Warminster Thing Press And Other Reports

Photograph Copyright Danny Howell Photographic Archive.

WARMINSTER THING PRESS AND OTHER REPORTS

Following on from our blog post yesterday, we now continue with some more extracts from The Warminster Thing Exhibition which was presented by Danny Howell and Glenn Head at Warminster Library during the summer of 1994.

The following accounts concerning UFOs, from newspapers and other sources, were amongst the Rogers Bequest:

Wiltshire Gazette, 2 September 1965:
WILTSHIRE TOWN’S OVERHEAD VISITORS FROM OUTER SPACE?
A clergyman, a detective and about 200 other people packed Warminster Town Hall last night for what may be the first meeting of its kind in the country. It was called in an attempt to clear up the mystery which has been troubling Warminster for the last eight months. If it did not succeed then at least it provided those present with a convincing apology for an extra terrestrial intelligence.

Witnesses have reported unidentified flying objects like "twin red-hot pokers" or "huge cat's eyes" which have crackled and buzzed.

One person has likened the noise to that made by a refrigerator. And at Friday’s meeting a Warminster woman told a large, attentive audience bathed in television arc lights, of the night she was wakened by the noise.

"I went to the bedroom window and saw this brilliant object quite low in the sky. It was travelling very slowly. I was shaking like a leaf and it went on for half an hour."

"I have never heard a sound like it before. It was like a brilliant star and I couldn't take my eyes off it."

Chairman of the meeting was Councillor Emlyn Rees, chairman of the Warminster Urban Council. With him on the platform was Dr. Cleary Baker, evaluation officer of the British Unidentified Flying Objects Research Association and editor of its journal, and the Reverend L. Inge, Rector of Orcheston.

Dr. Baker told the meeting: "I think that most of us (the members of his Association) would say that merely on the basis of the evidence with which we are dealing this is the manifestation of an advanced technology from somewhere." The craft were piloted by "alien beings."

He suggested that they were not interested in Warminster as such but in things like the War Department rocket ranges and the Chemical Warfare Establishment at Porton - and were using a large hill outside the town as a homing beacon. There was no need for the townspeople to be frightened. Their investigations might be of "immense value."

"If you help us we may take a substantial step forward in understanding the universe in which we live," said Dr Baker.

Before the meeting broke up, those of the public interested in establishing a listening post on the Downs outside Warminster, were asked to give their names to a member of the UFO Research Association.

The Atlantean, November/December 1965:
THINGS OVER WARMINSTER
One does not expect events that have no explanation to occur in English country towns. Warminster, in Wiltshire, is the last place that one would associate with odd phenomena. Yet some strange but well-attested things have been happening there during recent months.

Some type of flying object, which has become widely known as ‘The Thing’ has been seen by people in Warminster and district on various occasions since January 1965. Whatever the Thing - or possibly Things - may be it seems to have properties not previously attributed to flying saucers and the like.

For example, this one is said to have stopped a moving car. The driver, a Trowbridge businessman, is reported saying that he was travelling at about 45 miles per hour, when his car came to a halt for no apparent reason. Suspecting overheating, he checked the radiator temperature and found nothing wrong with it. Then he was rocked by atmospheric vibrations and the car was shaken violently. At the same time there was a loud whining and crackling noise.

This went on for some three minutes and then stopped. After that the driver pressed his starter button, the engine responded at once, and the car behaved normally. A complete check of the vehicle the following day failed to discover anything out of order.

It will be noted that no visible flying object was associated with this occurrence, but other people claim to have seen ‘The Thing’ and to have heard not dissimilar sounds simultaneously.

A Warminster resident was quoted by the local paper, the Warminster Journal, as saying that she was awakened one morning at 4 a.m. by a loud droning noise and saw "a brilliant object like a massive star." The noise, she added, continued for half an hour.

Another resident, quoted in the same issue of the Warminster Journal, spoke of being awakened, not on the same morning, by a noise "like all the roof tiles being pulled off," accompanied by a humming sound.

The Daily Express reported a sighting of this or some object at Warminster on September 2. On this occasion it was silent and was described by an eye-witness as "round, with a flashing red light surrounded by white ones - more than planes gave."

Over the August Bank Holiday period - which this year came at the end of the month - at least five people claim to have seen the Warminster Thing. One of them described it as an orb of light which divided into two portions. These were brighter than the single one had been, and one of them "zig-zagged from side to side and up and down before it sped across the sky at an angle of 45 degrees and disappeared over the horizon." No sound was reported by this observer.

