dedicated to Arthur Shuttlewood and his grandson Paul who passed away recently (copyright G Shuttlewood)
On Saturday the 28th of August 2011, we drove down toWiltshire for the annual Warminster Sky watch arranged by friend and fellow UFO enthusiast, Kevin Goodman.
We stopped off at Silbury Hill for a brief interval, before making our way to the car park at Alton Barnes overlooking Eastfields, where we chatted to a young couple Julian and Sarah ....
before driving down to the Barge Pub to see for ourselves the changes made to the
building following its sale to a group of local people.The ground floor ladies toilets had gone, and the double doors which had always been shut facing onto the garden at the side of the canal were now open, this was refreshing.The lounge had now been knocked into
the ‘snug’ as we call it up in the West Midlands; this still housed the pool table under the magnificent ceiling painted by Vince whom we had met many years ago.
The ramshackle barn at the side of the Barge often home to pigeons, and other horrors imagined inside was gone, there was now a small marque standing in its place.Some people have speculated that the revamped image will frighten away the 'croppies' and new age people, now there has been changes. This is not going to happen judging from the customers, who were already in situ! There is a sign behind the bar advising that they have a zero tolerance towards the use of drugs.
I hope that they enforce it. We had a very bad experience at the campsite a couple of years when some drunken ‘scum’ spent the night smashing glasses and trying to kill each other they were still at it until 4.30am, when we called somebody out of the Pub who came out they turned around and pointed at us saying “Is that the people causing the trouble” ! So I hope that they clean their act up, and prevent this happening again time will tell......
We then drove down to St Margaret Court Bradford-on-Avon hoping to speak personally with ex Councillor Terry Chivers, who had been a former member of the now defunct group PROBE, but he had left there two years ago, which was very annoying as Terry had been promising over the last 3 years to furnish us with a photo of his sister Brigitte Chivers who had passed away from Cancer at the age of 23. She had been a regular sky watcher at Cradle Hill during the 1970’s and was a member of UFO –INFO formed by Barry Gooding.
WARMINSTER
We then approached Warminster but stopped off to take a photograph of Colloway Clump which was the scene of many UFO sightings over the years.
Dawn was the first to see Kevin Goodman and his colleague Colin Rees walking through the High St (on their way to grab some chips!We then made our way to Cradle Hill where we stood chatting to Kevin and Colin who were sat down on the grass.
Kevin giving Dawn a hug -after bringing Colin’s attention to the fact that he was being overrun by ants, we continued talking, until a representative turned up and unlocked the gates which ledto the top of Cradle Hill-a nice gesture by the Army.
Ron Neville a local man whose ‘UFO’ roots can be tracked back many years ago turned up, and we talked about his sighting and his connections with BUFORA (he was subject of an article way back in 1975)
David Taylor from the West Midland s turned up and brought a copy of Volume 2, he is a very nice man and it was good to see him and his wife, small in stature but a giant in kindness and experience within the UFO/paranormal field.
Our old friend Ray Cox turned up he was the guiding force behind the crop circle
meeting held at Dr Johnson house in Birmingham all those years ago some of which we had gone to with our now departed friend Sheila Watkins. And we finally got to meet David Simpson (on the right) who was responsible for
orchestrating a number of hoaxes in the area during the 1970's and showed him a photo of a 'device' found in the area, which he denied responsibilty.
We also met Trevor Owen a friendly quite young man who had written his own book entitled 'UFOs Close encounters,MIB's Precognition, Mind reading,Ghosts and Trevor' no mean feat when you consider just how much work goes into projects like this! Trevor was kind enought to furnish us with one of his books. We wish him well for the future and promised to record his UFO sighting that took place in 1977 in a future volume of Haunted Skies.
After talking to various people including John Rimmer of MAGONIA fame we made our way on to the top of Cradle Hill accompanied by Corrina. Note the change in gates!
and stood there reflecting on the sights ands sounds seen by all many thousands of people that had flocked here from all over the World, one could almost hear Arthur Shuttlewood saying 'The only way to experience it for youself is to come here and do just that" Halycon days now long departed into the history of UFO events. We heard the fall on three seperate occasions of what were preumed to be small stones striking the side of the barn,
but didnt find anything. Corrina and Dawn both felt light tugs on their arms, during our stay.
Colin Rees a veteran Sky watcher is shown her with Dawn.We then decided to leave as sheet lightning was seen in the distance just above the horizon the rain now beginning to soak us. And were delighted find Mike Oram and his colleague John Rowston at the meeting place just outisde the concrete gate leading to Cradle Hill
Looking back on the days events we are so glad that we bothered to attend the 'Annual re-union' organised by Kevin Goodman, it was an enjoyable day out, with rich conversation topped off by the heady intoxication of where we were, no wonder Ron Neville who lives locally still finds something magical about this place and he's been walking up here for now 30 years!
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