We had put the child we were looking after to bed, completed the daily paperwork and done the usual household chores such as cleaning the bath, vacuuming and washing the floors, my shift partner Maria was making our last drink before we retired to bed for the night and I slipped outside the back door to have a cigarette.

The house being located in the middle of farmland and miles away from any street lighting is always very dark, but because there is no artificial glow usually seen over towns and villages it is a great place to watch the stars and anything else that may be flying around above. It is part of a military fly zone and we were used to A-10 tank busters, F-18 fighters and Hercules transport planes passing us at heights where you can actually wave to the pilot, but at night these sorties were limited and if they did fly over in the dark then it was all over in a matter of seconds and at a much higher altitude.

As I stood outside having my cigarette I looked up towards the NNE direction and became aware of a light moving about, normally lights like this would not gain much attention as locals do what is known as 'Lamping', they drive around the fields on 4x4 vehicles armed with powerful spotlights and shotguns and they shoot Rabbits and Foxes, and I imagine the odd Deer if it gets in their powerful headlights.

This light was different though, it moved too fast and in a pattern, it was much higher than I would have expected to see a vehicle light, and appeared to change colour. I know light can appear to change colour if distorted in mist or haze, but this was more of a bright defined colour similar to an aircraft navigation light. It was also where there are no roads.

I pointed it out to Maria when she brought my hot drink outside, and we stood there watching this object follow the same pattern over and over, it followed the shape of a crucifix, we joked as it moved saying 'father, son. holy ghost' as it reminded us of the actions of a priest. The area is hilly, we were sat in a sort of valley, there was a big one directly behind us, but neither of us could remember a high hill in that direction that could explain it being a vehicle, and as I said it was moving in this pattern too fast for it to be a 4x4 or people on foot on a hill and appeared far too high in the sky. It would slowly drop down the centre axis of the † shape, then back up to the top, dropping a little before moving side to side across the cross axis, after going to the extremes of the cross axis it would return back to the centre and rise to the top point briefly pausing before it started the pattern over again.

We watched this object for about a hour and a half, by then we were totally convinced that it was not a hovering Police helicopter or an  Air Ambulance in the distance and sure it wasn't a military helicopter or aeroplane on manoeuvres. But before we returned into the house to retire I lined up several large stones on the ground so that in the daylight we could look in exactly the same direction.

First thing in the morning I rechecked the angle and was amazed not to find a hill in direct line with the end of the stones, whatever we saw would have been flying quite high, and maybe even more distant than we first estimated.

I can not say this was a space ship, I can not say what is was at all, just a light that changed colour and continuously followed the same pattern in the air for a considerable time. We observed it for about an hour and a half before going back inside at approximately 00:15, it wasn't there the next night nor did we ever see it there again.

But what exactly was it?  

This sighting in about 2004 was made not by myself but by a former work colleague from a previous job, a colleague that I can honestly say who is not an excitable person, not known for making up stories, nor a drinker or user of drugs.

Ken lived in Borfa Green, an estate built on the side of a hill about 20 minutes walk from town, on the night it happened he decided to go into town to the Spar shop to purchase some groceries and a paper. On his return as he approached his front door he noticed to his left flashing lights which appeared to rise over the brow of the hill. The location of his house is quite high and there is not a lot in the direction which he observed this, only a small lake behind the school and sports centre then open fields passing over the canal, the next obstacle beyond that is long mountain which is perhaps a further 2 miles beyond.

Being so surprised at what he saw he wanted to get confirmation, so he walked to his neighbours door and knocked, but unfortunately by the time the neighbour answered the door the object had gone. He described it as being a large shape with many lights along its middle, silent and at first just hovering. It was reported to the Police, and a report appeared in the local paper the County Times.

A motorist travelling from Welshpool towards the border saw a light in the sky and a resident close by saw something hover in the sky at the same time. The sighting came at the same time as a tree fell across the A.458 which closed the main road for over an hour, breaking a telephone pole in half and damaging cables.

