Area is a hotspot for eerie sightings of aerial objects
Close encounters recorded as far back in time as 1706
BARWELL and Earl Shilton have been singled out as hotspots for UFO sightings.
Reports of strange objects in the sky, gathered by The Hinckley Times and listed on a skywatchers’ website, suggest the two neighbourhoods see the most sub-space activity of any location in Leicestershire.
A new article on history and heritage blog The Leicester Chronicle brings together a series of sightings going back to 1706.
Blogger Thomas Kirkup reckons the location of the town and village, close to one another and near to Hinckley but largely surrounded by open countryside, is the key factor in the swathe of flying object spots.
According to his research, Earl Shilton and Barwell is the county’s prime UFO country, with the largest number of sightings reported by locals.
Glowing objects and bright white balls of light were seen in the skies as reported in The Hinckley Times in May last year and March 2015.
Even more cases of eerie ethereal phenomenon are listed on the LUFOIN - Leicestershire UFO Investigation Network.
One weird happening in particular was observed by various witnesses across Earl Shilton, Barwell and Leicester Forest East on May 25 last year at around 10pm.
Six people in different locations were fascinated by a blue glowing object, hovering low over the ground and apparently accompanied by the smell of sulphur.
One man said: “I was heading back from delivering a spa pool at a customer’s when I turned onto Station Road and I saw a brilliant blue light passing over Earl Shilton.
“It was low, about 100 feet off the ground and about 20 foot wide by about ten foot high, it was moving in a zigzag pattern.”
Another recalled: “I was walking the dogs last night when we saw a very bright blue craft in the sky over Elmesthorpe.
“It wasn’t a meteor as it was moving controlled.
“I’m lost as to what it was as it wasn’t an aeroplane and not a chopper or drone.
“There was only a hum- ming noise I could hear, and a mouldy egg smell as it passed over.”
The smell was also detected by a third witness who said: “I saw a car-sized blue cut diamond UFO flying low over Barwell heading towards the village centre.
“There was a putrid smell in air as it passed over.”
Meanwhile another woman said: “My husband and I both noticed a bright blue, diamondshaped aircraft in the sky hovering above the rugby ground near Beggars Lane, Leicester Forest East.
“It was shooting a red beam towards the ground.”
Listings on the LUFOIN page feature a host of sightings from 2016 which range from hovering cylinder-shaped objects to a trio of domed objects appearing following streaks of light.
Colours are usually white, green or blue.
On a nationwide website the most recent report in the area originates from Newton Linford in November last year.
The account recalls it was getting light, a motorist and her daughter saw ‘a kind of tailing egg shape’ in the sky, seeming to disappear then alter appearance.
Last year Hinckley Times reader Colin Saunders described his experience of seeing a UFO on the old Fosse Way in 1999.
An ex aerospace engineer, he created a model of the object he saw in the skies near Hinckley.
■ If anyone has seen anything unusual in the sky reports can be made to LUFOIN. Personal details remain confidential.