Basins, Wellington, Somerset-Summer 1989
Location of Sighting: Basins, Wellington, Somerset, UK
Date of Sighting: Summer 1989
Time: 3am
Witness Name: J Pocock, Gaul Sandy, Lee Hill, Terry Davy, Steven Troat
Witness Statement: Night fishing one summers night with a group of friends at a local lake in Wellington Somerset called the Basins right beside the Wellington sports centre, it grew late 3am and I was feeling tired so I put down in my tent for the night when shortly after a friend whom was still fishing started shouting look what the f~:@ is that, I emerged from my tent to see across the lake and above the tree line a very large metallic object just hovering there. Now this object was not small actually it was shockingly large, I would estimate around 100 foot in diameter, the entire object was rotating very slowly, we were able to see the details on the metal exterior and many small lights around the circumference.
Now a number of things immediately struck me (besides the fact a massive metal object is floating in front of me), firstly the hairs all over my body, head, arms, neck stood on end, I could feel what I can best describe as static in the Air ,the sort of feeling you get when you know touching that car door handle will give you a shock but this feeling was all over. Secondly a faint small in the air, I can’t think of a way to describe this, sort of like the smell before a thunder storm and thirdly a low frequency humming sound, after speaking with my friends about what we had saw it was only me who heard the humming, anyway the Disc shaped object must have weighed tons, yet it just hovered above the tree line silent and steady. We all ran around the lake but as we approached the side of the lake the object started to slower glide southwest following the track (Corams Lane) running toward Lindon House (TA21 0DW), we all followed the object to Linden Hill were it shot of in the direction of Holywell lake.
Now a friend (Gaul Sandy now resident of Rockwell Green, wellington) had been night fishing with us, he had left to head home just before I got in tent, Gaul at that time happened to live in Holywell lake, and that’s where the object headed. Gaul was riding a DT50 motor cycle and the following morning was full of it, he told us you wont believe what happened to me last night, I was riding home after leaving you lot, and was about half a mile from my house when a bright light shined down on the road and all around, really bright, the motor bike just cut out and after a couple of failed attempts to get it running I dropped it and ran the rest of the way home, He told us he woke his mother, dragged her out of bed saying you got to see this, but when his mother got to the door it was just a light in the distance, which was now over Tonedale, which happened to be the direction we had been walking in trying to find it again and sure enough about 3 fields in front of use it passed slowly past the large chimney of Foxes lower factory and then it was gone.
Now I consider myself an educated man, I now work in the aerospace industry for some of the largest Aircraft manufactures in the world and to date I have never seen anything even slightly resembling what we saw that night, I know what I saw like a blue print in my mind, and I will openly tell colleagues I have seen a UFO if the conversations arises, although I do get some strange reactions sometimes.
Now and again I bump into one of my old friends and we sometimes discuss that night, the funny thing is after all these years all our reclamations still match, not like many other sightings. We were not drinking or on any type of drug, we were just 13 year olds night fishing.
I would happily take a lie detector test or regression hypnosis, I know what I saw and to the day I leave this body no one will convince me otherwise.
P.S some local reports appeared in the papers from other witnesses of that night, plus my cousin in Rockwell green saw the object from his window, the time he said he saw it was right on the time we saw it about a mile away.
Source: www.uk-ufo.co.uk
Comment : If you can provide further information on this or other possible UFO sightings in this area then please leave a comment or send details through our “submit sighting” form
February 7th, 2013 at 11:58 pm
I really like your account, really compelling and believable with plenty of witnesses.
February 8th, 2013 at 12:01 am
Hi,
Fascinating. Thankyou for sharing this experience.
Gordon
February 8th, 2013 at 11:05 am
GOOD ACCOUNT OF WHAT YOU HAD SEEN.
THANKS FOR POSTING
February 8th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Wow! That’s a great report, certainly not explainable by the usual means; ie. chinese lantern, military plane, meteor, etc etc. What will the resident debunkers make of this? Over to you guys….
February 8th, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Hi gang, iam most impressed,particulary with the sheer mass to the craft you mention, how anyone would not get that even young teenagers,you’ve been privlaged to an experience many would die for, all the best for the future, graham.
February 9th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Great account. Just one query. What was a 13 year old called Gaul sandy doing riding a motor bike?
February 9th, 2013 at 9:23 pm
Heya.
If you remember, how was the metal ? Did it look clear or dark coloured to you ? And what colours were the lights? How many lights was there – if you can recall, of course. Were the lights fixed or flashing?
