BBC North looks for UFOs and finds a spy plane!

BBC North's Close Up North programme on March 21st was all about the Pennine Corridor, an area of Britain that has had more UFO sightings in the past ten years than anywhere else in the UK.

The programme spoke to a number of witnesses who have claimed to see a variety of UFO, but most importantly the programme spoke to British Aerospace about project HALO. HALO is a British version of Stealth and it generally believed that development of this aircraft is taking place at the British Aerospace factory at Warton in Lancashire. Up till now neither BAe or the Ministry of Defence have ever officially acknowledged the project, but in a statement to the programme British Aerospace said,

"The HALO is a series of concepts looking into desirable technologies for future aircraft. It's a balanced solution between High Agility and Low Observability. You have to integrate technologies to provide arms-weapons systems. If the customer wants a stealth bomber, then they'll get one which looks like the B-2 or F1-17. If they want a highly agile, low observable aircraft then that's what we're working on at the moment - defining what it's going to look like."

Meanwhile on the subject of the Manchester Airport near-miss, reported last month, Eric Morris of the British UFO Studies Centre said, on the same programme, that the UFO seen by the two pilots could have been a secret spy aeroplane from the Arora project in America that that was being tested in Britain at the moment.

Avebury

Two of Britain's mysterious sites have been given the once-over by the media in the past couple of weeks. Firstly, Stonehenge, it seems, is older than first thought. Apparently it predates the previous estimate by a good few hundred years or so. A new technique involving radiocarbon dating, accurate to within 18 years, puts the Stonehenge's birthday in 2950 BC when an outer ditch was dug. It was another 250 years before the first of the stones arrived from Wales. A reporter for the BBC said that the Druids probably used it as a picnic ground!

More interestingly though was a press report that Avebury was twinned with Mars! The quiet Wiltshire village, according to amateur astronomer Peter Oakley, was an exact double for a rock formation on Mars called Cydonia. But it doesn't end there, it also happens to be laid out in the same way as Egypt's pyramids! According to Peter the chances of that happening are about 100 trillion to 1. His conclusion? Aliens built all three places!

Peter Oakley isn't the first to link the Great Pyramids with astronomical locations. Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert in their book The Orion Mystery, (Heinemann 1994), say that the pyramids line up exactly with the constellation Orion.

But back to Avebury.

'Avebury doth as much exceed Stonehenge in grandeur as a Cathedral doth an ordinary Parish Church.' John Aubrey 1626 - 97 Avebury has always held a fascination for me, since I first visited it 1989. Before that I was under the impression that Stonehenge was the most significant stone circle in the British Isles, but Avebury has a greater history.

Built around 5,000 years ago, the standing stones of Avebury were once probably a Sun temple, although, like so many sites, the real purpose will perhaps never be known. Avebury has two inner circles housed in a larger outer circle with an avenue of stones leading out towards the south-east. There was once a second avenue, but this sadly, has now disappeared. That stretched out south-west.

It wasn't until the early eighteenth century, that the site was documented. DR William Stukeley spent thirty years of his life there, carefully making notes and drawings of the site. His task was not an easy one, as local residents and farmers would often smash the standing stones to clear the land for ploughing and for stone to build with. But that wasn't the first time the stones had met with such vandalous action. In the early part of the fourteenth century the Christian Church buried some of the stones and levelled off the ground. But the stones didn't give up easily. During later excavations the skeleton of one of the workers was found pinned under one of the monoliths.

Today, Avebury is in the hands of the Department of the Environment. It does seem to have avoided the clamour of the New Age traveller and rampant hoards of visitors, but that, sadly will not always be the case. I only hope that we can continue to enjoy it for many years without the restrictions imposed at Stonehenge. Another fascinating thing about Avebury is the surrounding area. Visitors are just a short distance from Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long Barrow.

If you're a little bit 'sensitive' in a psychic sort of way, keep well away from Silbury Hill. I don't know what it is, but I'm getting a pain just writing about it. Nobody seems to have ever found an answer to why it's there, even excavations failed to turn anything up.

I spent a couple of weeks in Wiltshire in the late eighties happily snapping everything that moved (and things that had stood still for thousands of years too!). I took this picture of the West Kennet long barrow on Midsummer's Day. At the time I wasn't aware of the dog at the entrance to the long barrow. Imagine my surprise when I got home to read in a book that a black dog is supposed to visit the long barrow every Midsummer's Day!

Media Watch

I've already mentioned a couple of things out of the papers, but I was interested to see that two of the more 'serious' UK papers have given space to some Unexplained stories. Firstly The Observer on March 3 included a 15 page feature on 'Weird Stuff', ranging from Kirlian photography and aliens to the Toronto Blessing and mention of those popular FBI agents, Scully and Mulder. Meanwhile on March 9, The Daily Mail gave over two pages to the 'Pennine Corridor', with reference to the Manchester Airport near miss (mentioned on this page last month) and comments from our good friend Nick Pope. Both features were well written and I can only offer praise for the adult approach that these newspapers are taking to the subject. Hidden agenda? Some would say that this is all part of the governments' policy of preparing us for news of alien contact. I think it's more likely down to public pressure. I hope that this kind of exposure will make it easier for people to talk openly about their experiences.

The Daily Star on March 7 published a photograph of a what looks like a young girl standing inside a burning building in Wem, Shropshire. It's reported to be the ghost of a 14 year old girl who was responsible for a fire in the town 300 years ago.

New Books

There is one word that will guarantee to get me interested in a new book - Encyclopedia - so imagine my excitement when I received two!

My personal favourite has to be The Element Encyclopedia Of Symbols. This is a clear and comprehensive reference book that explains the meanings of symbols from a variety of cultural, religious or mythical roots.

It's a great dipper with numerous illustrations and is laid out in an easy A-Z format - from Aaron's Rod right through to Zodiac.

Highly recommended.

The Element Encyclopedia Of Symbols is edited by Udo Becker and published by Element at £24.99. ISBN 1-85230-560-6.

Second on my list is The Encyclopaedia Of Celtic Wisdom. This is definitely more of a reference book for the serious student of the Celtic tradition. The authors, Caitlin and John Matthews are distinguished writers and have produced a number of important books in this field.

Even the uninitiated would enjoy reading the many poems and stories of Celtic legend contained in this volume.

The Encyclopaedia Of Celtic Wisdom is written by Caitlan and John Matthews and published by Element at £24.99. ISBN 1-85230-561-4.

Other Books

Witches and Neighbours by Robin Briggs. The book fell open at a page telling all about one of the most feared men in Britain during the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins. During his time as the 'witchfinder general', Hopkins and his associate, John Stearne, were responsible for the execution of some 200 witches.

Witches and Neighbours is a fascinatingly fresh look at the history of Witchcraft in Europe.

Witches and Neighbours by Robin Briggs is published by Harper Collins at £25.00. ISBN 0 00 215844-2.

Rune Power by Kenneth Meadows is a comprehensive manual for reading the runes. Working your way through the many assignments you can easily develop the skills and knowledge needed to make the runes a part of daily life. And don't worry if you haven't got any runes, Kenneth Meadows tells you how to make them.

Rune Power by Kenneth Meadows is published by Element at £9.99. ISBN 1-85230-706-4.

Also worth a look.....