and staff of school. Place: John Player Infant School, Bilborough. Date and time: 1984/85, Unknown. Source: Personnel account of witness and recollections of author:
“At the time I was living with my wife and two sons, Frank Jrn and Matthew, at a house in Bilborough quite close to the local school, 'John Player'. It was one lunch time in 1984/85 and my wife had brought the two boys home from school. The youngest, 6 or 7 year old Matthew was very excited and was extremely anxious to tell me about something which had happen during the morning break. The children and some members of staff were all outside in the school 'play-ground' when, in a clear blue sky they all saw what Matthew described as a “space rocket” with a fiery red and yellow exhaust flame. Unable to fully describe the UFO I asked Matthew to draw what he had seen. It turned-out to be a rather strange looking object consisting of a 'spiky' ball attached to a cylinder, from which came a bright flame. The members of staff on duty in the play-ground had reassured the frightened children by telling them that this was a rocket ship. For a time the incident was the talk of the school and I was able to confirm Matthew's account from other witnesses”.
The Beeston UFO
Witness: D.B. Maycroft. Place: Beeston. Date and time: December 1989, 23:00. Source: B.B.C. web page 'Eyewitness Accounts' (UFOs):
“I was walking home from and afternoon at work. It was about 11pm in December [1989] and it was a cold frosty clear night. I was drawn to look upwards to a noise like a loud buzzing bee. Looking towards Long Eaton. I saw a triangular shaped object. It was about 60ft long on each side and along the underside of each edge there was alternating read and blue lights. The whole thing was slowly rotating in a clockwise direction. After approximately ten minutes the lights started to go out and the object vanished.”
The Attenborough 'Triangle'
Witness: Frank Edmund Earp Jnr. & three friends. Place: Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottingham. Date and time: 1992, late summer, around 19.30/20.00. Source: Report to this author:
“It was 1992, myself, Lee, Emma and Shaun were playing some 'live role-play game' or other in the Car Park of the nature reserve.
It was summer and it was just getting dark so probably around 8.30 pm. - 9 pm. (I remember this because as we chased it I was worried that I might be late home). A dark triangular, seemingly metallic object flew slowly over the hill from the Clifton side. It was flat on the underside and convex on top and made no noise. It stopped above the river, it was odd because there was no sound, I don't remember lights or markings either. It hovered in the air motionless with no wobble, so not like a helicopter or Harrier. It then turned a swift right angle and flew off at high speed left [west] down the river towards Long Eaton. We chased it in the car but lost sight of it. The following two evenings, myself, Shaun and Emma, went out with binoculars to places further along the river. I don't remember where these were but one of them was on a hill with a lay-bye. There were lots of people about, maybe twenty or so, all in cars with binoculars. They had all come to see the same thing. We all watched the 'aircraft,' perform the same manoeuvres along the Trent. It was as if 'they' were showing off. On all three occasions it stopped and hovered above onlookers and then goes off in another direction at high speed. We never saw it again after that, but I remember speaking to lots of people that had. At the time we thought it was probably an experimental stealth aircraft, as it later reminded us all of a stealth bomber which were relatively new at the time, I think”.
Speaking to Frank he emphasised the facts that the object was solid and metallic looking, had no lights or markings and was completely silent throughout the observation periods. It transpires that the 'live role-play' game they were playing was, ironically, 'Star Wars'.
The Attenborough 'Triangle' (With Lights)
Witness: Richard Earp Jnr. & Mrs L. Earp Place: Attenborough Nottingham. Date and time: 1992, late autumn early winter, 18:00/18:30. Source: Interview with both witness by this author.
