G.Marsden Sighting
...as reported to Uranus...
A FLURRY OF ACTIVITY
There have been five reports of UFO sightings within an area of Wigan in Lancashire. All sightings were claimed during a period of ten days commencing 11th June and after a long wait, five years in fact, your humble editor can claim to be a witness. However, this particular incident together with three others pales into insignificance beside the observation of Mr.G.Marsden of Chorley near Wigan. Mr.Marsden is an astronomer of many years standing and is a member of several societies including the Lunar and Planetary Observers of New Mexico. Here is an abbreviated version of Mr.Marsden's own story.
"I took my 10 year old son cycling on Saturday afternoon (15th June, ed.) and we sat on a grass verge near Mawdesley for a rest. Presently I observed a point of light. The time was six minutes past six in the evening and the object was moving in a West North Westerly direction, its speed I estimated to be 500 - 600 mph and the altitude at 6-7,000 ft. The craft itself I estimated to be some 25 ft in diameter and it was silver in colour but with a bluish tint. The sky was clear and visibility was very good; I observed it for 12 seconds in horizontal flight until it whisked vertically upwards for a period of some 15 seconds; it passed out of sight. I checked the wind velocity and judged it to be of force four which more or less ruled out the possibility of it being a balloon. The only planetary body it resembled is Saturn which wouldn't have been visible for another 5 hours and then would have been in exactly the opposite direction."
Mr.Marsden went on to say that this was in the form of a public "confession" for him because during the many astronomical lectures he has given, whenever he has been asked about Flying Saucers he has always said that he thought them "somewhat absurd"...
Your ed. hopes to obtain a tape recorded interview with Mr.Marsden and it is intended that a copy of this should be forwarded to the Air Ministry in London. They (used to) inform visitors at the A.M. that they investigated personal reports only and not "second hand" accounts. Well nothing can be more "first hand" than a tape recording. Frequent letters of enquiry from your editor and others have remained unanswered yet the A.M. deign to reissue the statement that what people are really seeing are "balloons", meteors et al; this is rather like giving Diana Dors a lecture on the "Birds and the bees". This particular statement appeared in a prominent daily newspaper but the same newspaper refused to publish an article or even a small paragraph giving a few small truths of the matter. The press in England is not censored but their staffs include science editors who have friends in the "right places" and with a knowledge of the methods employed in official departments, these reporters know only too well the official viewpoint on the subject of Flying Saucers. No... the press is not censored.....
From Uranus Vol.4 No.1, August 1957