Tom Slemen's Haunted Wirral: Encounter with a giant UFO

This week, Tom considers the existence of extra-terrestrial beings.

FOR decades, serious investigators of UFOs faced a type of Cosmic Watergate.

The RAF, the United States Air Force, NASA, the Pentagon, the UK's Ministry of Defence and many intelligence services, both in the West and behind the Iron Curtain, instigated cover-ups of immense proportions to keep the public from knowing the strange reality about the enigmatic craft that have been haunting our skies and our lands since written records began.

Last Wednesday, in the United States, the House of Representatives convened a panel on UFOs – which they referred to as UAPs – Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon – a pointless 'rebranding' of the familiar UFO abbreviation.

All the same, during the landmark hearing into alleged sightings and encounters with strange craft of unknown origin, respected, qualified pilots and other military personnel recounted run-ins with the bizarre “tic tac-shaped” craft which can somehow defy the laws of physics with their right-angle turns and phenomenal bursts of speed which allows the craft to outdistance our terrestrial fighter jets.

There were also very controversial claims from an ex-Air Force intelligence officer that government officials have kept some shocking things from the public; there are crashed UFOs hidden at secret bases – and "non-human biologics" – that’s military speak for alien bodies retrieved from downed UFOs. Some have said that the bodies are vaguely humanoid but seem more insect-like in their anatomy.

There are still claims that the military doesn’t know where the craft are coming from; they could be from other worlds in space or other dimensions.

I would not be surprised if we make contact with one of these “ultraterrestrial” races in the near future; I get the feeling the powers that be are letting the truth about the mysterious visitants leak out in dribs and drabs so it won’t be such a big shock when contact is made.

Of course, Wirral is no stranger to UFOs, and I have been getting a lot of feedback from Wirral Globe readers concerning my column on UFOs and their old name – Flying Saucers.

Maria, a lady of 75 who has lived in Heswall all of her life tells me that in August 1997, she and her husband Phil visited the beautiful sandstone outcrop of Thurstaston Hill to admire the panoramic view.

During the visit, they and two other couples saw an immense silver disc-shaped craft which came down out of a blue sky from the north and flew along the Dee until it halted stock-still.

Maria’s husband Phil, who had worked for Lockheed Martin, estimated that the craft must have been about 1,300 feet in length.

It hovered about 300 feet from the banks of the Dee, near to Caldy Beach.

Because it was a sunny day, the saucer-shaped craft was reflecting the sun with its mirror-like surface.

One of the couples who saw the giant UFO took snaps of the craft because they both had cameras but Maria saw the couple again.

The colossal craft then moved westwards towards Wales and seemed to vanish in a haze.

One of the most astounding accounts of a close encounter comes from a doctor named Richard, who now lives in Neston. On Sunday, September 13, 1992, Richard and his girlfriend Helen (later his wife), decided to visit an antiques fair that was being held at the Parkgate Hotel, Boathouse Lane.

They set off from Richard’s home in Prenton, with Helen at the wheel because Richard had been drinking at a party the night before.

This was in the days before Sat-Nav systems and not being too au fait with Parkgate, Helen took a wrong turn, and then they found Boathouse Lane, but the couple became distracted by an immense circular craft that was descending out of the clear blue sky.

At first, Richard thought it was some kite, and believed it was a small object, but as the craft descended, Richard told Helen to pull over, because it looked as if it was going to crash down on a field of what looked like yellow gorse.

The descent of the thing seemed to go on for some time, and Richard noticed that cars travelling along Boathouse Lane were slowing down as the drivers and passengers watched the gigantic UFO.

At last the craft landed in the distance, and Helen remarked: "Oh my God we're being invaded" and started the car, wanting to get away from the area. 

Richard told her to stay put.

He was fascinated by the enormous ship of some sort.

The hull of the UFO was silvery and must have been about 2,000 feet in diameter, according to Richard.

It was somehow balanced by a cone-shaped structure it was resting on in the centre of its undercarriage.

Helen said: "Nothing on this planet built that thing, let’s go," but Richard got out of the car and climbed over a gate to get into the field.

Helen threatened to drive off on her own, as she was terrified of the sight.

Richard stopped in his tracks then walked to the left, hoping to view the craft from another vantage point because the gorse was too thick to walk through – and something very intriguing happened.

When Richard and Helen had walked about 50 feet to the left, the gargantuan ship faded into a blue colour that matched the sky, and the further left the couple walked, the more the ship seemed to vanish until it was almost invisible from that angle.

Helen then said: "Listen! Can you hear someone shouting?"

Richard stood still and he and his girlfriend heard what sounded like a group of people yelling "Help!" 

It seemed to be coming from the direction of the massive UFO.

Something flashed from the craft, startling the couple, and then it started to lift upwards and the cone-shaped structure beneath it went into the craft as it gained altitude.

The couple turned and ran to the car, and Helen drove off and the plan to go to the antiques fair was abandoned.

As Helen drove along Boathouse Lane (heading for a relative’s house on Chester Road), she glanced up at the blue sky but could not see the enormous UFO, but Richard could.

He looked out the rear windscreen of the car and saw the thing tilt sideways as it headed towards North Wales. Then he lost sight of the craft.

The couple checked the TV and radio for news, and later in a pub in Prenton, a barman heard Richard and Helen’s account of the massive craft and said he had also heard of a huge saucer-shaped UFO being seen over Parkgate.

Richard, being a doctor, decided not to talk about the encounter after that day for obvious reasons, but I heard about the craft via many listeners to BBC Radio Merseyside when I discussed Wirral UFOs one afternoon.

I wonder who those people were who were heard shouting for help from that craft; were they victims of some abduction?

• Haunted Liverpool 36 and Tom Slemen’s many other books and audiobooks are on Amazon.