“It was around 6pm/6.30 pm. My wife Lynne and son Richard were in the kitchen of our home in Attenborough getting ready to go out of the back-door. This door opens out onto a drive-way around 10' wide. A 6' fence divides our house from the neighbouring property, with a drive-way and back-door directly opposite to ours. When looking up between the roof lines of the two properties, this gives a total space of around 20'. Richard was the first to leave the house and stepped-out onto the drive to wait for his mother. Outside, he began to look up at the dark sky between the two houses. Suddenly, what he describes as a large black triangle emerge from above the roof of our house, travelling slowly across the gap between the buildings [west to east]. Shouting back through the open door he attracted the attention of his mother, who looking up also saw the object, which by this time was clearly visible between the buildings. With Richard standing in the drive-way and my wife in the doorway, they both watched as the object slowly and silently passed between the buildings. As it began to disappear behind the roof of the neighbouring house, Richard ran out onto the front to get a better view only to find that it had gone. They were both extremely agitated at what they had witnessed. The object was described as a large black triangle with a pattern of chevron shaped red lights on its underside”.
The Breadsall Triangle
Witness: Garry Stapleton, his daughter Emma and her boyfriend Shaun Byrne Place: Breadsall, Derbyshire. Date and time: 11th November 1992, 21:50. Source: OVNI Newsletter: November 1992, report from the Phenomenon Research Association by Group Leader Omar Fowler.
“From my own correspondence with Emma she recalls that on the evening in question she and her then boyfriend Shaun [one-time friend of Frank Earp Jrn] were staying at here parents home in Sandiacre, just across the boarder into Derbyshire from Stapleford. She was unable to sleep and the three witnesses were in the garden. A sudden flash of light in the sky alerted them to a distant bright moving object which then disappeared. Her father, Garry, who was a member of the above group, the PRA, suggested that they should take a drive in the general direction in which they had seen the U.F.O. They had reached a point on a road near the Derbyshire village of Breadsall. At this point Fowlar suggests there was another flash of light before the three witnesses saw through the vehicle's open windows a 'single point of bright light approaching the car. All three got out of the car to better observe the U.F.O. Garry, a seasoned Ufologist was ready. He had a pair of 8
0 binoculars through which he was able to discern a number of other light associated with the object. The object was by all accounts pretty large, Garry described it as "awesome". Emma became agitated as the lights drew closer and wanted to return, to the car, but remained by her father. Travailing at an estimated speed of around 200 mph the triangular formation of lights passed over the witnesses at an estimated height of around 1,500', which is considered low for conventional aircraft unless landing or taking off. It made no discernible noise. With no change of speed the object continued on it south easterly line of flight in the direction of Castle Donnington [around 7 or 8 miles away] until it was out of sight”.Garry later telephoned the East Midlands Airport, (Castle Donnington), who informed him that no aircraft should have been in that area at the time and certainly not flying that low! A Royal Perforce source also stated that the description of the object does not conform with standard aircraft identification lighting.
The Attenborough UFO (Accidental Photo)
Witness: Mr Adrian Prior Place: Attenborough [Nature Reserve] Nottingham. Date and time: 1st May 2006, 18:32. Source: UFO Digest web site, - based on original e:mail from Mr Prior, [June 26, 2006].
“Mr Prior and his girl friend Liz were walking his dog along a footpath leading from the car park of Attenborough, south-east towards the River Trent. At a site just over 300m along the path, the couple stopped to admire the view of the spire of Attenborough St. Mary's Church, around 600m almost due north of their position. At this point Liz took the opportunity to take a photo using her new digital camera. The resulting image appears to show a classic disc (flying saucer) shaped U.F.O to the right (east) of the church spire. Neither of the couple saw the UFO at the time the photo was taken”.
Saucers Return
Witness: Un-named University student. Place: House in the Park Estate, Nottingham. Date and time: 14th February 2016. No time given. Source: West Bridgeford Wire web page:
“When I witnessed the UFO I was putting the bins out at my University house. I decided to look up at the stars as it was a very clear night and they seemed particularly bright and visible on that particular night. As I looked up I noticed what at first glance appeared to be a small grey object travelling across the sky from left to right. As the object was emitting no light and making no sound I originally assumed that it was simply a night bird such as an owl flying relatively close to the ground.
