November/December 2004 to December 2008 – Salford Priors, Evesham & Churchdown – Oval & Orb Sightings
- Chairman Dave
- Jun 26
- 7 min read
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Year: 2015
Last Updated: 26/06/2025
Introduction
Lloyd Canning is an artist who regularly paints stunning pictures of UFO/UAPs, beings, space, multiple dimensions and other metaphysical concepts. He has attended numerous BUFOG meetings and regularly displays his artwork at conferences.
Lloyd does not believe that he has experienced contact directly, he feels that he draws these things because of his deep interest in the phenomenon. He has had numerous dreams where he has gone inside his paintings and they have “come to life” but believes these to be nothing more than dreams. While he has not experienced contact, he has had several UFO/UAP sightings over the years.
November/December 2004 - Silver Oval
In late 2004 Lloyd purchased a new van from a dealer in Reddich. On an evening in November or December he went to pick it up. His friend gave him a lift to the dealership in his car. It was about 6pm and they were on their return journey to Evesham. Due to the time of year the sun was setting, but there was still some light in the sky.
They were driving South West along the A46 somewhere between Salford Priors and Harvington, with Lloyd in his new van, and his friend following along behind in his car. It was very quiet and other than them there were no other drivers on the road nearby.
All of a sudden ahead and off to his right Lloyd realised there was a large object in air approaching the road. He was astounded to see a silver coloured oval/egg shaped object. It was huge, larger than a jumbo jet (250 feet), and appeared to be at very low altitude, no higher than 50 feet up.
He watched as the object flew directly towards him! It had a rounded front, no wings and had a curved reflective surface. It was moving fast and only took several seconds to reach him and pass over the roof of the van. He compared this to “like passing under a bridge”.
As it passed over he tried to scream but no noise came out. He happened to have the windows down and the stereo off at the time, and it was clear that there was no sound coming from this huge object.
After it had been lost from sight he wished he had pulled over to have a look for it heading away into the distance, but was in a state of shock so continued to drive. He did not stop the van to discuss the sighting with his friend, and before the journey was complete his friend left him to travel back to his own house.
Lloyd does not really know why he did not speak with his friend about what had happened at the time. But in early 2015 he finally spoke with him about the incident and asked him whether he saw anything from his car. His friend recalled seeing a small spherical object. Lloyd was deeply confused by this, as it was completely different to what he remembers seeing. However there were many other people present at the time so he did not stress the matter. He feels that his friend was trying to dismiss the sighting.
If we assume that Lloyd’s recollection of events is accurate, and that his friend was downplaying the appearance of the object, then what could it have been? It was clearly not a normal aircraft. It was the wrong shape and flying much too low. Aeroplanes only drop down to this altitude when they are about to land or just taking off. There are no airfields in the vicinity, so it could not have been this, and at that height it would have been clear that it was an aeroplane. Also the noise of the engines would have been audible as it passed overhead.
The object was moving much too quickly to be a silver coloured hot air balloon or other inflatable, so I feel this explanation can also be put out of the question. Besides these there is not really anything else mundane which would fit the description. Therefore it is certainly possible this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft.
November 2008 – Glowing Red Oval
One pleasant and still evening in November 2008 Lloyd drove to Morrisons in Evesham to use the ATM. After using the ATM he left the supermarket car park in his car and turned right onto The Link. This leads up to a roundabout with some orange street lights on. Due to the time of year the sun had already set and these lights were on.
In the distance over the buildings he saw a red glowing object in the sky. It was travelling on an Eastward course so moving from his left to right. The object was shaped like a lemon and pulsing with cherry red light. The pulsing coming from it was regular. It did not look like it was rotating.
The UFO appeared to be several thousand feet up and far away in the sky, meaning that it would have been quite large in size. On the far side of the island is Jewson Builders Merchants. Lloyd decided to pull up the car there and get out to have a better look at the object.
He watched it for about 8-10 seconds as it crossed the sky on a straight course. There was a couple talking nearby but they did not appear to have spotted it. Lloyd did not call over to alert them to its presence.
As the object began to move away from the area he decided to get back in the car and start driving after it to continue to watch it. He began by travelling North East along the A46. However the object appeared to have changed course and was now heading South East. Lloyd started driving along other roads after it, travelling between 60-80 mph. He drove all the way to Wickham Road in Studley, Reddich before losing sight of the object. It was clearly moving faster than him and was impossible to catch up.
The object was the wrong colour for a sky lantern. Lloyd says he has seen these before and this was different, it was bright red rather than amber orange. It could not have been a red coloured LED balloon because it was moving much too fast for this. It was a still evening, but even if it had been windy Lloyd would have been able to catch up with the object if it was drifting on an air current.
It seems unlikely that it was a distant aircraft. Although planes have red navigation lights, they also have white and green lights, which would also have been visible. Lloyd had plenty of time to observe the object, the white strobe light would have been more obvious than the red light. The sighting took place several years before drones became commercially available, and the distance the object clearly travelled puts this out of the question.
December 2008 – Orange Orbs
In mid-December 2008 Lloyd’s daughter was born prematurely at a hospital in Gloucester. Because of this Lloyd, his wife and son would regularly travel to and from Gloucester in the car. One night they were on their way back to Evesham. It was an overcast and rainy at the time.
They were driving North East East along the A40 heading towards the M5 motorway which would take them back North. Suddenly his wife exclaimed “Look, it’s a ball of fire!” Looking off to the left ahead of him, at the 10 o’clock position, Lloyd saw what his wife was looking at. He saw an orange orb of glowing light travelling on a straight course. It appeared to be about 1000 feet up. It was travelling towards them. After a number of seconds it passed overhead and was lost from sight.
Lloyd pulled the car up at a layby and got out to continue observing the object. His wife and son remained in the car. The orb continued to move away from their location, but in the distance came to a halt over the road.
As he watched the initial orb was joined by two others which came in from opposing angles and formed an upside down triangle formation. These two new orbs also then halted. Suddenly the initial orb appeared to duplicate and split into three separate orbs!
It was raining quite heavily and because of the rain running down the windows his wife and son could not see out very well. It was a little dangerous as the road was slippery and there were other vehicles passing. A couple of minutes after stopping his wife called out saying “Come on, let’s go!”
Lloyd decided to get back into the car, with the orbs still visible in the sky. They continued on their journey home. He does not know how long they remained in the area for. He does not believe the orbs were sky lanterns because of the structured triangular formations they formed, and the fact that the initial orb had split into three. However I am not so sure. It is possible that the initial orb was actually three clumped together, which then separated. And the even triangular formations seen could easily have been coincidental rather than deliberate.
Conclusions
Lloyd has had several varied sightings. I feel that the orange orbs seen over the A40 were likely to be sky lanterns, which were very popular back in 2008 and readily available. However the other two sightings are harder to explain and have some interesting aspects to them, especially the large silver coloured object which he saw in 2004.
I would like to thank Lloyd for going over these sightings with me and getting them down on record. I wish him all the best regarding his stunning art pieces going forward. If you would like to follow his work he can be found on Instragram @lloyd.canningart or Facebook.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025
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