Do you remember when UFOs or Flying Saucers as we used to call them were all the rage? Unidentified Flying Objects have not really gone away, people still maintain they have seen them, but some how the interest in the phenomena has shifted from the mainstream public consciousness into the realms of conspiracy theories. But back in the 1950s people were seeing the objects almost on a weekly basis and Teesside was no exception. We decided to have a look back at what was going on in the skies over Teesside back then.
© UnknownA flying saucer pictured over Middlesbrough in the 1970s. This picture was found in our archives under a file marked Unidentified Flying Objects but was undated and not attached to any news story. It is thought it was taken in the 1970s
The very first report we could find in the
Evening Gazette of a 'Flying Saucer' was on December 12, 1950 just three years after the first sighting by Kenneth Arnold in America who first used the term 'saucer' to describe the objects he saw. The report in the
Evening Gazette read: "It was sure to happen sooner or later. A flying saucer is reported to have been seen on Teesside. Our informant, a 16-year-old from Yarm is quite clear that at 9.55 last night at Bank Top, Yarm he saw at a considerable height an object of a brilliant light green hue descending in a spiral in a north-easterly direction at an angle of 45 degrees. He said, 'It was something entirely different from what I have seen before. It was visible for two or three seconds and then it was gone."
© Evening GazetteCuttings from the Evening Gazette in 1950 about Flying Saucer sightings. Notice the question mark after Flying Saucers note at the top of the page.
The following day people who had also seen the flying saucer contacted the
Evening Gazette. Three people from Middlesbrough saw the object but the best description came from a man working for the Tees Conservancy Commission who was keeping watch at the Harbour Master's office. 'At around 10 o'clock he saw a vivid green flash streaking towards the ground in a north easterly direction at a terrific pace. A few hundred feet above the ground the object disintegrated.'
© UnknownA close up of the object pictured over Middlesbrough
By July 1952 some students at Constantine College, Middlesbrough who were members of the 'British Interplanetary Society' were heading off to Newcastle to investigate the latest sightings of flying saucers, interest in the subject was certainly growing. Two months later came one of the most intriguing sightings, but this time it was not the general public, students or schoolboys but the RAF based at Topcliffe near Thirsk who reported a strange object in the sky on September 20, 1952.
© Evening GazetteMore cuttings from the Evening Gazette about flying saucers including the significant account from the RAF in 1952. The N.R. in the headline reading 'Flying Saucer seen over N.R.' refers to North Riding
"A 'Flying Saucer' entered 'Exercise Mainbrace' (a NATO exercise) today following a report from the RAF Station at Topcliffe, near Thirsk of a white object having been seen which accelerated at a speed in excess of a shooting star. The object was seen by about ten RAF officers and men, the crew of Shackleton aircraft operating from Topcliffe. A signal said that the object was seen at 10.53am yesterday when a Meteor aircraft was flying at about 5,000ft and was descending. A white object was seen five miles astern of the aircraft at approximately 15,000ft. It was moving at a comparatively slow speed on a course similar to the aircraft. The object was silver in colour and circular, it maintained a slow forward speed before beginning to descend swinging like a pendulum. Then it suddenly accelerated at incredible speed in a westerly direction then turned to a south-easterly course. The duration of the incident was between 15 to 20 seconds."
© UnknownA Meteor jet aircraft on the left, this was the same type of aircraft which was followed by a Flying Saucer over Thirsk. The aircraft to the right is a Vampire.
The official explanation was that the object may have been an engine cowling which had fallen off, or a smoke ring from the Meteor jet aircraft or even a parachute. But no cowling or parachute was reported missing and smoke rings do not accelerate at an 'incredible' speed, do they?
© UnknownAn illustration of how we all imagine a Flying Saucer to appear.
Reports of strange objects in the sky continued to appear in the pages of the
Evening Gazette through out the 1950s. In 1957 the first references to 'Unidentified Flying Objects' appeared in the Evening Gazette and descriptions of 'cigar shaped' craft made their debut. Clearly the phenomena, was here to stay. However, despite all these sightings only one photograph of a UFO could be found over Teesside in our archives, it appears at the top of this feature.
© UnknownFlying Saucers seen in the Tyne area in the 1970s tended to be somewhat grainy and unrealistic, but things would improve decades later.
The interest in UFOs seems to have gradually changed from curiosity to the obsessive and beyond that into what can only be described at a belief system, in fact there are at least two 'religions' based on UFOs. Now it seems that the belief in UFOs carries a whole lot of other baggage with it such as 'Area 51', government cover-ups and a raft of conspiracy theories. These ideas are mainly held by American citizens, who also appear to be the 'abductees of choice' for aliens.
© UnknownThese days you get a much better quality UFO over the Tyne, here is a Flying Saucer checking out the Sage at Gateshead.
But back in the 1950s it all seemed so possible that we were on the brink of making contact with Martians or Venusians. The lights in the sky and the saucer shaped objects seemed to go hand in hand with the start of our own space adventures with Sputnik and later Yuri Gagarin. If we could make it into space, why not the Martians?
© UnknownA classic UFO photograph taken in recent years, but with the advent of photoshop on computers we can never really believe what we see in photographs these days.
Back in the 1950s when I was a lad I had my own UFO experience: We were just leaving my aunt and uncle's house on a sunny summer evening. Everyone was out in the street pointing up at the sky, some were even looking through binoculars. I looked up and to my astonishment there was a silver disc hanging in the sky with the sun's rays glinting on its surface creating different colours. I could not believe my eyes; it was happening at last, the aliens were landing! My ever pragmatic dad emerged from the house carrying the suitcase, took one look up at the object and said, 'weather balloon' and walked past me to the car. I stood for a moment looking at the floating 'disc' as it gradually dawned on me that it was actually a sphere and my dad was right.... damn it!
© UnknownUFO images today are a lot more dramatic as well.
re: "dad... said, 'weather balloon'..."
I discovered in the Spring of 1998 that just because what I'm seeing is a sphere doesn't necessarily mean it's a weather balloon (or any other kind of balloon).