A
slightly grainy, vintage VHS video from 1990, but interesting and worth
studying, (also quite rare to be found on the net in it's entirety like
this) if for nothing else, as a
charming social document of those times; ah, the nostalgia of it
all.... the good ol' days... or were they? Only joking, (or am I?)
This is a documentary reflecting on the sensation that was the Warminster 'Thing'.
To begin with, everything rested on a fuzzy witness photograph which purported to show a strange flying craft in the sky...the 'Thing' as it was dubbed; this was a story which quickly fired the public's imagination, and hit national headlines in 1965.
In it's defence,
even though the original witness of the 'Thing' photo, later claimed it
had all been a hoax, and the object had been crafted out of bottle
tops, at least this likely prank had caused locals and visitors here to
start looking up at the skies more frequently,...
(instead
of down
at their feet as per usual; or maybe not so much today... now with
people, it's a preoccupation with their mobiles!).. and the result
of all of this sky watching? more UFO sightings of course; yes, some
misidentification's, yes, some wishful thinking, but also some very
intriguing reports, causing this Wiltshire town to became the unlikely
epicenter of a UFO phenomenon right up to 1977.
Further background:
'The
first sign of The Thing was during the Christmas of 1964, when
residents heard a loud, unidentifiable whine. The strange sightings
were reported in the Warminster Journal. Local journalist Arthur
Shuttlewood was instrumental in making the phenomenon national news and
in one year more than 1000 sightings of unidentified flying objects
were recorded.
They continued to be seen on a regular basis, and in many ways formed a key chapter of the 1960s. Although there have been few sightings in recent years, Warminster is still seen by many as synonymous with UFOs.
With the army based on nearby Salisbury Plain, Warminster is well known as a military town.
This gave rise to the theory that visitors from outer space could very well have been mistaken military aircraft.
But believers shrugged off this theory convinced that the military were one of the reasons Warminster had been chosen for visitations.
Whatever the reason for the coming of The Thing, certainly put
Warminster on the map'.
based on notes from ufocasebook.com
And finally I might add, I find it strange that although Warminster UFO reports still come through from time-to-time, (with some good sightings amongst them), they rarely get reported in the press anymore; I wonder why?
All cited images text and music in (or on) this video are
used under the Fair Use Interpretation of Copyright Laws: All others
are used by permission
