Tom Slemen's Haunted Wirral: The Bidston Hill UFO crash

This week's tale asks 'did unearthly visitors gatecrash a special event?'

THE UFO phenomenon is an eternal subject.

It dies down now and then but then it returns with a vengeance.

In recent weeks unidentified flying objects have been blasted out of the skies over Canada and North America by fighter planes, but whether the targets originate from the countless worlds of space or the intelligence services of a foreign power is still up in the air (no pun intended).

On Wirral, there have been many alleged UFO encounters reported to me over the years, and here is one of the more intriguing ones.

On the pleasant warm Thursday evening of July 9, 1959 at around 7.30pm, a pretty 19-year-old Upton girl named June ascended Bidston Hill with her father and her 21-year-old boyfriend Fred.

The plan was simple – Fred was to wait for the nod from June and then he was to ask her dad if he could marry his daughter.

This procedure will seem laughable today, but this was 1959 and it was seen as a proper and decent thing to do – a common courtesy to show respect to future in-laws. June's father was very protective towards his only daughter, as she had dated a few cads in the last few years, but Fred was sure he’d win him over.

June said the best time to ask her dad would be while he was rambling on Bidston Hill, something he loved doing in the summer.

Fred received the nod from June as they all stood surveying the picturesque panorama from the hill. The young man coughed to clear his throat and then there was a bang like the Crack of Doom.

Bidston Hill shook, and for a moment, June's father thought they’d dropped the Bomb and staggered backwards, but Fred grabbed him before he could fall.

'I'm alright, I’m okay!' he said to Fred, and then June said, 'Oh! Look! What on earth’s that?'

She pointed to something that did not need to be pointed out, because it was so large, it was impossible not to notice it: a huge circular craft of some sort had crashed down into Bidston Hill and was protruding from the soil, flora and dislodged sandstone at a 45-degree angle. It was made of a greyish, glinting metal and it had two domes on top which glowed with a faint emerald light.

'Where the blazes did that come from?' June's father asked. June walked towards the unearthly craft, which was about 60 feet in diameter, but Fred grabbed her arm and said: 'No, love, don't go near that thing – it might explode!'

'Oh don't be a Jeremiah, Fred,' said an annoyed June, 'it's not a bomb – I think it’s an actual flying saucer!'

'June, stay put,' said her father, 'Fred’s right, it could explode. It’s probably a top secret RAF thingamajig.'

'Someone’s coming out of it!' Fred said excitedly, and pointed to a flap that was opening in the top of the craft at its rim.

'Let's get out of here,’ said June’s dad, pulling his daughter by her left arm, and Fred pulled June by her right arm but she emitted a defiant grunt and broke free from the two men, and she watched in awe has a figure emerged from the hatchway in the craft.

It was a spindly metal machine with a round head and it moved robotically in jerky movements as it climbed out the hatchway onto the hull of the 'flying saucer'.

Almost simultaneously, a bulbous figure came waddling out from behind the craft and the trio of observers could see it looked armour plated and had two short legs and two log arms which protruded from a body that was the shape of a rugby ball.

'Oh! They’re spacemen,' gasped June, and her dad said, 'June, I am ordering you to leave here now – we need to report this to the police.'

A third figure emerged from the hatchway of the craft of unknown origin, and June waved to the two figures on the top of the vessel and shouted 'Hey! This is the Earth! Welcome!'

Something very bizarre then happened.

The egg-bodied entity to the left of the craft said in a well-spoken accent, 'Earth is your name for this planet; its real name is – ' and the name the thing uttered could not be heard because one of the figures on the craft used some type of welding apparatus which noisily drowned out the dialogue.

June's father grabbed his daughter by the arm and pulled her away with such force she fell backwards, and Fred complained to his potential father-in-law, saying, 'Steady on there! June's fallen in nettles!'

Her father was a big man, and he growled back, 'Come on! Let’s get out of here! We’re being invaded!'

He pulled June along and the teenager shrieked as one of her shoes came off. Fred picked it up and helped June to her feet, but still the father pulled her along.

By the time the three of them had reached the bottom of Bidston Hill, June cried to her father, 'Oh by the way, like it or lump it, Fred and I are getting married!'

'Get bloody married, you have my blessing, but let's get off this blasted hillside!' roared her father, and they made their way home.

Fred was told to report the apparent crash of the mysterious craft on Bidston Hill at the local police station, and the sergeant at the desk said nonchalantly 'We’ve already heard about it from every Tom, Dick and Harry tonight – we’ve sent someone up there to have a look. Must be a full moon out tonight.'

Nothing was found on the hill. Next day, the local and national newspapers mentioned the unexplained bang that had been heard all over Wirral, just before 8pm on the previous Thursday night.

Reports of the deafening boom came from Birkenhead, Wallasey, Ellesmere Port, Hoylake, Heswall, Neston, Parkgate, as well as Liverpool and Southport.

The prevailing theory was that the Biblical bang had been the result of a plane somewhere in the area breaking the sound barrier, and the numerous reports of a strange object over Bidston Hill were discounted.

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