I’m asking because you just described a disc shaped object staying quite low and apparently spinning around itself with lights all around it and about 100 square feet (= roughly 30 square meters)It reminds me a lot of the object I saw, although mine didn’t make any noise.
February 9th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
T., apart from believing everything you read on here implicitly, I’m sure you have an open mind.
However, I have some questions :-
1) What were a bunch of 13 year olds doing camping out at night without adult supervision?
2) How were you able to discern such detail on the craft, given that it was only illuminated by a series of small lights? Wellington Sports Centre must be well-lit at night.
3) Which aerospace company do you work for, whatever your name is?
And finally, a statement :- For someone so educated, you make a remarkable number of grammatical errors. Perhaps your forte is on the technical side?
Hmm.
PS I hope Sandy Gall, sorry, Gaul Sandy, got his bike back. Bet his dad was fuming about him dumping it
February 10th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
So is anyone able to offer an explanation of what this object may have been? Personally I can only conclude that it must have been some kind of craft, piloted by Beings from either another planet or another Dimension. Unless someone has a better theory?
February 10th, 2013 at 7:27 pm
An important case if you ask me,although i have to agree with Melanie regarding a 13 year old riding a motor bike,although i,ll bet he,s not the first to do this!Its a stunning account,i could picture it in my head,so much detail,i think this is by far one of the best accounts i have read on here so far,thanks for sharing….watch the skies!
February 10th, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Actually apolagies,you never said wether Gaul was an older friend,sorry for jumping to conclusions.
February 11th, 2013 at 9:28 am
Can you give us the names of the papers it was reported in, and the approximate date?
February 11th, 2013 at 10:02 am
T Wood – of course, the ‘resident debunkers’ – i.e. those who actively try to look at reports with a touch of logic – will automatically accept that this was clearly an inter-dimensional space ship, without questioning the details at all. Apparently there were newspaper reports; can we have an idea of where so that we can read them? If this was seen by many people – as suggested – was there an official investigation? if so, what was the conclusion? Remember, T, there are ALWAYS questions to be asked before you can conclude that this was ‘certainly not explainable by the usual means; ie. chinese lantern, military plane, meteor, etc etc.’ You simply fail to ask them.
February 12th, 2013 at 12:10 pm
Lots of 13 yr olds ride around on little motorbikes, on and off-road, even in my day, but now they’re likely to be seized and crushed (the bikes not the kids!) by the cops. A DT50 is actually a moped that is styled like a trail bike, but is restricted to 30 mph, I had one myself in 1978.
SteveT: I have seen a flying saucer UFO with my own eyes so I know for a fact that they do exist.
February 12th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
An aside: as an avid F1 fan I’ve been reading up on the ‘coanda effect’ (used to redirect exhaust gases on cars); I wonder if the military are using this – and other forms of ‘ground effect’ – in large, slow moving aircraft that can fly close to the ground.
February 13th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
SteveT: ok then, you ask your questions, and then please tell us what this was. A 100ft diameter rotating humming metallic disc shaped object. What possible explanation do you have?
February 13th, 2013 at 11:25 pm
A very, very detailed report that should have been on the front pages back then – its the wonder the police did not see it as it must have been in an area that had lights, judging by the description.
Steve T good point on exhaust gases and ground effect on aircraft flying low to the ground.
Could it be hovering using Magnetic Field Disrupter – lots of research 1950 – present. It may account for the hairs standing up.
February 14th, 2013 at 9:55 am
T Wood, see above; it’s time we question the use of ground effect systems in craft. You might want to google the Avrocar for reference. Also, as I’ve said, I’d like to see the mentioned newspaper reports. Furthermore, some good questions have been asked, such as how – in a poorly lit location, at night – such detail was observed. I don’t, like you, instantly believe everyone is telling the truth; witness the ‘Telford’ hoax above…..
February 14th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Er…that someone might not be telling the truth, T.? Have you actually read the report? For someone allegedly working in the aerospace industry, it doesn’t read very well. Shined indeed! I suspect this is the work of someone much younger. Gaul’s sighting sounds like something from Close Encounters. 13 year olds riding motor bikes around at 3am?!? I don’t see several parents allowing their children to overnight without supervision, let alone one who took his motorbike for company.
