Fresh claim of UFO sighting over Rossendale adds to decades old mystery

Is there anybody out there – and is there life on Mars?

The questions surrounding the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects have always fascinated people. Yet one East Lancashire area reputed as a favourite haunt of UFOs over the years has found itself at the centre of fresh claims of a ‘flying saucer’ sighting this week.

Rossendale is claimed to have attracted many strange lights and goings on over the years, earning a reputation among some for hosting a ‘UFO window’ in the 1970s. The Rossendale Valley was reported to have played host to no less than three UFO sightings between late 1978 and mid 1979, and is itself not far from Todmorden, just over the border in Yorkshire, believed by some to have been the site of an infamous UFO sighting in 1980.

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Now Bacup dad Mike Stoddart, 62, has added to the litany of mysterious goings on in the skies over Rossendale, after he says he saw a mysterious flying saucer like object hovering in the sky over Bacup on June 22. He told Lancs Live: “I saw it on Wednesday evening at just before 10pm. My wife and I came into the kitchen at about a quarter to ten to have a last drink before bed, and I just spotted this orange line in the sky.

“I had a look – I wasn’t sure what it was – I had three looks at it, and I got my phone and got a photograph. It was there probably for about a couple of minutes, then it just disappeared, went to the other side of the trees and vanished; it disappeared into thin air.

“From what I’ve heard, somebody saw it at about midnight at Pennine Road in Bacup, but when I zoomed in on the photo, it looked more like an Unidentified Flying Object with a dome at the top. I’ve heard of space objects – but I never realised I would see one in reality. “

The machine operator told Lancs Live; “We’re about a 30 minute walk from Todmorden, and that’s the angle it was coming from. I live just off Todmorden Road, near the Crown Pub.

“I suppose I was excited because it’s something different, and I started to believe in it. I would definitely say that from the image I’ve got, when I’ve seen the dome and the saucer bit at the bottom, it is that it is a flying saucer or a UFO.

“I think a lot of people won’t want to believe it because they haven’t seen it. They are known for being in Yorkshire, and at Todmorden, things have happened in Todmorden that are unexplained.”

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Fortean Times columnist David Clarke told us: “Rossendale Valley was known as a UFO window area during the 1970s and 80s. There was a spectacular sighting in the quarry there in 1979.”

According to reports, an alleged UFO was spotted in January 2009, when four or more moving bright solid orange lights were spotted in the Haslingden area, to be followed by another eight identical objects which rose over the valley and made no sound. A few weeks later, a blue and purple flashing flight was seen over the moor in Rossendale for around 40 minutes on February 6.

The Rossendale Valley had three UFO sightings between late 1978 and mid 1979, with one being said to be a light in the sky in November 1978 behind Lee Mill Quarry, followed by a ‘pulsing object’ being spotted four months later by the same observer, and an alleged ‘craft’ hovering in the sky in May 1979 just a few feet away from humans.

At the time, 67 year old observer Mike Sacks, said in the Rossendale Free Press: “We were sitting there and saw it, it was just amazing. There were lights shining from within it and there were these huge big jet black triangle things beneath it. It looked like it was 10,000 years ahead of anything we have.”

Just over the border in Todmorden, Yorkshire, an infamous claim by a retired police officer that he saw an alien aircraft continues to attract controversy to this day, according to the Mirror. Police officer Alan Godfrey claimed to have spotted a strange craft, followed by a bright flash and found himself 30 ft down the road in November 1980.

The former police officer said in 2020 that he later realised there were 25 minutes of ‘lost time,’ claiming to have seen aliens under subsequent hypnosis. Yet Lancashire itself is no stranger to strange goings on in its own skies.

Lancashire Constabulary reveals that last year, seven calls relating to UFO sightings were made to them, with one allegedly from a man who saw an alien in his kitchen, and another said to have involved ‘strange lights’ over Pendle Hill last April. Back in January 2004, witnesses claimed to have spotted a ‘ghost Lancaster bomber’ in the skies over Barnoldswick, claiming to have seen the low, phantom grey bomber emerging from mist by the Rolls Royce factory before vanishing.

In May 2021, a ‘cylindrical UFO’ was spotted in Cleveleys, while a ‘meteor UFO’ was seen in Blackburn and a person who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in February 2020, then saw ‘lights in the sky’ in November 2021. A ‘flying object’ was spotted in Chorley in June and a ‘hot air balloon fire burner’ sound was heard in the same area in September last year.

Blackpool is also a known hot spot for alien sightings, with residents reporting ‘alien brains’ underneath a pier in October 2021 and a flying object was pictured on the seafront in 2008.You can also use a special search tool, UFO Stalker, which is an interactive map, showing the most recent sightings anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, UFO-spotting data has revealed that Lancashire is the fourth most-likely place to come across alien activity in the UK, while Cumbria sits just inside the top 10 in ninth.

Yet UFO sightings, along with ghost stories and conspiracy theories, have abounded since time immemorial, and there is quite rightly, much scepticism surrounding all.. And as to whether Bacup, Rossendale, or indeed, nearby Todmorden, can lay claim to being Britain’s Roswell, the jury – along with the aliens, perhaps – is still very much out there.

A spokesperson for the National Association of Air Traffic Services (NATS), told Lancs Live: “We have no reports of anything other than normal flight operations at this time.” A spokesperson for BAE Systems Air said: “Having checked with our Flight Operations team based at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire, there were no flight operations which we were involved in taking place around this time on June 22.”

An MOD spokesperson said: “The MOD continues to have no opinion on the existence, or otherwise, of extra-terrestrials, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) and since 2009 no longer investigates sightings.”

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