A video of a UFO over Warminster, one of many sites seemingly vying for the title of “UFO Capital of the UK,” has many in the area remembering another famous UFO seen in the same area over 50 years ago that was given the nickname “Warminster Thing.” Has the ‘thing’ returned? Will Warminster take the unofficial title away from Cornwall?
“I had never seen anything like it before. It really caught my eye. It went on for quite some time before flying off into the distance towards Longleat.”
The UFO was spotted and recorded by Jeremy Le Fevre from his home in Frome, Somerset, which is near Warminster, Wiltshire Both towns are near Longleat where Le Fevre claimed the UFO disappeared to. It’s also near Cley Hill where a strange crop circle appeared recently. Le Fevre gave his thoughts on what the UFO might have been.
“It was emitting green and red colours. It looked to me like it could have been fireworks attached to a drone. It’s still very much unidentified though.”
Many who watched the video noticed its resemblance and close proximity to a UFO reported in June. That one was eventually proven to be lights emitted by a stunt plane belonging to the night air-display acrobatics group AeroSparxwhich is based nearby and performs nighttime shows using planes with fireworks attached to their wingtips. It’s highly likely that the latest UFO is another Identified AeroSparx Object.
Or is it?
Warminster’s spot on the UFO Capital list dates back to Christmas Day, 1964, when a mysterious explosion shook the town. Arthur Shuttlewood described it in his book, The Warminster Mystery:
“The air was brazenly filled with a menacing sound. Sudden vibrations came overhead, chilling in intensity. They tore the quiet atmosphere to raucous rags and descended upon her savagely. Shockwaves pounded at her head, neck and shoulders.”
The noises continued and the descriptions sounded like sonic booms, but no military or government agencies admitted to being responsible. As the booms continued, they were accompanied by reports of unidentified objects in the sky. Arhtur Shuttlewood was one of those witnesses. He was also the features editor at The Warminster Journal newspaper, which put him in the right place to receive a famous photograph taken by Warminster resident Gordon Faulkner of what looked like a flying saucer.
Shuttlewood’s publication of the photo turned Warminster into an early UFO capital, drawing thousands of people hoping to see the “thing” and prompting the city to hold a town meeting to deal with the crowds. The BBC filmed a documentary on the thing in 1966 and sightings continued regularly into the 1980s, prompting other books, the formation of a UFO society and, on the 50th anniversary in 2015, a mural commemorating the event.
With all of that, there’s still no explanation for the Warminster Thing. Aeromax, the likely culprit for the latest UFOs, wasn’t around back then. Sonic booms were and secret aircraft test were still a possibility. The number of sightings in such a short period could also be mass hysteria.
Is the Warminster Thing back? Not likely. However, with the second report of a spark-emitting UFO in Warminster, it could lose its place on the UFO hotspot list unless AeroSparx moves somewhere else.