February 14th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
Hi Steve T,
If we accept that the military have found a way to construct a flying triangle that is silent in operation & defies the
the laws of gravity & normal aerodynamics, and the sighters comments of “instant acceleration, right angle turns” if you believe all of this is military, how do you explain away the G forces a ‘pilot’ would endure in the above mentioned manouvers?
With regards your theory of the ‘coanda effect’ (“so that ‘aircraft’ can fly close to the ground”)…….they’ve allready got that covered Steve….it’s called a runway!!
February 15th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Chris,
Obvious answer to the above: Maybe they have no pilot.
As for the coanda effect, it’s been used in aircraft many times before (you are aware of hovercraft, obviously); I’m simply proposing a possible explanation of how an aircraft may be able to fly close to the ground.
February 15th, 2013 at 9:43 am
UAV, Chris? That’s if you accept the account verbatim. Would be interesting to hear individual testimonies rather than a for-and-on-behalf-of version. Bet there would be more than the odd variation.
February 16th, 2013 at 5:33 pm
This is an unequivacol sighting of a genuine ‘UFO’, i.e. of a craft not of this world. Those who are unable to accept the obvious truth of sightings such as this are in absolute denial.
February 16th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
Why is it unequivocal, T.? Where’s the proof? It’s (allegedly) a statement made by one person on behalf of five teenagers in 1989. There is absolutely no corroborative evidence other than the written word. At 13, I would have been breaking my neck to tell someone about this – not leaving it 24 years.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:24 am
OMG I always assumed the ‘resident believers’ on here were aged under 12!!! I am truly gobsmacked to hear the claim that one of them makes that they are in their 40s (at least!). I wonder if they are the ones who also demand the NHS offers Homeopathy?
February 17th, 2013 at 10:40 am
I agree Gary, 13 year olds out at that time of night and very impresive detail from so long ago?
Aliens giving them a scare – I’m sure they don’t want to be seen as doing a cosmic/dimensional Jimmy Savile’s?
T Wood, look up Black Triangle propulsion Magnetic Field Distortion,this may also account for high G manouveres.
February 17th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Hi Steve T,
I remember the ‘Avrocar’ (that was an exercise that should have been called ‘Futility’), as I’ve said before Steve, triangles make no sense as a military vehicle, & with regards the ‘coanda’ effect, it would require a motor, triangles to my knowledge, are allways silent. I like the way you are churning over in your mind how these ‘fly’, but, even if the ‘coanda’ effect was possible, for what reason would they need it? so that it could ‘land’ in a field/forest clearing?
There’s an intersting sighting on BUFORA’s website of a
‘Diamond shape’ UFO (with a raised dome) flying on it’s side throuhout the sighting!.
You can find it under: UFO Sighting Rare & Unusual Shape. Date:15th July 2012.
February 18th, 2013 at 12:13 am
Has the OP been back here yet? I’ve tried tracking down the people mentioned as ‘witnesses’ but am struggling. Five minutes research into the names returns the following:
(i) Gaul Sandy – No record of someone so named, anywhere in the World, being born from 1960 to 1980.
(ii) J Pocock – No record of anyone named Pocock with a first initial of J born in Somerset between 1971-1981
(iii) Lee Hill – A girl (Lee Suzanne Hill) and one boy (Lee Peter Hill) aged 13 in 1989, in Somerset. So can the OP confirm which one this is as I have also now obtained contact details.
(iv) Terry Davy – Closest match is Terence Davy, born in Portsmouth, but they’d have been been 15 in 1989. CAn the OP confirm if this is the one as I have contact details.
(v) Steven Troat- The last Human born in Somerset with the surname Troat was in 1847 (actually spelled “Troatie”)
Ummm… At what point do I exhibit my ignorance to ‘believers in Horoscopes and UFOs’ with a patronising ‘Over to you’ sort of sign-off?? ;P
February 18th, 2013 at 10:34 pm
No mention of this sighting in the Somerset County Gazette. It’s looking more questionable by the day. I say fake.
February 19th, 2013 at 9:55 am
Chris,
The diamond shape sighting you mention is interesting; as for “…..even if the ‘coanda’ effect was possible…..” – it’s not a theory, it’s a well known aspect of physics. It’s used widely in aircraft, in aerodynamics on road cars, and so on. It could quite feasibly be used – as in the Avrocar – for low level flight, hovering and manouvering.
February 19th, 2013 at 11:23 am
*Assuming* the report is true, and not completely fabricated, then it really can’t have been anything else other than a craft from elsewhere, as the description of it does not match any known type of craft, civilian or military, that we know of.
