Birmingham UFO Group Report
Author: Dave Hodrien Originally forwarded from Richard Hall Release Date: 21/11/2010
Introduction
It is quite rare that BUFOG receives a case featuring ET beings outside of the context of alien abduction. Even when beings are seen, they are usually commonly reported species such as Greys or Nordics. However occasionally we hear of other unusual species being witnessed. This report covers an incident where two men encountered some strange hair-covered humanoid creatures. Now much older, Thomas (name changed for privacy reasons) decided to share the details of what he and his friend witnessed.
Incident Details
The incident took place in later summer 1978/79 when Thomas was only 20/21 years old. At the time he lived in North Kenton, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. From time to time he and his friend James would walk out to a field close to where they lived to go rabbiting. This field lay between Fawdon and Kenton Bank Foot. On the day of the incident, the weather conditions were ideal – clear and sunny – so the men decided to head out to the field with their hunting dogs.
They left home about 9.30am, and it took 20 minutes to reach the field. They headed across Hillsview School field, and then onward along a dirt track that lead to their destination. There was wheat covering the fields at the time. The men let the dogs loose, and got to work searching the field for rabbits. They spent the entire day and evening at the field.
Aerial map showing the location where the field used to be:
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Photograph of how the area looks today:
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It was between 10-11pm. The moon was just starting to rise in the sky, but was still quite low and large, providing quite a lot of light. After a long day the boys began their walk back home to the East. They were walking back along the dirt track, when suddenly they noticed some movement in one of the fields ahead of them and off to the left of the track. Stopping to take a proper look, they noticed two short figures. At first they thought it was some kids. They decided to scare them by lifting the dogs up, but soon realised that the figures did not appear to be human.
Photograph of where the dirt track used to be, taken from the location the witnesses were at in the direction they first saw the beings in:
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Photograph of the Tesco’s supermarket that now stands on the spot where the beings were first sighted:
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The beings reminded the boys of gorillas. They were broad and squat, with long forearms. They appeared to be covered in dark brown hair. They did not really have necks; their heads just came straight up out of the shoulders very similar to an ape. In fact they could have been mistaken for gorillas, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were wearing what appeared to be semi-luminous tight fitting white clothing! It was too dark to see their faces clearly.
Witness drawing of the two beings:
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The creatures were slowly moving across the field heading away from them in a North East direction. They walked similar to how an ape would, using their forearms as well as their legs. The witnesses stared at them for a couple of minutes. The beings approached a dead tree on a 10 foot high bank next to the Ponteland Branch train-line which cut across the fields. Suddenly one of them jumped about 30 feet in the air onto the tree. It grabbed hold of the tree with its right arm and swung around to face the men. They stared at the creature for a few seconds, but they were both un-nerved as it appeared to have noticed them.
Aerial map showing various locations involved with the incident:
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Photograph showing the bank of the old Ponteland Branch train-line (Now Tyneside Metro) where the old tree used to be located:
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James said “I don’t like the look of this!” He began to hurry along the track to the gate which lead to the school field. Thomas walked slower and continued to watch the beings as he did. The being jumped back down off the tree and rejoined the other. By this time Thomas was on the part of the track that led along the edge of the field where the beings were situated. The beings began to walk South heading across the field in the direction of the track. As they did they would occasionally stop and start rolling around in the wheat in a playful manner. They did not appear to be approaching Thomas intentionally.
Map drawn by the witness showing the original layout of the area, and the route the beings took in relation to him and James:
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A second map drawn by the witness shown on top of a modern map of the area:
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As Thomas reached the gate, he turned and looked one last time and could see that the beings were now close to the track where he had been. This was the last he saw of them. He caught up with James and they discussed what they had witnessed. When they arrived at Thomas’ house, his mother said they looked like they had seen a ghost. They decided not to tell her about the beings.
Later when James was back at his own house and in bed he heard a loud thump noise on his bedroom door. He was already un-nerved by what had happened earlier on, so was very frightened by this and could not go off to sleep.
The following day, Thomas asked James if he would like to return to the field to see if there was any trace of where the creatures had been, but he refused. Instead Thomas asked another friend to go along with him, and told him all about what they had seen. When they got out to the field they found the path of flattened wheat that the beings had left behind and also the areas where they had rolled around. Thomas told others what they had found but sadly did not take any photographs at the time.
Unfortunately Thomas lost touch with James some years ago, so unless he sees this report it is unlikely I will get to speak with him about the beings.
Incident Analysis
This is quite a bizarre story, but Thomas has nothing to gain through sharing the details of it, and I believe it took place as he described. The beings seen were very unusual. If they were extraterrestrial in nature, then no UFO was ever seen. The men had no way of knowing how they had arrived at the location they were at. Reports of hair covered ETs/beings are rare but there have been occasional cases reported.
Elsewhere on the BUFOG website you can read details of a sighting of a tall hair-covered humanoid that was seen in Michigan back in 2000. In his book “Alien Liaison”, Timothy Good also mentioned another case from Colorado where a family experienced UFO sightings, unusual electrical activity and beings covered in dark hair that were seen in the proximity of their property.
I do wonder if the beings were in fact two escaped gorillas, perhaps from a nearby circus. This would explain the unusual clothing they appeared to be wearing. However when I put this possibility to Thomas he said this would be extremely unlikely as the only site where such an event would have taken place would be on the town moor, which was a good 3 miles away from where the incident occurred and separated by several busy council estates.
This explanation also ignores the fact that one of the beings apparently leapt 30 feet in the air to grab hold of a tree. But could Thomas have been mistaken on this particular aspect of the incident? Maybe the tree was not as tall as it appeared to be. Maybe the being actually used the tree to clamber up very fast, which appeared like it had jumped. We must also take into account the fact that the tree was quite far away from their location.
It is great that Thomas returned to the field the following day with his friend, and the flattened crops could still be seen. It is a shame that he did not take any photos which could have been used as evidence for the presence of the beings, however such photographs could easily be hoaxed so would not really prove that much.
The identity of the two hair-covered beings remains an intriguing mystery. If any other witnesses come forward, their accounts will be added to this report.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010