Welsh UFO sightings from 1957. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
In February there was great excitement in Pontypridd when Instinct 35, a radio play by Islwyn Williams, aired featuring local visitors from Venus. The Pontypridd Observer for February 16th published a review:
FLYING SAUCERS IN PONTYPRIDD!
Science Fiction Play Broadcast. The big question before Monday night's broadcast of Islwyn Williams' science fiction play, "Instinct 35," was: Could the B.B.C. do an Orson Welles stunt on Pontypridd? Actor Welles, you may remember, panicked half America with a broadcast of novelist H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds." It was so realistic that listeners thought Martians really had landed and that their lives were in deadly danger. The Welsh Region of the B.B.C. came nowhere near instilling Orson Welles' brand of earth-shaking terror into the listeners. What we did have was a convincing, entertaining play centred around Pontypridd from the pen of a Porth man who has successfully written science fiction fantasy before.
LANDED IN QUARRY. The listeners were introduced to the play by the strange, unearthly sounds of a flying saucer landing on the edge of an old quarry on the Pontypridd mountainside. Inside the saucer are two Venusians, the older of whom had visited Pontypridd several centuries ago! (He probably flew the saucer under William Edwards' first bridge.) But, unlike Orson Welles, whose menacing voice, booming out like "the crack of doom," told listeners that the Martian war machines were devastating the countryside, the Venusians announce that they are on a peaceful mission - to isolate "Instinct 35," the feeling of the artist for the perfect creation.
AREA CORDONED OFF. Two Welsh characters in an intoxicated condition discover the saucer as they are walking home across the mountainside. They raise the alarm and the assistant chief constable calls in Maindy Barracks, Cardiff, and the army cordons off the area as a state of martial law is proclaimed and the eyes of the world are centred on the town. But, despite extensive military precautions, the hero, an unreognised artistic genius from the North of England, manages to smuggle his way past the sentries, on the inside of a lorry, and reaches the flying saucer.
It seems that he has been in some sort of telepathic communication with the Venusians and is the subject of their visit to Earth. The hero's mad dash towards the saucer finally ends with the flying saucer crashing over the edge of the quarry and vanishing. Incidentally, the hero is... wait for it... a designer of cups and saucers at a china works. So ended the invasion of Pontypridd. Mr. Islwyn Williams is to be congratulated on a well written and gripping play. It was good entertainment.
PRESS
Monday 26th August, 23:15
Port Talbot
The Neath Guardian of August 30th reported:
LOCAL MAN IS CONVINCED - 'I HAVE SEEN A FLYING SAUCER'
A local artist called at the "Guardian" offices yesterday and declared confidently, "I've seen a flying saucer." He stated that he saw the crescent shaped object travelling at a terrific speed from the direction of Wern Mountain, Port Talbot, towards Mumbles. The time was 11.15 p.m. on Monday and he was standing in Wern Square, Port Talbot, with a lady companion. Suddenly the girl spotted what she first thought to be a shooting star, but as they both watched the object its outline became more defined, and took on the now typical shape of the mysterious flying saucer. It was "flying" just below the cloud base.
The couple attempted to obtain witnesses but when they finally succeeded the object had disappeared. When I put to him that a mysterious object flying in the area on the same night had been identified as a Hastings four engined aircraft on a radar testing run he was emphatic in his opinion that what he and his friend saw was no aircraft. The object had made no sound and flashed just like a shooting star as it swept over.
In any event he pointed out that the same shaped object had been seen by Port Talbot people on Tuesday night only at an earlier time. The "flying saucer" was seen on the same course, eventually disappearing over the Mumbles area. He told me: "I haven't been quite sure how to take these flying saucer stories which we've heard about from time to time, but now I think differently. There is something unearthly about the whole thing. I only wish I had a camera with me at the time. I could have taken a good shot of the thing."
