It is one of the strangest cases covered by the Hull Daily Mail. Back in December 1994, we published a story headlined: "Mystery face at the window: Experts study 'aliens' pictures."
The report recounted how two women, who had been staying on a small farm in Sproatley, Holderness, saw orange balls of light hovering above their bungalow. When they went out to investigate, an enormous white ball appeared.
Terrified, they ran inside. One of the women had a camera and pointed it at the window. The result was a picture of a strange-looking face, seemingly peering through the window. A copy of the photo was recently found in the Mail's archives and we reproduce it here along with the original article.
"People will think we are nuts, but we know what we saw," said Sandra Walton, was witnessed the events along with her mother, Muriel Rowbottom. Outside the bungalow, they found huge dents in the grass, where they believed that the white spaceship would have landed.
During their stay at the remote property, the volume on the hi-fi system mysteriously turned itself up, and other members of her family witnessed strange goings on. The bungalow was badly burned in an unexplained fire shortly after one of the sightings.
Original article
They then moved to a flat in Withernsea, where they watched an enormous UFO ball from a window overlooking the sea. Muriel said: "It lit up the sky and stayed for almost two hours."
The Mail's story claimed that their photos were being examined by American scientists, but the case was soon forgotten by the general public. Then, last year, the story re-emerged when it was featured on the hit BBC podcast Uncanny, which investigates real-life stories of paranormal encounters.
A former Sky TV fitter wrote into the show and recalled how, at some point between 1994-96, he had been installing a satellite dish on a farm in North Yorkshire, when a woman who lived there told him the story of the close encounter in Sproatley.
"She saw figures at the bottom of the garden," the fitter wrote. "She said it looked like they were covered in marbles to reflect light."
The fitter described how the woman's husband came in and, when asked about the incident, said: "I thought we were not talking about that, nor should we . . . I don't like talking about it. It upsets me." The husband then left the house.
The podcast episode reignited the case on UFO and paranormal forums, with enthusiasts offering their own explanations. One pointed out that, more than a decade after the strange events, Sandra and Muriel had spoken to a local UFO researcher, Paul Sinclair, about their experiences.
His excellent account, published in his book Truth-Proof, offers many extra details. According to the account, when Sandra and Muriel first saw the orange globes of light, they had tried to take a photo of them. The camera's flash went off and the globes then zoomed towards them, before the enormous white ball of light appeared.
"They told me that the air felt like it was buzzing with static electricity and their skin felt prickly," Paul Sinclair writes. They then ran into the kitchen, in fear for their lives. Later, when they felt that the objects had gone, they went back outside and could see a "huge, dark circular mass" rising above them.
They were convinced that the photographs they took showed something standing outside the window. Does it show the face of an alien? The mystery has never been solved.
The Hull Daily Mail report
On Wednesday December 21 1994, the Mail splashed on the women's story. It read:
American scientists are examining some of the first UFO pictures ever taken in the county. A Withernsea family claim mystery aliens have been following them for the past two years. In one picture they took from the lounge of their home a strange face can be seen outside the window.
Sandra Walton and her mother Muriel Rowbottom couldn't believe their eyes when they saw giant orange balls hovering in the sky above a bungalow in Sproatley. An enormous white ball – with a mystery shutter – loomed above them and they ran to their house. The sky changed colour, they heard a loud noise like an aeroplane taking off and house alarms started ringing.
"It was very frightening. We were scared to look, but I pointed the camera at the window in the hoping of catching a picture of it," said Miss Walton, 38, who lives with her mother in Queen Street, Withernsea. She later found huge dents in the grass outsaide the property, where she believes the white spaceship ball would have landed.
During her stay at the remote property, she claims the volume on the hi-fi system mysteriously turned itself up and other members of her family witnessed strange goings on. The bungalow was badly burned in an unexplained fire shortly after one of the sightings.
"I couldn't stay there any more – weird things kept happening and it was very frightening. People will think we are nuts, but we know what we saw," she said. "We checked with military and civil authorities to see if they could explain, but there was no scientific or natural explanation."
Earlier this year, they watched an enormous UFO ball from a window overlooking the sea [at their flat in Withernsea]. Mrs Rowbottom, 68, said: "It lit up the sky and stayed for almost two hours."
They called the police who told them to keep taking pictures of the objects. The pictures have been sent to a photo-analytical laboratory in America where scientists will check them. UFO expert John Holman, who has seen three UFOs, said: "Both women are sincere and I believe what they said."
'Other sightings'
In a later story, published on January 21 1995, Miss Walton said: "We know what we saw and we are convinced they are UFOs and that what we saw were aliens in the sky. NASA will only tell us what we already know, but the pictures might help explain things in research about UFOs."
Chris Lawson, a member of the British UFO Research Association, said he believed that their experiences matched other reported sightings of UFOs in the Holderness area. "Miss Walton has confirmed other important UFO phenomena that have happened elsewhere and it is of major importance," he told the Mail.
"I intend to have this lady go through a hypnotherapy session to give more clarity to what she saw. These things could take some time, but I am very interested, particularly in the photographs."
Two years later, the Mail collated a list of recent UFO sightings after receiving dozens of calls about a mysterious object hovering over the Humber Bridge. The silver dome-shaped object was clearly visible over the River Humber, the Mail reported on August 9 1997.
It was the latest in a string of sightings. In February 1996, a mysterious blue light "enveloped" a car being driven by Jean Iveson and her husband Gordon, as they returned to their home in Easington. Mrs Iveson claimed that the light hovered over the car for several minutes before shooting off into the night sky.
In May 1995, Dave Ombler saw two white lights in the sky over his home in Humbleton. The lights hovered in the sky for 10 minutes before moving noiselessly off towards the coast.
In September 1994, student Lucy Brooke saw a huge glowing orange ball of light flash across the night sky as she drove from her home in Burton Pidsea. She said: "It darted across the sky and looked like t was playing about, then it just disappeared. It didn't fade away, it just disappeared out of the sky."
