07/10/1978 - Kettering/Finedon – Disc-Shaped UFO Sightings & Other Reported Sightings
Birmingham UFO Group Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Last Updated: 08/12/2012
Introduction
In May 2012 I was contacted by a man named David who has through his
life had several impressive UFO encounters. The earliest of these occurred in
1978 when he was 15 years old. He and a number of friends experienced a
stunning sighting of a UFO in Kettering which would remain in their memory for
many years to come. It soon became clear that theirs was not the only sighting,
and that UFOs were also seen by many others in the area for a number of months,
what is commonly referred to as a UFO flap.
In November 2012 another man named Kevin got in touch after finding
this report online. He informed me that he was another witness to this same
craft but prior to David’s sighting in Finedon to the South East of Kettering!
This report covers both sightings in detail, and also provides lots of
information on other reported sightings in the area around the same time.
Note: Names of some witnesses in
this report have been changed for privacy reasons.
Sighting Details
When David was 15 he would often meet up with his friends Tim, Leigh,
Darren and Justin to go skateboarding at Skateside Skate Park on Rockingham
Road, Kettering. On the 7th October the boys left the skate park shortly
after 9.30 pm. Back in those days there was not much traffic on the road, so
they used to skate along the road to travel home. It was a warm, still and
clear night, and they were happy just wearing T-shirts. There was very little
cloud in the sky and the stars were visible. It was quite a journey to get back
home along numerous roads. The boys skated along Bath Road, then turned a
corner into Cedar Road.
Aerial map showing the location where Skateside Skate Park used to be
(A), and the junction leading into Cedar Road (B):
Cedar Road is not flat, it descends down a shallow hill, and then back
up. In the distance over the housing of Walnut Crescent they were astounded by
what they saw. There hovering in the air was a huge dark flattened-oval shaped
object. It was massive in size, longer end to end than four house block. It had
a symmetrical pattern of multi-coloured lights along it. In the centre were
four bright white lights. They appeared to be slightly rectangular in shape.
They were arranged in a rectangular pattern, with the lower two slightly
further apart. At each end of the object were other smaller lights which were
different colours – red, orange, green and blue. All the lights remained at
constant brightness and did not flash. David says that the colours were
“something I had never seen the like of before or since”.
The object was hovering motionless no more than 20 feet above the roofs
of the houses. It appeared to be completely silent, which was amazing to the witnesses.
They stared at the object in awe for about 15 seconds. Then suddenly without
warning the object tilted to the left at an angle of around 30 degrees. It then
made an incredibly fast movement to the left in a Northern direction and then
halted again in the air. David finds this movement extremely hard to describe.
It also appeared to have a physical effect on him. In his own words “I felt a
strange warping effect as it moved. A slight tug inside my stomach. The
movement was odd. Suddenly it was at the other position but it did not vanish
and reappear, and yet it did not move sideways. This is odd, I stared at it the
whole time and it had just moved.”
At this point the boys decided they wanted to get a closer look at the
object. They began to skate down the hill towards it. It remained motionless in
its new position, still tipped at an angle. After about 6-7 seconds the
witnesses temporarily lost sight of the object due to the dip in the road.
Seconds later when they began to ascend, they found that the object had
completely vanished. David feels that the object had been aware of them and
decided to leave when they tried to approach it.
Drawing of the UFO on top of a
darkened photograph of the sighting location to illustrate its size and
position, both before and after its sudden movement:
Aerial map showing the position
of the witnesses and the two positions the UFO was seen at:
The boys had nothing else to do but continue onward to their homes.
When he arrived home David told his parents about what he had seen. On Monday
when he went into school he told a couple of his school mates. Later on one of
them approached him and said that 5 other boys were mucking around on the
school football field on Saturday when a huge object swooped down and hovered
over them. In his next class David was telling the boy sitting next to him,
when another boy sitting behind them spoke up. He asked “Was that on Saturday?”
When David responded and told him that it was, he said “Well I was in the off
licence on Stamford Road that same night when a bloke came in shaking and
pale.” The shop keeper knew the man and asked him what was wrong. He said “I’ve
just seen a flying saucer, almost landed on the roof of my car when I was
driving by Wicksteeds Park.” The shop keeper responded by saying “You’re
kidding me?” but had no doubt the man was telling the truth.
Aerial map showing the location
of Wicksteeds Park (B) in relation to the location where the boys saw the UFO
(A):
On Tuesday evening when David arrived home from school his mother said
“Take a look at the Telegraph.” In the paper was an article about two girls who
had had a close encounter with a UFO on the same night. Thankfully David kept
both this article and other previous articles which spoke of sightings in the
area, you can read them later in this report. David says there were more in the
coming weeks too though these were not kept.
Sadly David has not kept in touch with the other witnesses and so I am
not able to speak with them about what happened unless they see this report and
get in touch. About 15 years ago his brother did work alongside one of them for
a while. He asked him “You saw something weird once with my brother didn’t
you?” to which he responded “Yes it was a UFO”.