Some of these reports appear conflicting, which tends to add to their interest by ruling out a multiple hoax. If a group of local humorists had decided to invent a flying saucer they would surely have told the same story. Anyone with experience of law courts knows that a number of witnesses will give widely differing accounts of the same event - a motor accident, for example - all in the best of good faith. One should therefore be sceptical when all the reports are suspiciously alike.

This is certainly not the case here, so one may perhaps conclude that something of an unusual nature has indeed been happening over Warminster.


Newspaper report c1966:
An attempt was made last night on Cradle Hill, Warminster, to attract a flying saucer down to earth.

The experiment was carried out on a ridge near the hilltop with the aid of glowing storm lanterns arranged in a large triangle.

Dr. John Cleary-Baker, organiser for the British Unidentified Flying Objects Research Association, was disappointed that no UFO landed.

During his ‘contact’ test, newsmen and photographers were asked to keep at a distance and about 50 supporters watched expectantly from the hilltop.

Flashing across the triangle at a great height at 11.55 p.m. but not stopping was a pulsating flying object travelling too fast for anyone to identify it.

Several other UFOs came over before dawn and long after the experiment ended.

BUFORA members from all over the country are camping on heights around the town keeping night and day watches for a whole week which ends this Saturday.


Wiltshire Times, 26 January 1968:
Dear Sir:
May I, through your columns, briefly summarise the contents of my recent letter, which you considered too lengthy for publication?

The explanation of the ‘Warminster Thing’ of 1965 and of the more recent ‘Flying Crosses’ is contained in a manuscript I have prepared entitled, ‘Psychism and the Warminster Tumuli’ which may be published in the future. The luminous areas in the sky, together with sounds from no apparent source, paralyses and death amongst animals, birds and human beings, etc., DO NOT ARISE FROM ANY MATERIAL OBJECT but are etheric emanations from soil being perceived by extra-sensory perception. The soil of tumuli or Celtic burial mounds which surround the town of Warminster is particularly active in this respect, which is the reason why so many strange observations are made in the locality.

The error of associating these mysterious occurrences with ‘flying saucers’, ‘UFOs’ and space fiction generally, is causing much confusion, though more intelligent people are steadily realising that explanations such as these together with ‘official’ Government statements, psychological theories on ‘hallucinations’, ‘hysteria’ etc., do not fit the facts.

One of the most exciting dramas of all time is taking place amongst us, yet so few seem to know - or care!


Wiltshire Times, 2 February 1968:
Dear Sir:
As one whose house is constantly invaded by people of all ages who come to investigate ‘the thing’ I can testify that there are certainly no ‘cranks’ among them.

They are serious in their search for the truth of what is happening in our skies at this time. They are prepared to stay on Cradle Hill all night long, winter or summer. They don’t only watch the skies, but follow clues in many directions. They travel miles to investigate reported sightings and each report is sifted carefully.

‘Contact U. K.’ is an organisation that is part of a world-wide link-up to find out the truth about UFOs. There are nearly a thousand members in Britain alone, and the numbers increase all the time.

All over the world, people in all walks of life are becoming aware that somewhere in space we may have more intelligent, more advanced brothers who would come among us in peace if they could trust us. Maybe they would show us the way to peace and understanding among our own peoples if they could only reach out to us.

So I say good luck to all those who are searching for the truth. My house is always open to them.


Wiltshire Times, 23 February 1968:
Dear Sir:
Ufological societies seeking local recruits for skywatching, looking for UFOs, and other correspondence must leave the average reader mystified as to what this subject is all about. And many readers will have listened to the BBC recently, to Gordon W Creighton, Chairman of the British Unidentified Flying Objects Association, talking about UFOs. And talking a lot of bunk and nonsense.

He, and other ufologists, claim that Dr. Condon, brilliant astrophysicist of the University of Colorado, USA, has been directed by the US government to investigate UFOs; that the American ufological society (NICAP) is co-operating with Dr. Condon - indicating that UFOs have become a matter for urgent, serious government research. Partly true, inasmuch that if you are investigating psychological behaviour connected with phenomena, naturally you obtain information from societies and cults which trade in mental obsessions.

