UFO experts have described Shropshire as a hive of activity and believe something “big” is going on in the county.
Following dozens of reports of unidentified lights in the sky over the past three months Philip Hoyle, of the UFO Investigation and Research Unit, has revealed that an investigation is under way. It is focusing on the Hope and Rea Valleys in the south of the county.
Farmers in the area reported finding a number of mutilated animals after seeing strange lights.
Mr Hoyle, of the Shrewsbury-based unit, said: “We have got a highly active area in the Hope and Rea Valley near Bishop’s Castle and Ludlow where we continually have sightings from farmers.
“We have farmers who are not renowned for flights of fancy telling us of lights and discs over their farms.”
He added: “There are about 35 people in these valleys that claim to have been involved in abduction over the last 20 years and they are all unrelated.
“They are all professional people and they are all saying the same thing – something is going on here.” Mr Hoyle said 10 years ago a man reported spotting a “disc” while driving over the Burway near Church Stretton.
He was later interviewed by military intelligence officers.
“Shropshire does seem to have more than its fair share of activity and we are investigating the valley area,” Mr Hoyle added.
“People are seeing things and experiencing things and we have animal mutilations in the area.
“Farmers are finding animals dissected to such a precision that even Defra cannot explain it.
“They can see the lights then they find the animals. Animals are being killed but nobody can see anything.”
Over the past three months a number of Shropshire Star readers have spotted strange lights in the skies.
The latest report comes from Neil Gregory, of Ditherington, Shrewsbury.
He said he spotted an orange glowing light above Haughmond Abbey on Saturday at about 10.30pm. The 56-year-old said he thought it was a plane on fire at first.
“It was an orange glow and it was pulsating, my wife saw it as well,” he said. “It stopped and hovered and was pulsating for 20 to 30 seconds then it disappeared in about six seconds.”
ODD SHAPES AND SIGHTS
* July 1 – Pilot David Bemand sees orange lights over Ludlow at about 10pm.
Candice Taylor, 23, of Burford, Brookside, Telford, spots a shape resembling a basket in the night sky.
Mr Bemand, who has held a private pilot’s licence for 22 years, was at home in Luston when he saw the lights.
* July 27 – Four mysterious lights seen above Ironbridge at about 9.40pm. Lauren Crouch saw the lights and managed to photograph them.
* August 14 – Julie Cooper, 49, of Church Street, Broseley, Telford sees mysterious lights above her mother’s house in Jackson Avenue, Broseley at about midnight.
* August 15 – Mother-of-one Marion Groves and her husband Jim, of Hinkshay Road, Dawley, see two white lights hovering between 8.30pm and 11pm. Nina and Bill Hall see lights on the same night as they drive back to Aqueduct from Bridgnorth along the A442.
* August 30 – Neil Gregory, of Ditherington, Shrewsbury, spots an orange glowing light above Haughmond Abbey at about 10.30pm.
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23 Comments
Whenever anyone sets up their own little organisation and chooses to call it a “unit” or other quasi-official name I can’t seem to muster any respect for it…
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PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT UFO’S! ITS GETTING REAL BORING NOW SS
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on the 7th june at about 2315, we were outside at a wedding reception, i spotted something in the air but it wasnt very high, it looked small, orange in colour like a ball/basket shape, i pointed it out to a few other people we were all amazed to what it was noone has ever seen anything like it, then it shot of further up and you could just about see it..
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Indeed Matt – a bit like these ‘Ghosthunters’ and their ‘orbs’ which are typically bit of dust floating around the room but which look odd in infra-red light.
UFO Investigation and Research Unit indeed! I wonder what their anorak budget was for last year?
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We set off some huge 2m high paper lanterns last year in a field in LLangollen owned by my sister when celebrating her daughter’s recent wedding.
The photographs we took at the time look just like these pictures.
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thanks annoyed…..
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To ‘Annoyed’,
You don’t happen to work for the CIA do you? Some of us are clinging onto free speech whilst we can.
This is a good report, thanks SS. Keep up the good work.
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Matt I couldn’t agree more, having seen recent footage of Mr Hoyle’s so called ‘unit’ I couldn’t help but smile.
Here are some words I found on the internet written by Mr Hoyle himself describing his work
…
I have been involved in the UFO phenomena since a child and have studied the subject for 35 years.
I liaise with researchers from all over the world and had interviewed witnesses from the military, police, government and people from all walks of life.
I have written many articles for news papers and magazines and have numerous radio and TV presentations.
I work closely with over 60 people claiming UFO abduction or contact, and have specialised in this area as I feel it is the key to the UFO puzzle.
I also run a CE 5 contact project where we have had significant success with low level communication of UFOs.
…
There are an awful lot of I’s there which not only make it sound like this unit is a one man show, but also make me think this guy is on a complete ego trip!
The website for UFOIRU is also a complete joke from its Star trek fonts, pictures of swirling nebula to its unattributed evidence(?) and broken links to sites with apparently’undisputable’ UFO evidence?
I do not know Mr Holye personally but I do unfortunately know many of his associates (including supposed abductees) very well. They comprise of narcissists, charlatans and gullible fantasists (healers, psychics, crop circle chasers etc) – the kind of people you would quite honestly cross the street to avoid (and I often do!)