Finedon Sighting Details
Aerial map of Tingdene Road with the
sighting location marked:
They suddenly began to hear a strange noise which appeared to be coming
from above the garage. It sounded like a low pitched quiet whining noise which
was continuous. Both Kevin and Paula exited the garage to the back garden to
see if they could see what where the sound was coming from.
When they stepped outside and looked up they were shocked to see a huge
disc shaped object hovering directly above the neighbouring house. It was about
90 feet high and was at least the width of the house. They were looking at it
at an angle of about 20 degrees from their position. It was clearly a flattened
disc with numerous bright lights on it. Kevin cannot remember if these lights
were coloured, but they were so bright that they partially obscured the main
body of the object. It was hovering completely motionless in the air.
Both the witnesses were absolutely shocked by what they were seeing.
Kevin banged on the window of the house to try and get his sister to come
outside and see it too, but she did not hear. The UFO hovered completely still
for around 20-25 seconds, which at the time felt much much longer.
Suddenly without warning the UFO shot away to the North extremely fast.
There was no build up in acceleration with this manoeuvre. In the distance it
then came to a direct halt again, directly over the A6. After about 5 seconds
it once again shot away to the North West in the direction of Kettering and was
lost from sight.
The witnesses were absolutely astounded by what they had just seen.
They ran back into the house and told Kevin’s sister, who didn’t really believe
them. They then returned to the garage talking about the object. On Monday 9th
October when they returned to school, Kevin told his class mates about the
sighting but again they didn’t really take it seriously. However on the
following day there was an article in the paper about other sightings which had
taken place over the weekend, some of which appeared to be of the same object,
while others were clearly of other UFOs (You can read this article and others later
in this report).
Sightings Analysis
Both of the incidents described above are excellent highly credible multiple
witness sightings, which show all the signs of being a genuine advanced ET
craft. The fact that the same object was seen by two different groups of people
at different locations proves that it was definitely present in the sky and not
some kind of visual hallucination or individual interpretation of something
mundane. The object was clearly very large, at least 30 feet in diameter,
probably larger.
In both sightings the object performed very impressive manoeuvres which
show it was clearly something out of the ordinary. It could not have been a
remote controlled model or electronically lit balloon of some kind. UFOs have
been seen to perform manoeuvres such as these on many occasions, moving
extremely fast with no gradual acceleration or visible means of propulsion.
Movements such as these are far in advance of any known aeroplane or helicopter
that we have today, military or otherwise. Could the object of been some kind
of secret military craft? This explanation seems very unlikely. Why would they
fly such a craft low down over a residential area in plain sight of anyone who
happened to look up?
We must also take into account that there were other sightings of both
this object and others. It is clear that there was a UFO flap in the area. Many
of the sightings reported had multiple witnesses so should not simply be
dismissed as hoaxes or misidentification.
Regarding the sighting at Finedon, I am convinced that Kevin is a
genuine witness and has not simply read the report then made up a story. He was
clearly thrilled at having found the report online and says that he has been
showing it to his family and friends to back up what he has talked about on
numerous occasions in the past. It’s great when the reports I write and upload
do sometimes cause other witnesses to come forward.
Newspaper Articles
Below are the various articles that David sent me relating to UFOs
around Kettering. You can click on them to view in full size, then use your browsers back button to return to the report. This first article is the one which his mother showed him
several days after his own sighting. It describes numerous UFO sightings around
Kettering on both the Saturday and previous evening, including a domed disc-shaped object which appeared to give chase to
two terrified girls:
This next article describes a saucer shaped object covered in flashing
lights which was seen by a family from Corby, the town just North of Kettering,
on the previous evening:
In the final article, further UFO sightings around Kettering and Corby are discussed,
including one on the Monday evening:
Newspaper Article Analysis
The objects described in the various newspaper articles above do not
all appear to be of the same object, though some may well be the same object
that the witnesses from Finedon and Kettering saw.
The first sightings mentioned took place on the Friday evening in the
town of Corby, roughly 9 miles North of Kettering. Towards the end of the first
article, a multiple witness sighting of a line of multi-coloured flashing
lights is mentioned. This UFO was seen in the district of Weldon, moving in the
direction of Beanfield.
Arial map showing both Weldon (A)
and Beanfield (B):
The second article appears to speak of another multiple witness
sighting of the same UFO over Corby just after 8pm. The witness again describes
an object with flashing multi-coloured lights, moving slowly in the direction
of Beanfield. This sighting took place at the Bankside Estate. As Bankside is
much closer to Beanfield than Heldon, it can be assumed that this sighting took
place after the other one.
Arial map showing the locations
of the Bankside Estate (A) and Beanfield (B):
Photograph of the entrance to the
Bankside Estate where the second Corby sighting took place:
Next we move to the following evening, where across the first and third
articles there are a total of 5 independent UFO sightings all between 9 -
9.30pm, and a sixth sighting which has an unknown time.
