487

MID-AUGUST 1977 - GOWERTON

Exact date in August not known - ignore '17' in date panel.

10 PM.

D.C. was a 9-year-old boy, out playing with two friends in Pen-Y-Dre, Gowerton.

"Apart from my daughter this is the first time I have spoken about this to anyone. It was during the school holidays and the evenings were light until pretty late. I was 9 years old. Myself and two friends (one has since died and I can't remember who the other one was) were taking turns in who was the quickest to ride a bike around the block (blue dots on the map).

It was late at night and the sky was dark and clear, full of stars with no moon visible. I remember this because the bike had no lights. It was my turn to ride the bike and on returning to the start I had my head down and was peddling furiously. I looked up and was astonished to see a large disc-shaped object with a bar of red and blue lights rotating left to right around the centre. I dropped the bike and stood and started to point to alert my friends. They also saw it in amazement.

The lights didn't appear overly bright but crystalline in appearance as if like through faceted glass. It seemed that the whole light assembly was rotating left to right, not just the lights. There was no sound and it was about 100 foot wide. It was low in the sky, just above the trees and the orange streetlight was reflecting off the dull silver underside. Like a brushed metal appearance not a chrome effect. The red and blue lights were reflecting off the leaves of the trees.

I ran to my house which was very close by to get a camera from my parents. There was no film in it and I was 'fobbed off' as being silly.....I ran back outside and it was still there. My two friends had moved closer and I joined them. We ran down the lane and across the road to the lane at the back of Pen-Y-Dre where there was a couple of stainless steel posts in the ground at the top of the steps. We stopped there and felt it was close enough.

The object started to rise up and move away over the fields to the south-west. It went up more than it moved away, probably 70 degrees in viewing angle. Its speed increased and within around 5 seconds it was lost from sight. The shape blocked out the stars."

Source: SUFON Files: Witness visit to SUFON meeting December 2017 and email 3 January 2018.