Kathryn Shapley, secretary to Dr. Condon, wrote to me last year, asking for a little information about the Warminster Thing: what sort of people lived at Warminster, for instance. She mentioned that Dr Condon was not interested in UFOs seen outside the USA. But Dr. Condon had received literature and photographs concerning the Warminster Thing, and originating in this country, which claimed that the Warminster Thing had been picked up on British military radar (Radar Research Unit, Boscombe Down), and that photographs had been expertly examined by the British Ministry of Defence and found to be genuine.

I have sent Dr. Condon copies of official letters from both the Ministry of Technology, Boscombe down, and the Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, which completely refute these claims, and this was only done after exhaustive enquiries at both government establishments.

Young people should use their common sense as regards ufology. It is one thing to stand on a hill and identify objects; to get to know about the various sciences involved. But it is quite another thing to become involved in a semi-religious cult, one based on fear of nuclear annihilation; which uses fake photographs, compromises genuine scientific institutions and military establishments, ridicules the world’s leading scientific men, misrepresents facts; whose members will record, as UFOs, luminous objects which are the illusions of terrified old and lonely people, or those of sick, and mentally-retarded children.

Last year I wrote to ufologists and told them to refrain from this practice - trying to get a luminous object to be seen in the Warminster district. But fanatics they are, and they went ahead, expecting that weak minded people would follow up with more sightings.

Priests and ministers are sometimes asked for spiritual guidance as regards UFOs. It is not sufficient to say that the Church accepts that there might be other inhabited worlds. That is not the answer. Prophetic words of philosopher Jung are more to the point: "Man cannot live without religion, and when the day comes and he has no religion he will resort to myth".

Some time ago two ufologists wrote to me and said they had been coming to Warminster for a year and had not seen the Thing. Could I tell them what it was? I now say this to ufologists, those with common sense: when a community has suffered the full impact of UFO-itis, call it what you will, it is self-immunised from further attacks.

In 1965 I said there was no Thing over Warminster. Now I can say that it will never come back again. And the answer to the Warminster Thing rested with the people of Warminster and district, not with ufologists, or with individuals like myself. If the majority of the folk of Warminster and district now totally reject the Thing as a lot of nonsense, then that is the answer.


IDEAS AND THEORIES
What are or were these manifestations in our skies? Who knows? Many people believe they have the answer? Here are a few of the weird and wonderful ideas and theories people have advocated over the years:

15 January 1968:
It was on the night of 15 January 1968, that the man and woman in question drove up the Portway and headed towards Elm Hill about a mile short of Cradle Hill. Both of placid temperament, they were completely at ease until a short burst of aerial activity broke their calm.

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They had reached the traffic roundabout at the junction of the foot of the hill and Westbury Road when a fiery UFO swept across their vision, from right to left, from Copheap towards the downs. The car engine began to seize and splutter.

It did not affect the woman, who was in the passenger seat next to the driver. She shielded her eyes from the bright glare of the craft in close proximity, as it swooped down to the front of the car and swiftly upwards. She was then intent on looking upwards to see where it went after blistering their sight.

The man, however, felt two terrific stabbing pains, high up on either side of his chest. He collapsed at the wheel, slumping over while he managed to brake the vehicle to a halt. He remembers little else, yet at work next morning a friend confided, "I do not want to worry you or depress you, but I dreamt last night that you died."

The vividness of the dream awoke the friend, who looked at his bedside clock and noted the time. To the minute, this corresponded with the time of the car driver’s "double chest pain" when the UFO dived on the car.

Shortly after this, the man received a strange phone call urging him to be at Heaven’s Gate on the Longleat Estate, at 9 p.m., three days later. He and the woman went on the Thursday, not knowing what to expect, staying in the car park opposite.

At three minutes past the hour appointed, the woman spied a UFO. It tilted from side to side overhead, then flew straight to Heaven's Gate and dropped with the suddenness of a stricken bird. The two companions clambered over chain-link fencing and tore across the grass.

They sped along the avenue, between the trees and bushes, and on the downwards slope, beyond the ‘gate’ proper, was the saucer. It ceased to spin, the glow lessened in intensity, as it virtually lay on the sloping ground. they found it difficult, almost impossible to grasp, an amazing fact which staggered them at that tense moment. The craft was literally no larger than a soup plate.

Then a golden ladder, fine in texture, appeared from the base of the miniature spaceship, down which climbed tiny elfin figures no more than four inches in height. There were more than two dozen of them altogether. Stepping away from the landed craft, now blacked out, each in turn zoomed up to the height of the man and woman standing there, dumbstruck, refusing to credit the testimony of their eyes.