February 19th, 2013 at 11:43 am
Warren: I don’t know about Homeopathy, but I do know that UFOs are real, they exist, and they are visiting/observing us. I have seen one with my own eyes, and it could not have possibly been made by present-day humans. This report, if true, also corroborates that fact. You have yet to offer any explanation yourself, apart from to grasp at straws by assuming the report is false.
February 19th, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Hi I posted this report, and I would like to clear some things up.
Let me firstly say if I knew my report would have been picked apart like this I would have thought about it in more detail and maybe questioned some of my friend s for more accurate dates before writing it.
No the Basins is not lit at all, so it must have been a light night because I clearly remember I could see enough of the object to know it was metallic, and the lights were positioned around the outer most edge which was flat, not to a point.
We are talking about 20 years ago, it wasn’t considered unusual for teenage boys night fishing without parental supervision especially in groups. Gaul must have been 16, he was the oldest of us and the first of our group to get a motorbike, he was in the year above us at school so thinking about this it must have been 1991 as I got my first moped that November. I remember the Somerset County Gazette the following week having an article with various reports from people over the Taunton area all reporting sightings that same night, I will see if I can search the archive to get the actual date. and Gary yes I know my grammar is mediocre, what I actually do is write software that controls electrical test systems on aircraft and the like, and I am very good at it.
February 20th, 2013 at 4:49 am
T. Wood… I genuinely struggle to see how anyone might honestly equate exposing irregularities with this report as ‘clutching at straws’. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”…and when no corroborative evidence is provided and the ‘witnesses’ named appear questionable then surely it is appropriate to point this out. As I’ve said to you before, it’s surely in everyone’s interest that wind-ups are exposed and identifiable objects are explained so as we are left with the (inevitably very few) reports that skeptics can scratch their heads about, and believers can refer to without looking like gullible fools.
February 20th, 2013 at 2:07 pm
T Wood – you should use this phrase – ‘that we know of’ – as you did above, more often in your posts.
February 20th, 2013 at 7:58 pm
T Wood, most of us have seen something and 95 per cent can be explained. Warren has summed up the sighting.
February 20th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
J Pocock:
Apology accepted… you must find it very frustrating to lots of details but get the obvious big things wrong, such as you age, the year, etc. Memory is a fickle thing. Indeed a 2003 study by psychologist Kathy Pezdek found that 73% of those surveyed about where they were on 9/11 recalled seeing live footage on their TVs of the 1st plane hitting… The only trouble is that this was impossible as the first footage of the first plane did not surface until that afternoon! False memories are a nightmare!! Anyway, I’m sure you can understand the queries being made since you yourself mention the looks of incredulity your receive from colleagues so can’t be too surprised!
Anyway, it’s great that you’re still here and able to clarify some points. You’ll see by my previous post that my particular concerns related to the names you’ve given. I’ll place my cards on the table and say that for someone who works in an IT you have an unusually small online footprint. Not impossible, but definitely ‘odd’. So, to start with, is ‘J Pocock’ your real name? When were you born, (your update suggests it was 1975). I can’t find a match, so until then, I’m sorry to say I remain doubtful of the other details provided. n.b. I used to go on night hikes on my own aged 13…Alas, kids today are missing out on lots of fun
February 21st, 2013 at 7:15 pm
J., I’m surprised you didn’t expect such a fantastical sighting to go undissected. It’s not every day someone reports seeing a rather large spacecraft in the middle of Somerset. Sightings like yours are not an every day occurrence.
Incidentally, are the names pseudonyms as none of them seem to have left much of a footprint on the web? Also, just to correct one minor point, I didn’t question your technical abilities at any point. I’m pleased to note you’ve ironed out some of the flaws in the OP in your postscript, particularly as regards spelling, by the way
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Hi J Pockock,
Thank you for taking the time to report your interesting sighting & for coming back with the extra info.
It’s a shame that the ‘resident debunkers’ collectivly
dismiss your sighting for all the wrong reasons “such detail from so long ago” “out night fishing as young as….” if I was them i’d apologys to you, but don’t hold your breath,
they’ll be to busy ‘picking the bones’ out of the next sihghting!
February 23rd, 2013 at 11:51 am
Hi Nemo,
With respect, as i’ve said before, this ‘random’ figure of
’95% of all sightings can be explained’ is a gross missinterprepetation of what someone said, & is used to ‘explain’ away what people are seeing.
