Welsh UFO sightings from 1953. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
According to the contemporary journals - Miss W. B. Knowles, the Cardiff rep for Flying Saucer News, enrolled almost 30 new members in 1953. Interest was clearly growing!
PRESS
Friday 31st July, 21:15
Mt Snowden
A mysterious object was seen on the slopes of Snowden. No aircraft were missing and searches were fruitless.
Manchester Evening News, 1/8/53, said "Llanberris police were today trying to solve the mystery of lights in the sky, and muffled explosions over Snowdon last night. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed, 12 policemen and firemen went up Snowdon. The search was abandoned when it was discovered that no aircraft was missing."
Halifax Evening Courier, August 1st 1953:
Snowdon search after suspected air crash. A party of 12 firemen and police returned to Llanberis, Caernarvonshire, at 1 a.m. to-day, after making a fruitless search on the slopes of Snowdon for a suspected crashed aircraft.
The party set out at 10 p.m. on a mountain train with a volunteer crew, after reports of lights in the sky. One report said that a light was seen at about 5,000 feet over the mountains, breaking into three and accompanied by a series of muffled explosions. Police said to-day, that no aircraft had been reported missing, and the the occurrence was probably some natural phenomenon. The search was being called off.
Crewe Chronicle, August 8th 1953:
Many Crewe people, like myself, who saw the mysterious green-blue light travelling through the sky as the sun was setting last Friday night, are no doubt wondering what it could have been. The sky was clear at the time, and there were no aircraft in the vicinity, and for a moment I myself thought that at last I was seeing a "flying saucer". It is difficult to say at what height the mysterious object was, but it was certainly not travelling at any great speed.
I should have said it was a rocket or a Verey light if it had not continued in level flight right across the sky. After I had observed it for at least three seconds it suddenly disintegrated in a shower of sparks. I did not hear any sound myself but several other observers say they heard it explode. It was also seen in the Snowdon area, and firemen and police made a search for a suspected crashed aircraft. As no aircraft was reported missing, the search was called off. I suppose the occurrence will have to be written off as "some natural phenomenon," but it was [an] uncanny sight.
SUFON
Summer 1953, c. 17:00
Bristol Channel off Llantwit Major
An 8-year-old girl named J.C. was playing at her friend's house in Llantwit Major and was sitting in the front porch, which faced south towards the coast about a mile distant. They noticed an object in an area of the sky which would have placed it on the coast or over the sea. They called her friend's father to come and see it. The object looked cigar-shaped but there were dark blobs, spots or circles moving along it, which showed that it was actually a rotating disc-shaped object. It was hovering in one position as they watched it for a few minutes. The father ran back inside to get his binoculars, but as he returned the object disappeared.
RAF St Athan and Llandow airfield are very close, so the witnesses were very used to seeing all kinds of aircraft in the sky, but this looked like nothing they'd ever seen before.
Source: SUFON Files, witness email 12 June 2020.
PRESS
Saturday October 3rd, 22:00
Llanelli / Swansea / Neath
A slightly elliptical globe of light was seen in the night sky. It was a white light with a greenish tinge, described as being about one quarter the size of a full moon. It was moving quickly but produced no sound.
The South Wales Evening Post published a series of pieces on the case. First on Monday October 5th 1953:
This was followed up on Tuesday October 6th with:
"STRANGE PHENOMENON" SEEN IN WEST
MYSTERY LIGHT FLARED, FAILED
The light that flared and failed, a strange phenomenon on the western horizon, is puzzling a Neath professional man who takes a sceptical view of flying saucers. At 10 pm on Saturday, having garaged his car after a busy day, he was walking down Upper Cimla-road to his home when he saw what he describes as "The Phenomenon".
"I was facing Drumau," he told an 'Evening Post' reporter, "when I suddenly became aware of a light above the mountain, moving fast from north to south horizontally. It was a brilliant globe of white light with a greenish tinge, and about one-quarter the size of a full moon. It was not a perfect sphere for it was slightly elliptical on its southern edge. It was moving so fast that I thought at first it was something being towed by jet propelled aircraft, but I heard no sound of an aeroplane engine."
