THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.   The topics today, are history tomorrow.

Out of This World with Doug Attrell

Copyright Valerie Martin 2011

Published in Sussex Local in October 2011

In August 2011, Doug Attrell in Goring emailed to say that Barry Flahey's UFO story had apparently reminded him that he had seen a UFO and he would tell me about it.   I was intrigued.    Read on....

"Dear Valerie.....I haven't mentioned the UFO before as the subject never cropped up. Not really that exciting & I was several miles from Findon when I saw it. It was a UFO in the true sense of the word in that it was an object in the air that I didn't recognise & never discovered what it was. I don't believe in the supernatural or flying saucers & I'm sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for it.

Here's the story for what it's worth. The location was the A283 Steyning Road just north of the old Toll Bridge at Shoreham. I'm not sure of the date but it must have been some time in 1967-68, some years before the Adur flyover was built. Time; late evening (between 11:00 - midnight). I was driving my then fiancée home after an evening out. It's an unlit road & I remember it was a dark evening with no other traffic about. I drove along that road every day on my way to & from work so I was very familiar with it.

I saw what I first thought to be a very bright star or planet to the north. That was until I realised it was getting bigger & heading in our general direction. I then assumed it must be an airliner from Gatwick with its landing light on. This was not an uncommon sight at the time. As it got closer I realised it was a lot lower than I'd originally thought. I pulled over the side of the road to get a better look at it. By this time my future wife was scared stiff & wouldn't let me open the car door or even lower the window to check if it was making any sound. The object must have been about 800 feet up when it passed between us & Mill Hill. Difficult to estimate the size after all this time but unlike a landing light it was emitting no beam. The light was still visible & just as bright as it continued on its way south down the Adur Valley towards Shoreham. Being a dark night I wasn't able to confirm if it was a glowing sphere or if the light was attached to a larger object.

Over the next couple of days I read various reports from all over South East England of similar sightings, some from as far away as Kent. Perhaps someone from Findon saw my UFO or one like it that evening. I never believed the official story that it was a runaway weather balloon but I shall probably never discover what it was now. If I saw the same thing today my immediate thought would be that it was one of those Chinese sky lanterns that are so popular nowadays. Not that I've actually seen one in the air but they're apparently commonly mistaken for flying saucers".


Over the following days much discussion was undertaken on the Feedback page and Doug explained his sighting further ......

"Dear V.....A few more observations. My UFO was definitely not lightning in any shape or form.  Nor was it a cloud formation.  As I remember, it was a clear, dark night.

The object was moving quite slowly on a steady course & speed. With the car windows closed & the engine switched off we couldn't hear a sound. I'm certain it wasn't a conventional aeroplane or helicopter. I've been interested in aircraft from a tender age & was familiar with the current civil & military types including prototypes.

Sorry I can't be more specific with the date. After all these years I'm afraid it will remain a mystery".


The debating of the UFO question continued on my webpage and I discovered that there were many sightings of phenomena in our area..... a number said to be a glowing orange in colour.    At the end of July 2008 there was an amazing plague of mysterious orange lights appeared in the night sky to the south of Findon.   They centred over the seafront and Goring area.... in total a reported 21 incredible and unexplained ball-like lights moved below cloud level.

Doug wrote again.....

"Dear V.....Despite what eyewitnesses might say about lack of wind I believe that the majority of those mysterious orange lights are in fact Chinese lanterns. Especially those reported on or near special occasions like Christmas & the New Year.

Wind speed & direction can vary at different altitudes which explains why some appear to move against the wind or when there is no noticeable wind at ground level".

There seem to be a sharp increase in local sightings and I wondered if the sale of Chinese lanterns was swelling the reports.    
 

Doug wrote in once more...."Dear V....Like you, I've never seen a Chinese lantern in the air so don't know what they look like. However, I did find one on my front lawn some time ago. I was surprised at how big it was.

Purely for research purposes I've a good mind to purchase some & launch them from my back garden on a suitable clear evening. It would be very interesting to see the different eyewitness reports in the local news over the following days. Who knows, I might even make the TV news. I wouldn't mind betting they would be very similar to the reports of orange lights you've quoted on the Feedback page. People tend to see what they want to see & are difficult to convince even when there's a simple explanation.

The size of an object in the sky is very difficult to judge as there is nothing to compare it with. Some reports of rapidly moving objects among the orange lights could have been a combination of Chinese lanterns & fireworks originating from the same party. Laser light shows are also becoming more popular for private events & can produce some very impressive effects.

As for my UFO back in the 1960s, this was long before Chinese lanterns were common in this country. The light was not orange & was very bright. I originally thought it was a bright star or aircraft landing light. Although it remains a mystery I'm positive there is a logical explanation for what I saw".

FROM DAVID MILNES IN EAST PRESTON...  "Valerie, I found my way to your interesting website - Brava! I wish there were more local archives like this - following links about knucker holes, which I saw you are researching.

However, when I got there, I started browsing around, and followed the links to local UFO sightings, with a proposal to experiment with Chinese Lanterns as possible 'culprits'.

At first this sounded like a good idea, until I remembered an item on local TV a few weeks ago, where a farmer complained that 'dead' Chinese Lanterns, that had fallen to earth once the fuel was spent, had injured and even killed his cattle. If you think about it, what goes up must come down somewhere, and it seems these structures, containing wire, can pose a lethal danger to curious livestock.

I hope that you will consider posting this information on your website as a warning, and that whoever undertakes research involving such items takes this risk seriously into account.  Yours, David Milnes, (East Preston)"

My conclusion is quite simply that any object that flies and cannot initially be identified as an aircraft, helicopter, balloon, Chinese lantern, kite, or any other object that normally flies (bird), is a UFO when witnessed passing over our sky.

 

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon and nearby..... and sometimes beyond.