They shook hands with the two Warminster people politely. They were perfectly normal and friendly, as though knowing them all. After a few minutes of small talk, they invited the man to take a journey with them in their machine to see some of the "hidden wonders of his own world".

Staggered still, yet no longer fearful, he agreed. The woman was left behind, holding his car keys and personal effects. To her further amazement, all were again dwarfed in height - including her companion, this time. They ascended into the craft. A whistling noise accompanied take off, the craft rising with a spinning and slightly agitated movement until in free-flight. It became larger as it soared up, stopping momentarily, well above the tree-tops before continuing its flight. It soon faded from sight.

The woman, alone in the darkness, waited there for eight hours, until past 5 a.m. when her friend returned, dismounted in pygmy stature from the re-miniaturized craft and assumed normal height on reaching her.

"You may think me mad," she told Arthur Shuttlewood, "But I could have stooped down, plucked the saucer from the ground and held it in my hand. When I saw B_____ reduced in size, the same as the others, it broke my heart. I could have cried over him."

The man did not reveal directly his experience in the craft, although he hinted of visits to the core of the Earth and of cities buried now under our oceans.


Western Daily Press, 4 October 1968:
Dear Sir: Much has been written in the past about the "things", not only about Warminster in particular, but from all parts of the world.

In the last twenty years scientists have unsuccessfully tried to find the answer to an old-age problem, but so far have failed to do so.

I think the reason for this is the narrow-minded and dogmatic way they approach the subject. They have given the general public every conceivable answer except the right one. Mind you, I do admit that so far there is no scientific evidence that says these 'things' come from other planets, at least that's what the scientists say, but again they don't even consider the possibility of such, so we are none the wiser.

I have found during my investigations that many of the general public are now very fed up with "answers" that very often are twenty years old, and many now accept the possibility of being visited by extraterrestrial intelligences, and why not? Who are we to say not?

After all nobody with any common sense would dare say that, in this infinite universe, Earth is the only planet that supports human life.

These "things" as we call them have been seen in world skies for many thousands of years, and if they do decide to land in more populated places than they have in the past, I think that we should welcome them with open hearts and minds for we have much to learn from them. Do not surround them with tanks and guns, treat them as fellow men, as one universal law says "All men must be equal", and we are not in any position to say otherwise.

Enough of this "we know all the answers" attitude. As more and more reports flood in, the official answers sound more pathetic than ever. So come on, you Earth men, open your eyes and your minds and look to the future.


UFO News editorial, 1965:
Regardless of what we would like the truth to be, UFOLOGY is not a science. Science, to quote Collins, is "systematic knowledge of natural or physical phenomena". Well, UFOs are surely not natural and although there are a few who would argue, UFOs are not, or at least, have not been proven definitely physical.

Many UFOs look very tangible to the eye, but there are many cases where UFOs have been totally intangible, like they were both transparent and translucent, similar to a mirage or a movie film.

In the next few years, there could come all kinds of changes that will shed new light on the subject of UFOLOGY. But at the moment, UFOLOGY is not a science. Sciences have to follow pre-determined scientific laws. UFOs have no laws appertaining to them. No UFOs are alike.

There are different shapes of UFO, different markings, different spectroscopic readings, different pitches on complex UFO detectors. It must be the thought of perhaps more people than I realise when I say that it is obvious that all UFOs do not come from the same source. Therefore, if their missions are different, their designs are different, they cannot follow the same scientific planning.

To say that that UFOLOGY is a science is to say that St. Bartholomew’s trains Warlocks. If there can be no laws in UFOLOGY, then we should not make them to back up our own opinions. This year, and the one before, has seen UFOLOGY take some pretty bad knocks from people all over Britain, and in fact all over the World, who are turning UFOLOGY into a petty squabbling match between those who disagree with the other, for reasons of pride, profit and I-want-all-the-credit. More and more irresponsible people are degrading UFOLOGY by arguing with each other, when we should all unite in finding a common denominator to the equation that we know only a small part of.

The apathy that exists in our subject is very apparent, and especially within the largest UFO groups in this country. One has been badly run for the last few years, but I feel is steadily getting back on its feet.