The first reported sighting of the Saturday evening was seen by two men
at The Hill, Middleton, a village to the West of Corby.
Aerial map of The Hill:
The UFO had a cluster of red and orange coloured lights which appeared
to be moving in a clockwise direction on a central section of the object. It
appeared to be making a bubbling-like sound. The movement pattern which the
object performed is extremely similar to what David reported seeing the UFO
over Kettering perform – sudden acceleration from a hovering position before
slowing down again. The object appeared to position itself over the village of
Ashley to the North West of the men, where it remained for up to 10 minutes.
Aerial map showing the location
of The Hill at Middleton (A) and Ashley (B):
However its description does not match what the boys saw, and it was
sufficiently different to be classed as a completely separate object,
suggesting that there were multiple UFOs present in the county on the same
evening. I do not feel that the proposed explanation of a normal aircraft given
by the spokesman from RAF Wittering and the spokesman from the MOD is
sufficient due to both the rotation of the lights on the object and the
movement pattern observed. Many people completely dismiss UFO sightings and
automatically label them as misidentification of mundane objects which some of
the time does not fit the facts.
The next reported sighting of the Saturday evening took place on Wellingborough
Road somewhere between Finedon and Wellingborough at around 9.15pm.
Photograph of Wellingborough
Road, giving a general view of the surroundings:
Aerial map of Wellingborough
Road between Fielden and Wellingborough. The UFO sighting occured somewhere along this, though the exact location is not known:
Once again the object described does not sound anything like the
previously reported UFOs. Mr Batley described seeing a delta shaped object with
bright white lights at the front and a green light at the rear. Although the
lights seen twice on the Friday evening could conceivably been attached to a
delta shaped object, there were other colours seen besides just white and
green. And it sounds entirely different to the object seen by the witnesses
from Middleton.
Soon after 9.15pm a UFO with a cluster of red lights was seen by two
witnesses over Hallwood in Kettering, as reported by the third article. This
lighting configuration sounds similar to the object seen previously by the two
men. However there is no mention of the lights moving in a clockwise direction.
The object was witnessed for over 4 minutes, so in this time the rotation of
the lights would certainly have been noticed. It is possible that the object
had switched off this rotation for whatever purpose.
Photograph of Hallwood Road:
Aerial map of Hallwood Road:
The girl’s ordeal spoken of in the first article took place in
Wellingborough at around 9.30pm on Queensway. The object described sounds similar
to what the boys from Kettering would witness soon afterwards, and could well
have been the same UFO. The girls described a disc shaped object with a dome on
the top and numerous multi-coloured lights. David does not remember seeing a
dome on the top of the object he saw in Kettering, however it is possible that
the object was tipped up at an angle and they were viewing its underside. This
would account for the flattened elliptical shape reported. It is clear that the
object could tip up in different ways, as it did this towards the end of the
sighting. The girls reported that the object they saw tipped right over 180
degrees so that the dome was then on the bottom.
Photograph of the bridge on
Queensway which the UFO crossed over while approaching the girls:
Aerial map showing the location
of the bridge on Queensway (A), and Vicaridge Farm Road (B), the road which the girls
lived on:
After the girls knocked on the door of one of the houses further along
Queensway, the UFO flew away. It is entirely possible that it then headed
north, and was then seen by the boys in Kettering a short while later.
The other Saturday evening sighting again mentioned in the first
article took place on the A45 between Higham Ferrers and Sanders Lodge
industrial park. Unfortunately we have no time when this incident took place.
Nor is there much detail about the UFO, other than the fact it was silent.
Aerial map showing the location
of Higham Ferrers (A) and Sanders Lodge (B):
We then move on to the Monday evening. The third article speaks of
another sighting of the UFO with the cluster of red lights on it. This time the
UFO was seen over the Hazel Wood area in Corby, and once again there were
multiple witnesses.
Aerial map of Hazel Wood:
Conclusion
From the various reports sent to me and the details that David, and
later Kevin, provided, it is clear that there was a lot of UFO activity over
that weekend, and may well have been in the weeks prior to and following it.
The sightings of the disc-shaped UFO over Finedon and Kettering were just two
of a number of impressive sightings. What is clear is that the descriptions of
the UFOs do not all match up, there appears to have been numerous UFOs over the
area which were sometimes seen only once, and sometimes seen multiple times.
Whether all of these sightings were of genuine craft is impossible to say.
However I feel that this is certainly the most likely explanation for what Kevin
and Paula, then David and his friends saw. There were too many aspects which do
not fit with any mundane explanation, and I find it very probable that the
object was of extra-terrestrial origin.
Report Links
The sighting of the UFO over Kettering would not be the only time that David would see UFOs. In August 1988 he saw one or more UFOs on the outskirts of Rendlesham Forest, location of the famous UFO incident of December 1980. And on 4th July 2012 he and another witness saw a possible Flying Triangle craft actually appear to land! Below are links to the official reports of these incidents:
04/07/2012 - Rockingham - Flying Triangle Sighting & Possible Landing
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2012