North Devon UFO sightings
Following a story in the Norh Devon Gazette about a possible UFO sighting in South Molton the Gazette office was inundated with calls from readers who also claim to have spotted a UFO!
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JOHN KIMBER
John Kimber took pictures of a “brilliant orange light” he saw in the skies two nights in a row above Merton, both at around 10pm on July 21 and 22.
“They were following exactly that same path north-northwest to south-south east each night,” he said.
“It didn’t move at any great speed but as it went away from us the light created a halo around an obvious circular object.”
GEOFF GRATER
from Barnstaple, was working as a security guard at the Activas factory on Wescott Road on Wednesday evening (July 23, 2008) when he saw something fly over the road and disappear behind bungalows at around 11pm.
He said: “I have seen it several times before but it’s always been stationary, hovering over the A361 towards Tiverton.
“But this time, it was moving at about 40mph and had radiating and rotating yellow arms. It looked like it was mimicking a star but it was too low down to be a star.
“There were two yellow lights with a gap between them and when travelling horizontally, it looked more like a spider.”
MARTIN THOMPSON
from Bideford, an engineer and qualified pilot for 25 years, said he was at a caravan rally for the Devon and Cornwall Caravan Club at Clovelly football pitch on Friday night (July 25, 2008) when he spotted something in the sky he was unable to explain.
"It was a very clear night, and I went out around 11pm-midnight to walk the dog," he said.
"There was no moon, the stars were very bright and I was looking for shooting stars as it was such a clear night.
"This object came across the sky as a bright white light about the same size as a star. It was not an aeroplane with its lights on because it was moving away from me, and as a pilot I know how to read an aircraft's navigation lights.
"It was too slow for a shooting star. I followed its movement for a couple of minutes. Then it suddenly stopped, just paused in the sky, went on again, stopped again, then shot off to the left, then to the right.
"When it moved to the left and right it was almost instantaneous. Then it moved forward again, accelerated and just disappeared.
"I thought 'no satellite or aeroplane could does that.' I could not explain why it would jerk around like that."
On July 23 and 24, Ilfracombe neighbours TONEE ROSS and HANNAH COLLYER saw “glowing orange ovals” hovering over the Slade area of the town on two consecutive nights.
“We saw two on the Wednesday, and then three the following night – on both occasions, they disappeared into thin air,” said Tonee.
JAMES ROE
from Bideford, was sitting in his garden on Thursday evening (July 24) when he saw a "very orange light" over Orchard Hill, just before 10pm.
"It was barely dark and it came along and then dropped quickly before levelling out again and turning left," he said.
"I shouted to my wife to come and see and went out into the front garden, where the object had gone, towards the river. When I got there it had disappeared so I went back into the back garden with my wife and just as I was explaining what I had seen, we saw a second object, just the same.
"This time it did not drop, but it also turned left the same as the first one."
Mr Roe said the couple brought their daughter out and again they went round to the front and again it was gone.
"There were definitely two of them," he said. There was no sound, no flashes, just the orange light.
"This was something quite unusual and has had me getting up at night since to see if there are any more."
“We saw it on Saturday too…”
SALLY BOULTON
from Bideford, said she was also sitting in her garden with her dog and friends having a barbecue on Saturday evening when they began stargazing.
“One of my friends looked south westerly and noticed a bright light. The colour seemed to be orange. We all looked round and could not believe what we saw, it seem to stay still for a while glowing brightly.
“Some of us thought it was a satellite, while we wondered if it could be a meteor.
“Only the night before we’d watched the film War of the Worlds on DVD and we began to worry because we thought this might be the end of the world!
“The orange light then skimmed across the evening sky.”
ADRIAN BAGG
a taxi driver from South Molton, was driving from Alswear towards South Molton just before 10pm on Saturday night.
“I saw a red/orange glow moving across the sky and kept my eye on it back into South Molton,” he said.
“I picked up a passenger and asked if she had noticed it and she said that she had also been watching it.
“She got into the car and then we both looked out of the window for the light and it had gone.
“I couldn’t put a shape to it, it was like a big light.”
WENDY COLTON
and her husband were sitting in their conservatory when they saw the orange light fly over their South Molton home – twice!
“It first came over at 9.54pm and we grabbed the binoculars to take a closer look.
“It had a haze around it like the couple described and was fairly high in the sky, travelling from north to south.
“Then we saw another one a few minutes later – it also looked like a ball of fire but through the binoculars, it looked to me like this one had a streak of light coming out of the side.”
SARAH BRADLEY
from Braunton, was among six adults who spotted something moving through the skies above her garden between 9 and 10pm on Saturday night.
“Whatever it was, it was too high for a helicopter,” she said.