But mysteriously the society is very red-faced and flustered if you mention any of the old members who are not with them anymore. The biggest UFO society in this country has different stratas of members who seem to set up their own rules and requirements, and if you do not find yourself in the favour of these souls, you will not get your chance to have your say. I believe this attitude to be deplorable. To set up your own rules, to say what is right and what is wrong, to tell between sense and nonsense, is surely defeating the purpose. We are studying UFOLOGY not ourselves. What we do not know, I doubt if we should ever find out unless 'that' society and all the others exorcise their plastic authority, and start to use their brain instead of their mouths.

There is a lot of weeding to do in the UFOLOGICAL garden, and the only weed killer that I can think of is good old common sense.


Included in UFO NEWS No. 3, March 1971:
SCIENCE AND UFOs.
Arthur Shuttlewood.
Whenever you go on a nocturnal UFO spotting mission, always carry a compass with you. Invariably, when inexplicable phenomena are flying in our atmosphere at fairly close range, normal compass alignments will go completely haywire. We have noticed this many times on Cradle Hill, Warminster.

Another noteworthy feature is that wristwatches will often stop or slow their usually accurate forward motion when UFOs are in the vicinity. When Patrick Moore and a 10 strong BBC 2 team came to Cradle Hill and saw two definitely unworldly aerial shapes within a minute on the last Friday of January 1969, three wristwatches amongst the assembly stopped . . . . .

For heavens sake do not persist in watching from a remote and isolated position (and you just have to get away from town lighting and other distractions to watch diligently anyway) if the atmosphere suddenly changes. This cannot be stressed too seriously! As soon as you sense a change of atmosphere to negative, leave your hill. As more reputable veterans in UFO spotting and investigations have frequently urged, not all UFO occupants and pilots are benign and human loving entities . . . . .

So what are UFOs? From whence do they come? What is their prime purpose in haunting our Earth’s atmosphere in such numbers since 1947, the modern advent? Scientific methods and analysis have proved precious little about any of these salient points during those intervening 23 years, for our scientific concepts fall far short of what UFO powers and forces really constitute. The answers must come to those who seek with no thought of reward or materialistic gain save personal enlightenment. Truth cannot be tarnished by mammon. So although UFOs are a many sided coin whose spending value and worth are largely unknown, we can sensibly deduce that the spirit that moves those aboard them must first begin to pulsate within himself on our planet.

From experiences our team have had in Warminster, and taking into account the evidence, or non-evidence, produced by our cameras (which science tells us cannot lie), we honestly think that only a minority of our alien visitations originate from physical planets like Earth in our galaxy. The majority, which cameras fail to define in a convincing and clearcut way, are not necessarily extra-terrestrial, although moving and having intelligent existence in a dimension far removed from our own, connecting with psyche or soul force and potential.

For this reason alone, we cannot share the editor of this magazines intolerance towards the Adamskis of this world, simply because our scientific probes lead us to suppose that life as we know it cannot exist on Mars, Venus and other planets in our solar system. Bluntly, the very fact that we do have UFOs in our atmosphere proves that they certainly wander around our solar system even if not natives of it. We are all extra-terrestrial travellers with each planetary rotation. It is a relevant point to remember . . . . . .


Extract from the introduction to The Age Of The UFO:
. . . . . . Then they vanish [UFOs], sometimes just "blinking out", sometimes departing at enormous speeds. But where do they go? Unlike ordinary physical objects - but like the Cheshire Cat - the UFO, once it has left one spot, cannot be located anywhere else.

This apparent coming into and going out of existence is the conspicuous "trademark"of the UFO. Yet, outstanding as it is, this feature is ignored by the most popular theory of UFOs: the "extraterrestrial hypothesis".

To most people, influenced no doubt by science fiction and the media, UFOs are synonymous with "little green men" from outer space - or, to give them a more dignified title, "extraterrestrial entities" So prevalent is this common interpretation of UFOs that it has been an obstacle to research into other possibilities.

Scientists, especially astronomers, are far more fully aware than the public of the truly awesome distances that separate the stars. The majority of them dismiss the extraterrestrial hypothesis as utterly impossible - and thereby, in the opinion of many, throw out the baby with the bathwater. Ardent defenders of the theory hold that we must not think in terms of our current science and technology: rather, we must assume that other civilisations in space, far more advanced than we are, have learned how to overcome these formidable distances in a manner incomprehensible to us - perhaps by means that we would call paranormal. Some pursue these ideas into the realms of the ancient teachings concerning 'planes of existence' beyond the physical - parallel realities' not subject to ordinary physical law. But once such ideas are entertained, anything becomes possible!