Naturally, there are missindentified things that people see,
but, in reality, that doesn’t mean that 95% are explainable as missindentified phenonemen, only an ‘experts’ (or ‘debunker’s') opionion of what was seen, to somehow arrive at this spurious figure of 95%.
The truth is that no one can say it’s a definate conclusion because there is not one ounce of truth in saying that 95%
of all sightings are explainable because there is no evidence
left by the objects to prove concusively on way or the other
of what was seen, only the witness statement & peoples interpretation of what was seen.
February 23rd, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Sigh! “Resident debunkers” sounds so condescending. I was born to question. It’s in my blood. It’s not in my nature to accept the ridiculous as fact. I’m just returning your “compliment”.
February 24th, 2013 at 1:01 am
Chris,
I’m a resident debunker. Simply because I apply a bit of common sense. I have not been concerned by kids/teens staying out all night. However, I researched the given names and…very strangely… the corroboration of such names being in the area at the time is almost non-existent.
As a ‘debunker’ may I refer you to the sighting made on the 18th about the ‘M4′. I have exposed that, very similarly ‘detailed’ and ‘old’ sighting as complete and utter bunkum based on the poster’s saving of a You Tube clip into their ‘favourites’ the day before they posted their sighting on the 18th. The UFO the describe seeing, at that location, is based on the drawing of a UFO taking away the last of the Humans from Dragon Hill, 20miles west of the services on the M4.
‘Debunker’? If that’s your term for a rationale thinker exposing lies and/or errors then that’s quite a compliment. Many, many thanks
February 24th, 2013 at 3:05 am
Hi Gary
You said “I’m surprised you didn’t expect such a fantastical sighting to go undissected”
After living with the event for 20 years it does not seem so amazing to me, so many report seeing such things, why is our sighting so different?, besides such a large group of use witnessed it no one really questioned it after the event, my group of friends all witnessed it so I never had to provide proof (they all witnessed it).
I suppose you would have to witness something to consider such reports real, I know I certainly would not believe such reports if I had not witnesses for myself that night, actually doing the work I do and not seeing or hearing of such things day to day I would most likely be the biggest sceptic here if not for that night.
Actually there are more witnesses to the sighting out there, other people were night fishing, people I did not know, but did walk around and spoke with us after we got back from our little cross country hike.
The witnesses I have mentioned are alive and very real, they would be about 37 now, and live in Wellington.
Birth Index, 1916-2005, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset/Somerset
Terry, Steven, Gall (not Gaul) or Lee. If reading this, firstly sorry for not asking permission to put your name to this, secondly could you please post your relocation of events that night for the sceptics.
Before I go, I will say this has been an eye opener for me, an active display of ‘conspiracy to silence’, or just negative personalities, I don’t know and don’t care, however I will certainly think more carefully before mentioning the encounter to people in the future now knowing how people respond when not face to face.
I have no physical evidence, just witnesses.
This is all I have to say on this subject, as far as I am concerned it is now closed, if you don’t believe it then don’t.
It did happen, and it happened as explained.
I will follow the comments out of interest.
February 24th, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Chris, Nick Popes figure not mine!
February 27th, 2013 at 3:08 am
J Pocock:
I stand by the comments/questions I posed to you on February 20th, 2013 at 11:01 pm. I’d made an additional posting that appears to have not been made public by the Moderator, (if not them, then it must be a technical error my end). That 2nd posting expanded on my questions about the individuals named, including yourself.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:10 am
Don’t take it to heart J Pocock, people will only believe it when they see it for themselves, and some would probably not believe it even then! It wouldn’t surprise me if your report is genuine, I’ve seen one myself so I do know they’re out there, whether you’re making it up or not!
February 28th, 2013 at 11:40 pm
Ace debunker Mr/Mrs/Miss Wood strikes again! Pow!Am very impressed.
March 1st, 2013 at 1:44 am
T. Wood… How nice and supportive. However, to help us get some kind of grip on the reports being made on here can we please, perhaps, all start sticking to corroborating or undermining facts… Please?
[Quote] Carl Sagan, Cosmologist: “…But I try not to think with my gut. Really, it’s okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in…”
March 31st, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Hi J Pocock
Interesting account and I write only to back your claim that the basins were dark with no light coming from the sports centre nearby. I am familiar with the area and its still a dark place with no lighting. Haven’t seen anything to make me believe however so I remain sceptic but it’s fascinating stuff!