ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Visit Warminster the Wiltshire town near Longleat where UFOs were often sighted

Updated on October 9, 2014

The Wiltshire town of Warminster was once in a UFO Flap

Warminster is a usually quiet country town in the English county of Wiltshire but it was once at the centre of a "UFO flap" that had the world's ufologists focused on the skies there.

It all started back in the mid '60s and began with a sound that was being heard by residents rather than sightings of anything unexplained in the heavens above. The mysterious sound got dubbed "The Warminster Thing."

But then reports of strange lights in the sky started to come in and local newspaper editor Arthur Shuttlewood of the Warminster Journal became involved. Very soon he had become a local "expert" on the subject and the author of several books on the subject of UFOs and Warminster had become known as a UFO town.

Warminster photos

The Flying Sorcerors by Arthur Shuttlewood Photo by Steve Andrews
The Flying Sorcerors by Arthur Shuttlewood Photo by Steve Andrews
Top of Cley Hill. Photo by Steve Andrews
Top of Cley Hill. Photo by Steve Andrews
Cley Hill, Warminster. A small black object can be seen in the upper left of the photo. Was this a UFO? Photo by Steve Andrews
Cley Hill, Warminster. A small black object can be seen in the upper left of the photo. Was this a UFO? Photo by Steve Andrews
Longleat and Warminster sign. Photo by Steve Andrews
Longleat and Warminster sign. Photo by Steve Andrews

The Warminster mystery

Warminster is near the neighbouring towns of Frome and Westbury and is situated with Salisbury Plain surrounding it. This happens to include a lot of land that is used by the British army for manoeuvres and testing and not surprisingly it has been suggested that it was the army responsible for a lot of what was heard and seen around Warminster.

Whilst this is of course likely as the explanation of many reports in the area it doesn't answer what a lot of residents and non-residents who travelled to Warminster saw and experienced there. There were a lot of very bizarre reports that included alien beings and landed craft as well as strange sounds and mysterious craft in the Warminster skies.

A lot of the paranormal activity was centred around the local hills known as Cradle Hill and Cley Hill and sky-watches were often held at these locations by teams of ufologists and paranormal investigators.

Arthur Shuttlewood found he had more than enough material on his hands to write his books and to become known as a British expert on the subject of UFOs. I met him in the late '70s and still have a copy of his The Flying Saucerers , which was published by Sphere Books and which he signed to me.

The opening page has "To Steve - a fellow seeker of Eternal Truth and Universal Verities - Good luck! Arthur Shuttlewood."

As it happened, both Arthur Shuttlewood and myself ended up as regular contributors to Magic Saucer (Junior UFO News). The magazine, which was published by Crystal Hogben in Kidderminster, became popular with adults as well as youngsters.

Almost as mysterious as the Warminster UFO and alien sightings was how it all went quiet there towards the end of the '70s when reports of incidents and interest in the town by ufologists became far less.

It has been suggested that it was Arthur Shuttlewood that was generating all the publicity for Warminster as an English town where you could expect to see UFOs, and that he exaggerated reports in his books and writings.

Whilst this would have no doubt added to the "UFO flap" that Warminster experienced for around a decade at least it doesn't explain what was going on there and many people would be unconvinced by this explanation of the Warminster mystery.

In recent years, Kevin Goodman is one person who was very involved in the original interest in UFOs in Warminster, and who has helped bring the town back into the news again. In 2007, Goodman became the author of UFO Warminster Cradle of Contact .

Kevin Goodman Warminster UFO-spotter and author

Warminster and crop circles

Being located in Wiltshire means that Warminster is in an area of the UK in which people who are interested in the ancient history of Britain and alternative history tend to look. Some researchers have linked places where UFOs are seen with the theory of ley lines that act as a sort of planetary energy grid.

Hills like Cley Hill are thought to be marker points on these ley lines and it is perhaps not surprising that renewed interest in Warminster has also been fanned by crop circles that have appeared in the area.

Warminster is fairly close to Stonehenge, an ancient monument and prehistoric site that has fascinated millions of people worldwide. And then there is also the famous Westbury White Horse carved out in chalk on a hillside outside the town it is named after.

Wiltshire is often associated with mysterious forces and unexplained happenings so for it to be a town where lots of UFO sightings have occurred isn't really that surprising.

Warminster and Longleat

Warminster can be reached by road or train and it has its own station. The A36 (east-west) road bypasses Warminster, and the A350 (north-south) trunk road also serves the town.

The River Were runs through Warminster and its course goes right through the middle of the town's park. The Minster Church of St Denys is situated on the River Were and has an ancient and might Yew tree in its grounds.

The name Warminster is first known from in the early 10th century and would seem to be linked with the name of the river. However, according to Wikipedia: "The town's name is sometimes claimed to refer to the River Were, which runs through the town, and a supposed Saxon minster or monastery. However, the first record of any version of the name Warminster is in a document dating from about the year 900, in the form 'Worgemynster', and there is no evidence of any minster or monastery anywhere in the neighbourhood at that time."

Warminster has a number of churches and a chapel. Otherwise it has the usual range of shops, public houses, hotels and business you would expect in an English town.

Of great interest to tourists and visitors to Wiltshire is Longleat House which lies just a few miles outside Warminster. Longleat House is the home of the eccentric Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, who is known for his long hair and beard, flamboyant dress sense and paintings of an erotic nature. He was once known as Viscount Weymouth, and is a politician, an author and artist.

Longleat is also well known for the Longleat Safari Park and the Lions of Longleat.

© 2010 Steve Andrews

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)