The motorist said:

“I was travelling along the road from Welshpool and before we got to Middletown we were aware of a light moving above us which seemed very strange. We are sure the car in front was aware of it too because it was breaking a lot and driving slowly. My son’s girlfriend was driving a few cars behind so we rang her to see whether she had seen it and were shocked when she had seen it, a tree had fallen across the road. She was stuck for some time.”

The motorist said the light continued to follow them as they drove through the border villages and the story matches a similar sighting of an unexplained light by the resident who told us that she saw it above her house for “ages”.

“It was like something from Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” she said.

There was another report of a sighting at Halfway House, where the 'Light' hovered over the residents house.

Another motorist travelling along the A458 the other side of Welshpool and heading for Llanfair Caereinion witnessed a light shoot across the road near the Golfa Bank. She stopped her car to look.

“At around 8pm, my son and I drove up the Golfa bank and near the top I noticed a bright white light pass in front of us. I said ‘did you see that?’ and my son laughed and said yes. I thought I was seeing things. It appeared to land in a field on our right so we slowed down to see but couldn’t see anything so we continued home. I looked on Facebook to see if anyone else had seen anything. It was really unexplainable so I wasn’t surprised to read that other people saw something that night too”.

A Newtown resident 15 miles to the south also saw something from her home shortly after 8pm.

If you take a look at the area using Google Earth, [ 52° 43'34.61" N 3° 03' 15.36" W ] or type in 'Criggion' then zoom in, you can see the many unusual buildings surrounding the three main old communications buildings, scattered around in the fields are various 'odd' shapes, vents, machinery and fenced off areas. I'm sure these do not belong to the working quarry next door, because if you pulled up in your car you would find another car appears almost instantly nearby, you are watched very carefully,

perhaps too carefully for a supposedly 'Closed' base.

"UFOs over Powys. 'it looked more like a start wars battle scene than the hills of Montgomeryshire' "

It was relating to yet another episode of bizarre animal deaths in Powys, especially in the Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire areas. This has happened on many occasions now over the years in this area, Sheep and Cattle found dead in fields with unexplainable 'Surgical style' injuries, Brains and other organs including eyes have been removed through holes made with surgical precision.

Animal mutilations have been reported before on a worldwide basis yet not as frequent as in this area, the organs removed have no 'scientific value' and are not a 'Delicacy', they are widely available from abattoirs and even from the local Butcher, so poaching etc has been ruled out.

Phil Hoyle created an 'Animal Pathology Field Unit' in 2001 to investigate such animal mutilations which are believed to be the work of visiting UFO's. Over the Easter weekend the 15 unit members undertook a night time observation overlooking Radnorshire Forest following the multiple recent sightings of Red and Orange Globes which at first were explained as 'Chinese Lanterns', they were to witness events as below.

Just after 10pm a bright 'Burnt Red' light was spotted hanging over an isolated ravine in the area known as New Radnor, near to the Radnorshire Forest. At first they thought the light was from an isolated farm house, but it soon became obvious that the light was floating and that it was not alone, an identical red light appeared a quarter of a mile away.

The lights kept changing shape, emitted beams of light and discharging other smaller spheres that covered large distances very quickly. They also emitted beams of light and appeared to be searching the ground as if looking for something. During this sighting, beams of light appeared to fire from within the forest at the spheres yet the team were unable to discern where or what these were coming from, it was stated that it looked more like a scene from a star wars battle.

The two larger lights disappeared from the valley and re-appeared behind the teams camp, then a narrow intense white beam of light passed down the hill. The team states that 'These were definitely not Chinese lanterns and did not conform to any known conventional manifestation' , eg they were not Helicopters, Aeroplanes, weather balloons or natural occurrences such as lightning.

UFO's appear to 'roam' a specific 50 mile corridor between Shrewsbury and Powys, and have also been noted on Dartmoor and around the Forest of Dean.