PRESS
August, 06:00
Port Talbot
A former RAF employee saw a sphere shaped object, glowing greenish white, about 30 foot in diameter travelling from the direction of Mumbles. The Porthcawl Guardian of September 6th reported:
BELIEVE IT OR NOT! SECOND SAUCER
(By Norman Denby) Is the steel town of Port Talbot under observation, at this very moment, by the "flying-saucer-men" from outher-space. Following a report in last week's "Guardian" about a flying saucer, another resident of the town came forward this week and told me his weird story. Last week a local artist said he was confident he saw a crescent shaped object hurtling across the sky around midnight on August 28. The same day at six o'clock in the morning, 34-year-old post office worker Peter Gallagher, of Old Road, Baglan, had just finished his night shift.
He was leaning casually against the bus stop sign near the General Post Office. He glanced up at the sky. He rubbed his eyes. He looked again. Yes, there is was; a glowing greenish white, sphere-shaped object about twenty feet in diameter travelling about 400 miles an hour from the direction of Mumbles. Had his night shift been too tiring? Was this a figment of Mr. Gallagher's imagination? He looked skywards for the third time, and the "thing" was still there.
"It was practically broad daylight and the spherical object remained at a constant speed and a height of about 1,000 ft., and continued on its way from the direction of Mumbles, over the Port Talbot steelworks and docks, and then disappeared over Margam mountain," Mr. Gallagher told me. I asked him how he estimated its speed. "I was in the RAF for twelve years, and with aeroplanes flying around me all day, I can estimate speeds of flying objects with a certain amount of accuracy."
While travelling over the gasometer at the Port Talbot steelworks, Mr. Gallagher said the "thing" erupted a flame, but did not shoot-off at a fast speed immediately afterwards. It kept travelling about 400 miles an hour. "It was definitely not a comet as it travelled at a constant height and speed and it is a mystery why no one else saw it," said Mr. Gallagher. "Another man coming towards the bus stop that morning did glance up, and he told me he saw a flash of light," he added. "But I had it in view for some distance."
A local lady who has studied reports of flying saucers from all over the world told me this week: "Flying saucers do exist, and the Government know what is happening in outer space." If anyone else in the area spots a flying saucer or any other strange object in the sky, then they should write to Mr. Charles M. Longcroft, 1 Doughtie Street, London, WC 1. Mr. Doughtie is the head of the British section of International UFO (unidentified flying objects).
PRESS
Sunday September 1st, 11:55
Porthcawl
Two police officers patrolling Porthcawl seafront saw a blood-red 'something', with a jagged black streak across its centre, rise out of the water on the horizon. As they watched two more streaks appeared above and below. It remained at sea level then went off at a fantastic speed toward the Atlantic.
The Western Mail reported the sighting on Wednesday 4th September 1957:
The thing from the sea. It was nearly midnight. Two policemen were patrolling the seafront at Porthcawl. Then it happened... Something rose out of the water on the horizon - something that was blood-red, with a jagged black streak across its centre. What the policemen saw on Sunday was officially reported last night. The report has gone to "top level."
Chief-inspector Reginald Jones, of "D" Division, Glamorgan Police, said that the two policemen thought at first that they were seeing a ship on fire on the horizon towards Ilfracombe. But then it rose out of the water like a blood-red sun - much larger than a full sized harvest moon. As they watched, two more streaks appeared above and below. It remained at sea level, then moved off at "fantastic" speed towards the Atlantic.
Was it Venus? In London, an Air Ministry spokesman said that one possible explanation of the phenomenon was that it was "a planet playing tricks. What the officers reported seeing is consistent with this. Venus does at certain times of the year play all kinds of tricks - often due to climatic conditions. A reflection of the planet appears in the sky. This is sometimes the explanation of flying saucers."
A meteorologist said that the most likely explanation was that the policemen saw the Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights - which had been reported as having been seen during the past two or three nights.
They followed up on September 10th with:
"Just over a week ago, two policemen patrolling Porthcawl promenade, reported seeing a “mysterious red disc” moving across the sky at a fantastic speed. It was seen at the same time over Carmarthen Bay, and again the lifeboat was called out. Porthcawl police reported last night that the lights had not been seen again although a watch was being kept."