VANISHED SUDDENLY
"The globe was about one third of the way up between the horizon and zenith. It did not rise or fall from a horizontal course. I watched it as it passed through about 10 degrees and then it vanished suddenly, leaving two or three red linear embers behind it." Trained in science and an amateur astronomer, who makes his own astronomical telescopes, he is perfectly familiar with the normal night sky and is quite certain that what he saw was not "a falling star or a firework. I have never seen anything like it before," he said.
"To make sure it was not a purely subjective phenomenon, I stopped and spoke to a man who was walking behind me. He too, had seen it and agreed that its course was perfectly horizontal. I should like to know whether the light was seen by any Swansea astronomer."
This was followed up on Tuesday October 6th with:
TOO HIGH TO BE A FIREWORK
HE SAW THE "MYSTERY LIGHT"
The mysterious light seen above the western horizon by a Neath amateur astronomer at 10 pm on Saturday, was also seen by a Cwmavon man. Mr Geraint Davies, Brynglas-avenue, writes, "I should like to substantiate the account given by the person who saw the 'mystery light' last Saturday."
"On looking out of the window at about 10 pm that night, I saw a greenish coloured light travel in a North to South direction over Foel Mynyddau, which is west of Cwmavon. It was in my sight for about five seconds, then it seemed to flick out. It was too high to be a firework and it could not have been a flare because it travelled horizontally, and there was no sound of an aircraft."
NOT A STAR
"It travelled t about the same speed as a Vampire jet fighter and therefore it seemed to me to be too slow to be anything of the nature of a falling star. I confess to being greatly puzzled as to its nature and would be grateful if some reader could shed light on this mysterious object."
More witnesses came forward, as recorded in the South Wales Evening Post of Wednesday October 7th:OTHERS SAW LIGHT IN THE SKY
Other correspondents report witnessing the strange light in the sky seen a few nights ago. Mr D. I. Evans, 32 Poplar-crescent, Cefncaeau, Llanelly, writes: "While waiting for a bus at the Bryn Chapel bust stop on the Pontarddulais-Llanelly road on Saturday night, the usual street lamp which lights this spot, for some unknown reason, was off. So I had a magnificent unrestricted view of the night sky."
"To idle away the time I was trying to locate some of the constellations which I had learnt during my R.A.F. days. This light suddenly appeared, travelling in a horizontal direction exactly as described in your report except that I should say it was in the NW travelling West to East. My directions may be wrong, but the following diagram may help – Mr Evans encloses an astronomical sketch [this was not printed in the newspaper article]."
TALLIES PERFECTLY
"Everything in the Neath man’s description tallies perfectly. I saw it at 9.45 pm – within n more than two minutes either way. I thought it was a shooting star and told my wife of what I had seen but since reading your report my curiosity has been aroused and would like to hear an expert’s opinion."
Mr. G. Janes, 178 Mayals-road, Blackpill, also saw the brilliant light in the sky taking a line roughly from Dunvant to the N.O.R. viewed from the Mayals. "I thought it was a plane on fire, and went to the door expecting to hear a crash, but none came."
The story had a postscript in 1983, when Dorothy Griffiths wrote into the South Wales Evening Post of October 7th:
FLEW OFF INTO SPACE
SIR, - I was delighted to read in the Post’s '30 years ago' item about sinister lights seen on the western horizon, because I also saw those lights and have never forgotten them.
I was looking out of one of my upstairs windows in my then home, The Builder’s Arms, Melin, which is quite a high building with an unobstructed view of surrounding areas, when I saw this flashing green light whiz across the sky, drop down in a straight line, then leave these red 'stars; behind, before flying off into space and disappearing.
I ran down to tell my husband but, of course, he only laughed and told me I had been reading too many science fiction stories.
I have always maintained I saw those lights and now thanks to your paper my son and daughter must believe that I DID see something. You have made an old woman very happy, even if what I saw can never be explained. I DID see them all those years ago.
Dorothy Griffiths, Herbert Road, Melincryddan, Neath.
PRESS
December 6th
Crymnach
"Two girls at Crymnach, South Wales, saw a queer thing spinning in the sky at the back of their house. They searched in a nearby quarry and found a jelly or colloidal substance, as large as a dinner plate, which melted and left no trace."
via Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers Uncensored.
PRESS
December 20th, c. 14:00
Swansea
A "shining, cigar-shaped object, without wings" was seen gliding over town in NE direction. Small and moving very slowly. No sound. Visible 5 mins. Clear sky.
Source: Evening Post.
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