Letter to The Wiltshire Times, 26 July 1991:
When testing wireless equipment I found myself listening to Mike D’Abo’ Late Night West. He received a number of calls on corn circles and flying saucers from seemingly agitated listeners. I was surprised when he said: "There is so much evidence for flying saucers anyone who does not believe in them must be a bit stupid."

He then said: "There is a conspiracy between Government and the media to suppress evidence of flying saucers so people do not know of them."

The second statement is a serious allegation and contradicts his first statement.

If it is accepted flying saucers do not come from our solar system as proved by space probes, the nearest star is 100 light years away.*

Does it seem remotely possible beings from space would travel at least for 100 years to place circles in corn in Wiltshire?

I have always thought the circles owe much more to beer technology than space technology.

*This is not the case. In fact the nearest star is Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.3 light years away. So our intrepid travellers would, at minimum, require only four years of travel at light speed to reach Earth!


Press Release, 23 August:
ALIENS ON THE DOORSTEP
Hundreds of sightings of strange objects in the sky, as well as regular reports of strange and unexplained noises, have made the old market town of Warminster, in Wiltshire, the UFO capital of Britain. Since Christmas 1964 when a weird noise was heard crossing over the town, giving rise to the mystery dubbed "the Warminster Thing," there has been a relentless tally of UFO activity, which has in turn spawned a great many people dedicated to the study of the phenomenon.

Local journalist Arthur Shuttlewood brought the Warminster phenomenon to the attention of the world’s press, initiating the regular skywatches from the hilltop vantage points around the town. Places such as Cley Hill, Cradle Hill and Middle Hill (re-named in the 1960s by skywatcher devotees as Star Hill) have become the venues for regular sightings - some explained but the majority not.

Enthusuiasts including the late Ken Rogers, a former Daily Express journalist have collected and attempted to explain the details of hundreds of UFO sightings over Warminster.

These include a record of a conversation between Arthur Shuttlewood and an alien from the planet Aenstria, named Karne, when the extraterrestrial actually turned up on Arthur's doorstep!

Accounts of UFO sightings are in abundance with the events surrounding Bob Strong’s meeting with aliens being one of the more unusual, not to say fascinating. Also mentioned is the infamous Warminster ‘Thing’ that achieved such heights of fame in the sixties, and spread the town’s name to places all over the world.

Gordon Faulkner’s photograph of "the Thing," which he took in 1965 made the pages of the Daily Mirror, astounding many noted ufologists in the process. The photograph has, more recently, come under fire regarding its authenticity, although Gordon Faulkner remains adamant that the photograph is not a fake.


Western Daily Press, 4 October 1968:
When Karne, from the deep space planet of Aenstria, telephoned Arthur Shuttlewood one Sunday evening, the Warminster journalist was furious. He thought it was a crank or a hoaxer on the end of the line, and didn't hesitate to say so.

But Karne was equally upset.

Apparently Mr Shuttlewood had received earlier telephone calls from Treallison, the Queen of Aenstria; Caellsan, her spacecraft commander, and Selorik, their English interpreter.

In his book published in May 1967, Mr Shuttlewood dismissed them as hoaxers.

But now it was May 28, Whit Sunday, 1967, and the stern telephone voice said: "Shuttlewood, this is Karne of Aenstria. We are disappointed that you persist in calling us hoaxers in your book, which we have read."

White-faced and inwardly fuming, Mr Shuttlewood demanded personal contact, and slammed the telephone down.

Seven second later Karne was at his front door.

Arthur Shuttlewood describes this meeting with the man from outer space in his book, Warnings From Flying Friends.

Karne, he says, was over six feet tall, wore an ordinary gabardine mackintosh, brown boots ("about size ten"), and a muffler wrapped close to his shirt collar.

And, among other things, Karne told him: "Your Earth time is desperately short."

The world of the unidentified flying object (UFO) is littered with strange stories. But none stranger than the numerous sightings and contacts quoted by the author.

He is a convert to the cult of Ufology and, like most converts, he has become a fanatical believer.

There is a glib and uneasy quality in the way he introduces the various facets of his belief.

It is an amalgam of science-fiction, the occult, psychiatry, biblical mysticism, and the comings and goings of hundreds of spacemen and their celestial chariots in Warminster.