However after watching the object curiously for a few seconds it suddenly and rapidly changed direction and made a sharp left turn, advancing rapidly. It then made an equally sharp right turn straight after this and once again accelerated forwards rapidly once the turn was complete.
I knew then that this could not have been a bird as I have never seen any bird make such rapid turns and accelerate so quickly and effortlessly in my life. There are planes that often fly over my house to the local airport however these are easily recognisable as planes due to their lights and the sound of the engines, the same goes for any helicopters that fly over. These facts make me firmly believe that this object was genuinely a UFO. This was my immediate reaction when i saw the object make such seemingly impossible manoeuvres in the sky. I lost sight of the object after 25-30 seconds as it simply seemed to disappear.”
This small sample of Nottingham U.F.O. cases are examples of how U.F.O's have changed shape, both literally and metaphorically, in my life time. Reflected in the sample is the fact that the U.F.O's, like other paranormal phenomena can be seen to be focused on or around families or related groups of people.
Beginning in 1967 to the present day, they also represent examples of the three major U.F.O. 'flaps' in Nottingham during this time frame. The first and second examples from 1967 mark the start and end of a mini flap which occurred throughout the County at this time. This truly remarkable 'flap' included a saucer landing (Clifton) and Nottinghamshire's, (Mansfield), own 'Rosswell incident', a crashed U.F.O. with attendant military, M.I.B. and security agents involvement.
The first case, The Radford U.F.O., represents the dangers of merely repeating historic cases. 'Haunted Skies' is the premier source for information on British U.F.O./UFO sightings. To find my name and that of my school friend, mentioned in such a work would have been something of a cue for this book, if it was not for the fact that the account is entirely untrue. Certainly, at this time we were both members of the UACS and Contactees, (a third member of the group, Will, also lived within the Radford area. One of the most frequently U.F.O's witnessed by members at this time, was in-deed a bright, electric blue spinning top. However, neither of us worked on an allotment and more importantly, as a group we never made public any of our sightings. The Clifton example is a classic mass sighting and UFO landing. What is most interesting to note about this case, is the fact that it centred on a boys school and was later seen to involve pupils of our age. It is also worth saying that it was at Clifton that Pete and I had our own encounter with an MIB whilst conducting a second interview with a fellow Ufologist.
The Strelley sighting is a classic of its kind, a “lights in the sky case study”. More importantly, it happen close to the end of my involvement with both the USACS and U.F.O's in general. I might be tempted to say that; - “it was a fond farewell from my UFO contacts”. Again the Bilborough case is a classic, this time an example of a mass sighting of a U.F.O. More importantly my own son, Matthew, was one of the witnesses and the whole incident occurred within yards of my home at this time.
Since around the around 1990 large 'Black Triangle' craft' have taken over from the usual 'flying saucers' as being, World wide, the most commonly report UFO type. Flying at a slow speed and low altitude these craft can be truly massive in size and with or without illumination. An interesting point is raised by Ufologist Omar Fowler in his study of 'Black Triangle' UFOs. When describing the common characteristics of the sightings Fowler says: "The appearance of an FT may be preceded by a flash in the sky similar to 'sheet-lightning'.”
The Beeston UFO may be one of the earliest sightings of what was to become locally known as the Chilwell or Beeston Triangle. This UFO was a part of a wave or flap of 'Black Triangles' sighted over Nottingham on a flight path from Arnold in the north east to Beeston and the Trent valley in the south west. Hardly had this flap ended when the Black Triangles returned. Beginning around the year 2000, sightings over Nottingham and parts of the County continue to this day.
I cannot account fully for the Attenborough accidental photo. However, assuming it to be a genuine UFO, using maps and computer programs, I calculated the location of the object. It appears to be hovering over the gravel works on Long Lane, Attenborough. In a straight line, slightly south east, it would have been around 472m from my home, - actually closer to me than 'Liz' and her camera.
For the last case, I have included the most up-to-date, (at the time of writing) U.F.O. over one of one of the oldest areas of the Nottingham close to the City centre.