LEE HARRISON
from Birmingham, was holidaying in Combe Martin with his wife and two sons when they spotted a bright light moving across the sky from the balcony of his holiday let between 9.30 and 10.30pm on Saturday night.
“This thing appeared from nowhere,” he said.
“It made no noise, but it was so bright, you would never have missed it.
“It slowly drifted across the valley and suddenly went up at an amazing speed. It was like it was rocket propelled and you could see it all the way until it disappeared among the stars.”
ROWLAND TOWEY
55, from Ilfracombe saw similar unexplained “bright lights” on Saturday and Sunday nights, both at around 10pm.
“On Saturday, I was with around 13 people who watched a “bright light” travel over three miles in a straight line over the houses from the south west at about 9.45pm.
“The following night, around 20 people witnessed exactly the same thing at around 9.55pm, but this time, whatever it was took a left hand turn.
“The light was comparable to the brightness of a street light but whatever it was, it was strong enough to pierce the clouds.
“You couldn't miss it: it was a still light that didn't flash and was definitely not a flare.”
PAT WENHAM
Also on Saturday night, PAT WENHAM, from Bideford, glanced out of her bathroom window to see a strange object travelling from the Westward Ho!/Appledore direction.
“At first I thought it was an aeroplane but it didn’t look right as there were lights flashing in several places,” she said.
“It was a still night and I watched it go behind the clouds and come back out again, travelling across the sky for around 10-15 minutes.
“My son recently got married in Minehead and we had Chinese lanterns there. They weren’t very good at all as they only stayed up for a few minutes before fizzling out.
“What I saw was nothing like a Chinese lantern.”
Other strange North Devon sightings…
TONEE ROSS and HANNAH COLLYER
On July 23 and 24, Ilfracombe neighbours TONEE ROSS and HANNAH COLLYER saw “glowing orange ovals” hovering over the Slade area of the town on two consecutive nights.
“We saw two on the Wednesday, and then three the following night – on both occasions, they disappeared into thin air,” said Tonee.
EBEN MORRISH
Seven-year-old EBEN MORRISH was helping his family to pack the car before a trip to France three weeks ago, when he noticed four strange objects in the sky above Fremington.
The quick-thinking Instow Primary School pupil put his artistic skills to good use by sketching what he had seen and brought his eyewitness account to the Gazette.
“They flew straight across the sky really smoothly and didn't make any noise,” he said. “I'm not sure what they were, but they were bright orange and as high as a helicopter.
“All of a sudden, three disappeared and then one shot off into the distance really fast and just disappeared.
“I was pretty scared but excited at the same time.”
Dad James added: “We all saw them – it was around 10.30pm and pretty dark but you couldn't miss them. We couldn't stop talking about it for days.”
LISA HULSTON,
41, from Combe Martin, said she saw three unusual lights in the sky as she returned home from work at around 11.30pm, three weeks ago.
“They were very bright and drifted up higher and higher,” she said. I watched them for about 10-15 minutes before two went in one direction and one went off another.
“I have never seen anything like it before and couldn’t explain it.”
VALERIE GILLARD
from Braunton, said she was sitting with two friends in her garden having a cup of tea last week, when she saw an object “very high in the sky” around 7pm.
“It was only about the size of a 50p piece and it did not seem to move,” she said.
“As thin clouds went under it, it shone through, sending out a lovely glow of yellow, orange and purple. It was very pretty.”
DAVID KIDBY,
Retired tanker driver DAVID KIDBY, from Torrington, said he saw unexplained lights while unloading a milk tanker at a depot near the Milky Way, near Clovelly, about 16 months ago at around 7pm.
“While waiting for it to finish, I saw lights zig-zagging around in the sky.
“It was quite amazing really, because we could not identify what it was. It was moving around at quite a speed. After about 10 minutes it just shot straight up and disappeared, just as the couple in the Gazette described.”
“I would not doubt that the couple saw it because I have seen it myself.
“I was quite thrilled to think that someone else had seen what I had, but what it was, I do not know.”
RICHARD MARSHALL
from Bideford, saw similar lights will driving down Station Hill from Torrington, in April.
“I assumed they were the navigation lights of an aircraft but noticed they were not quite right,” he said.
“As I approached the bed at the bottom of the hill, I could see the lights were being followed by an orange ball of light, not clearly defined but detached some way from the other lights.
“I didn’t hear any aircraft engines and couldn’t explain what I saw,” he added.
MICHAEL WESCOTT
from Dolton said he saw exactly the same thing described by Bob and Christine Bird, above a field in High Bickington in 1968.
“It was around two in the morning and just like the couple from South Molton said, it made no noise. I stopped the car and went to go and have a look and it sped off,” he said.
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