But perhaps the most disturbing story is Mr Shuttlewood's claim to have been visited by Jesus Christ.

He has, however, complete contempt for the unbeliever.

Those, no matter how eminent in the field of science, who have the temerity to dismiss or disagree with his claims, are derisively termed 'so called experts'.

I go along with the so called experts.



ARTHUR SHUTTLEWOOD
On 28 September 1965 Mr. Shuttlewood was putting the finishing touches to a story he was writing and had gone upstairs to fetch a note book. Glancing from his landing window he noticed that, dwarfing cloud layers at little more than half a mile high, 600 yards outwards from his vantage point, seemingly a good eighty yards in length and twelve in width, sailed a cigar shaped object. To his eyes it was the colour of highly-polished or burnished amber. Its shape was similar to the fiery cigar seen by so many witnesses on 3 June. There was a peculiar appendage or protrusion visible, humped dome-like over the rearward edge. This growth was amber in colour and showed up with startling clarity in the daylight against the solid white core of the craft itself. Mr Shuttlewood felt that this was undoubtedly a hatch portion via which smaller discs could be released.

He rushed for his movie camera, and kicked the floor to warn his wife, below in the kitchen.

He said, "I trained the camera on this gliding giant and felt the mechanism jump uncontrollably in my hands, needling pains shooting up my left arm and the left side of my face, which were exposed to the phenomenon. In spite of the pain, I doggedly held on to the camera and took shots of the craft. I cursed when it entered a heavier belt of white cloud travelling in the opposite direction. I noted the end of it spinning and changing colour to sandy brown as the cloud swallowed it up. Camera poised, I waited patiently for it to emerge."

"But it never did break through; it had vanished. I searched the sky frantically for it and within three seconds found the giant aeroform again more than three miles up. It was still following the same course, north-west to south-east, from Colloway Clump towards Shearwater. I had seen the craft at first low down; then higher up. It was not until later that I realised the immense speed at which it must have moved to rise three miles in less than three seconds. Either the craft had the propensity or capacity of disappearing entirely, or it had moved faster than the human eye could follow. The amber projection, domed and rather reminiscent of an old gramophone horn wide end upward, was now a minute speck, and almost indiscernible unless one knew it existed and what to look for. In addition to this several other things impressed me about this sighting."

"I have never suffered from any nervous tic. Yet my face began twitching and my eye watering as soon as I watched the cigar craft sail leftwards. In fact, my left hand and wrist, also the left of my face, were partially paralysed by rays which it must have thrown out to thwart my camera. This paralysis wore off fairly rapidly, although I was typing for two days with the fingers of my right hand only. And my left eye persisted in watering for over eight weeks, the eyelid being sore and inflamed."

"Unfortunately my wife was out shopping at the time of my sighting. My schoolboy son, Graham, came in a few minutes later. Why did others not see it? Because from underneath it would have resembled a large dense white cloud and so attracted scant attention."

"Furthermore it was journeying mainly over waste ground such as fields, trees, bushes and fields being developed for housing, outside the populated areas of the town. So I have nothing to confirm my story except an eight inch span of burnt, scorched film developed from the 25 feet run. Before sending it off to be developed professionally, I found that the film had left the securing gate and coiled up inside the casing, obstructing the winding spools. The films were returned with the damaged negative attached to the exterior of the case holding the prints."

"There was no noise from the object as it passed overhead; nor was there any smoke trail or exhaust. Yet my wristwatch had stopped, and has not kept good time since; the first occasion it has done this in three years."


And in conclusion:

WARMINSTER UFOS
Three basic types of UFO phenomenon have been reported from the Warminster area.

Firstly we have the occasional appearance of UFOs properly so-called i.e. discoid or cylindrical objects, sometimes with the accompaniment of the now celebrated "Warminster Sound", with its side effects on animals and humans.

Secondly, there is the appearance of luminous, pulsating aerial objects, (known as "pulsers" to local observers), which are a feature of the Warminster skies although not peculiar to them.

Thirdly, most common of all, are what may be called "UFO-lights", which can be mistaken for satellites until they stop in mid-course and hover, or alter flight path or orbit in a manner no satellite would or could do (a man made satellite appears in the sky to the observer as a star-like object, moving at a steady constant speed). These UFO-lights are probably similar, or identical to the "Foo-fighters" sighted during World War Two.