Whereas the Rendlesham Forest case has just been celebrating three decades of tying itself into ever more confusing knots, we’ve just passed the 30th anniversary of another, lesser-known episode which reveals some interesting aspects of the UFO mystery. 

It happened on 31 August 1980 at Golborne, Lancashire, when a woman who was a bit under the weather was sleeping on the settee to avoid disturbing her husband. She was awoken by flames outside, and hurr­ied to investigate. But this fire was in the sky, and a spectacular sight greeted her. Hovering above a nearby reservoir was a rounded object with a triangle of bumps in the base and a dark band round the middle. Sparks were emerging and the surrounding sky was a misty pink. As she watched, a light was slowly lowered from the main object towards the water’s surface and retracted upwards before the object silently moved away. Others who lived nearby independently reported the same thing, so the case looked promising. 

Peter Hough investigated for NARO (Northern Anomalies Research Organisation), and we then assessed possible explanations. Two options were considered. We had investigated sightings from near Rochdale in which glowing orange lights had been traced to youths mischievously launching home-made hot-air ball­oons using plastic bags and candles. We saw similarities here – but many differences. 

Another possibility centred on the fact that we were getting other similar reports from this part of south central Lancashire, often in the early hours, about small triangular objects and peculiar glowing lights. One of our contacts was an MoD police officer who hinted that new technology was under development and being flown on test at night; thus, if seen, it would be reported as a UFO and effectively disregarded. This was a form of prototype unmanned surveillance device. Was this what had hovered over Golborne? 

NARO had no real way to decide, of course, as officially there was no such research project; whereas home-made balloons were very real. 

However, the case took a mysterious turn when the main witness told Peter that a scientist with an American accent working for Jodrell Bank science centre had called and advised she not have anything to do with ‘cranks’ from the UFO field, but invited her to go to Jodrell to assist in further investigation. 

We were puzzled for many reasons – not least because we worked with Jodrell and knew their interest in UFOs was peripheral (they were even routing sightings received at their switchboard to me for follow-up, and still do decades later). 

Ultimately, the witness just stopped cooperating. She had agreed to meet us, but appeared to flee the house when Peter and I arrived, leaving the back door open and food cooking on the grill. Later she told me she was called away but now did not want to talk further. At a dead end, we wondered why this witness had suddenly become so uncooperative. 

I was never able to forget the Golborne case, because the following year there seemed to be a rerun in the Rossendale Valley, about 30 miles (50km) north-east of Wigan. This time there were four independent sets of witnesses. 

A Moon-like glow was first seen around 10.45pm on 15 June 1981 at Stackteads. It was heading into the wind (with the Moon itself also visible through breaks in the cloud). Three miles (4.8km) west at Rawtenstall, an orange/yellow mass was seen by a woman through her curtains; she watched as it hovered over an artificial ski slope, again surrounded by a glowing mist, then dropped a glowing light towards the ground. The woman promptly called the Lancashire police, who logged the call at 1.05pm. 

Meanwhile, two other women close by the ski slope had a much clearer view of this behaviour. They saw the golden object approach and described what it dropped as unfolding like a rope ladder but made out of seemingly solid light. A second projectile then emerged from the base of the oval mass and again behaved unlike any ordinary light beam. The oval was last seen – by another witness – disappearing into the distance over Helmshore. 

The parallels were immediately obvious and I have since documented a small but consistent group of these cases that describe what UFO researchers term “solid light”. The beam appears sharp and well defined like a laser, but opens and retracts quite differently from any mundane beam, acting like a solid object that can be unfurled. Witnesses have used terms such as “rope ladder”, “snail feelers” and “expanding telescope of light” to describe it. 

Our initial theory about home-made hot air balloons seemed to work. We knew that if you warm the air in a plastic bag it causes it to rise skyward, but the flame from the candle can then melt the plastic, causing it to dribble away and seem from a distance like a burning probe or ladder being released towards the ground. But with the emergence of further ‘solid light’ evidence over the years, we have had to reconsider. Objects seen moving into strong winds or hovering (as at Golborne) for up to 15 minutes negate the idea of any type of fire balloon. Moreover, as regular reports in FT over the past three years have shown, we now have much evidence of how witnesses report actual fire balloons in the form of Chin­ese lanterns, and they behave in a markedly different way from the ‘solid light’ reports here. 

So what was responsible for these intriguing cases? Was it really some kind of covert research project? Or could they have been examples of UAPs (unidentified atmospheric phenomena)? 

That possibility is enhanced by an odd report I received recently. It occurred at St Margaret’s Bay, Kent, in July 1966 as a man was driving during a torrential rainstorm. The terrible conditions caused him to stop, and as he did so the air around him became heavily charged and a hissing noise began. Then, a swirling column of opaque light appeared in the form of a mist. It formed a ‘beaker’ and – incredibly – the rain that was pelting down was hitting the sides of this glowing ‘beaker’ of mist and bending at sharp angles, as if it the opaque light were a solid barrier. 

In my latest research, I am finding suggest­ions that this phenomenon shares attributes with ball lightning. Perhaps these cases are of some kind of ‘super ball lightning’ so odd in its manifestation that it gets reported as a UFO. Hopefully, scientists will look at this intriguing data.