No doubt in Mr Hoyle’s delusional world he will see my comments as a conspiracy by some government organisation to discredit him. The reality is that he does a pretty good job of that by himself.
All of which leads me to question why the Shropshire Star has unearthed this UFO nonsense again, which brings me to 5 possible conclusions…
1 It is silly season and news is slow again?
2 One of Mr Hoyles associates works at the Star?
3 There has been an increase in the sale of Chinese Wedding Lanterns
4 The Star has decided to model its journalistic standards on ‘The Sport’
5 The entire Star editorial team has been abducted by aliens
You decide?
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ha free speach about UFO’s come on my friend! its a UNEXPLAINED object….
Freedom of speach should be more about other worrys in the world not anything fictional.
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And what about the reports of a mystery and very strange looking dark object flying over the land several years ago?
The reports were officially dismissed at the time. Though it later transpired that it had been a stealth bomber undergoing secret test flights.
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Why is the thought of extra terrestrial life so far fetched? If any of you skeptical people can prove the meaning of human life and why the hell we’re here then maybe you are indeed right to scoff at stories such as these.
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Chinese lanterns
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I do believe we are really being visited,the universe is to vast for us to be the ONLY ONES OUT THERE>
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I too saw these lights and managed to video it for a short while Skeptics have a right to their own opinion but i saw what i saw im not out to prove anything.
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Is it not funny that all these lights are being seen during wedding season??????
Like someone else said increase in the sale of chinese wedding lanterns!
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I live one hour north of Manhattan USA in the Hudson Valley area and about four years ago saw xenon bright lights with my husband.
The lights moved in an odd zig zag formation and then shot straight up into the night sky and disappeared. They returned the following night doing the same odd dance and shooting off into space. We never reported them. I have no idea what they were, extra terrestrial or spiritual/supernatural in nature, but they were there and it was so very cool.
In the bible there are several passages where UFOs are described. It’s so very interesting.
But I agree to some degree with Mr Annoyed.
There are so many more pressing issues right here right now in our lives that to devote our time to the search for extra terrestrial life or to research UFO’s is a waste of time.
Solving the tragedy in Darfur, or getting a new smarter president in the USA are much better
projects to devote time to.
Or how about lets solve Global warming?
In the meantime we can watch the lights and wonder who or what they are but keep our noses to our grindstones.
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“despite the ubiquity of camcorders and camera phones we have (judging by pictures in the papers and on tv) a worse standard of UFO images than we did 60 years ago.”
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I seen an orange light floating over haughmond abbey at the weekend i was in old heath walking up the road with my mates it was floating and all of a sudden it disappeared and about 3 minutes later another one appeared in the same place as the other one
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These are skylanterns, we have hundreds of pictures looking just like these,depicting both start and appearance when up in the sky. the orange circle within is the candle shining through the round opening. Dont be that gullible folks.
And no, we´re not working for the CIA, we´re the good guys. But extremely annoyed be the flood of Chinese paperlanterns.
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Unlike Scully, I personally know Phill very well.
He is one of the most dedicated people I know and has done alot to help me. I am “one of the alleged abductees” and can assure you do not fit one of the catagories that she so scathingly described. I am a normal person, doing a normal job and trying to live as best I can a normal life, and I can assure you that you wouldnt cross the street if you saw me. Phill has brought me together with other people who have had experiences that they cannot explain, people who like myself who are trying to make sense and answers to them. I say Bravo!! to Phill, I certainly dont know what I would of done without him, keep up the good work mate, you one in a million. I say to Scully you obviously have a tree on you shoulder, go bark up another one.
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I have never been one who believes in UFOs or the supernatural, until last night that is, at 9:55 i was out with my dog in the garden and saw the orange light! It was moving way too fast to be a lantern. It was moving from right to left over Condover from the A5 direction and low in the sky!!!!!! i now believe!…..but not in the supernatural i may add!!!
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In relation to the stuff about “Unexplained animal mutilations”, I Suggest you research this subject on the net. Many experiments have been done, which prove that all the so called “Unexplainable” evidence can in fact be explained by natural causes. In particular, read up about the experiment done by the Washington County (Arkansas) Sheriff’s Department. They placed a dead cow in a field and had observers watch what happened over the next 48 hours. They noticed that bloating led to Sharp, straight, incision-like tears in the skin and that blowflies and maggots had cleaned out the soft tissue so that the carcass looked exactly like those that had been attributed to aliens or satanic cultists. This experiment was generally ignored by the community of true believers. The Hide of Sheep And cattle is generally very tough. The soft tissue is the easiest way in for bugs, predators etc.Genitals are soft tissue, easily removed and quickly consumed by predators. If you’ve ever seen the corpse of any farm animal thats died in the open and been left for a while, you’ll find that the Hide and bones usually remain,inner organs (Soft) all gone, and often, limbs and heads become “disarticulated” and get taken away by predators. This is just natures way.
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my names josh and im 18years. I saw the orange glows on 10th November 08 above The nedge hill in Stirchley, Telford it looked like tit was floating then after 40seconds ish it just disapeared it was no way a plane or helicopter it was a UFO
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