The SUFON case file adds:
On 9th April 2019, Steve Drewson, Mike Maunder and myself gave a talk to the Kenfig Hill Womens' Institute about UFOSs/SUFON/Local sightings. I talked about the case which occurred on the night of 1 September 1957 at Porthcawl, when two bobbies on the beat saw a USO emerging from the sea and shoot off towards the west. One of the reasons we do these talks is to get people to come forward with their sightings stories.
After the talk, just that happened. A lady came up to me and told me that she knew the two police officers mentioned in the Western Mail report illustrated (who were not named in the article) and told me some very interesting further information. She told me their names, and that one of the men lived in the flat above her in South Road at the time! Sadly, after the sighting, the two policemen received a lot of ridicule, both in work and publicly and asked to be transferred. They moved to the Hampshire and Dorset Police, one went to Boscombe in Dorset, the other to Poole, she believes. If they are alive now they would be in their 80s. At the time they were both in their 20s.
The lady even remembered what her neighbour told her about where they were exactly, which is not in the article. Apparently, one had just patrolled the eastern end of the promenade, the other, Rest Bay. They'd met in the middle for a chat and a sly fag in the porch of the Porthcawl Pavilion (now a glassed-in cafe). They were there when they saw the object come out of the sea. It's little details like that that I personally love about this subject! Would be nice to track the men down for an interview! - E.W.
I found another mention of the case in APRO Bulletin for May 1958.
PRESS
Thursday November 14th, 02:30
Mid and South Wales
Multiple witnesses saw a low flying glowing object streaking across the sky. Contemporary opinion was that it was a meteorite.
News Chronicle, 30/11/57: A low-flying mystery object glowing greenish-blue was sighted over South Wales early yesterday. At 2.30 a.m. a lorry driver saw it as he drove over the desolate Brecon Beacons. He described it to Mid-Wales police as delta-shaped, "twice the length of his lorry and moving low in flames.
At 2.35 it was sighted by a police patrol car crew 30 miles away near Cowbridge, Glamorgan. Two policemen on their beats in the Rhondda Valley saw it moving at high speed. No air crashes are reported. Reports of a "ball of fire" were sent to the R.A.F. at Plymouth. For good measure an object with "a flame tail" crashed with a loud bang off the Isle of Man early yesterday. It is believed to be a meteorite.
SUFON
Winter 1957
Pontyberem, Llanelli
9-year-old Tyrone Davies was living with his grand-parents in a terraced house in the mining village of Pontyberem in the Gwendraeth valley. One night in the winter of 1957, there was a storm blowing with thunder and lightning and heavy rain. At about 8.30 PM Tyrone's grandmother asked him to collect a bucket of coal from the coal bunker which was situated at the side of the house. Whilst filling the bucket, there was an almighty thunder flash which lit up the sky above the house. As he looked up at the sky, Tyrone could see an enormous saucer-shaped craft which was partly hidden by the clouds. Further lightning flashes revealed the same craft which seemed to be motionless in the sky.
"As I had never seen anything like this before, I ran into the house and called my grandmother to come and see this strange craft in the sky. She declined and informed me that what I had seen was probably caused by the lightning flashes. Knowing what I had seen I decided to open the front door of the house and gazed out over the valley. As the lightning lit up the sky, to my astonishment I could see four smaller saucer shape crafts which again were motionless and looked to be in some kind of formation. Again my grandmother declined to witness this sighting. As she closed the front door, she advised me not to mention what I assumed to have seen to anyone, otherwise I might end up in a mental institution. I took my grandmother's advice and to this day I have only mentioned these sightings to a handful of people."
Tyrone sent us some drawings, one of which shows the four smaller craft hovering over Pentremawr Colliery in Pontyberem.
Source: SUFON Files, witness correspondence spring 2018.
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