THE existence of UFOs (or unidentified flying objects from another planet) is one of those topics that’s always likely to divide opinion – be it down the pub, at a dinner party or, increasingly these days, as comments to a story posted on the internet. Just like foxhunting, fluoridation or legalising cannabis, some believe and some don’t.

On the one hand, there are people who would quite happily admit to answering a knock on the door and finding little green men asking the way to Mars – and there are others who would just say they’d been drinking. But now the evidence might be stacking up one way or the other, because a call has gone out to pinpoint UFO sightings in Worcestershire.

It’s been made by two people with considerable experience in the field – or should that be the sky – and credentials that lend credence to their research.

John Hanson spent 30 years as a policeman, nearly half of that time as a detective, so he ought to be able to tell when a witness is being less than honest or making something up. For the last 16 years, since his retirement from West Midlands Police, he has been compiling information about UFO activity over the UK and published several books about it.

While others might spend their autumn years in the potting shed, on cruise ships or the golf course, John has been investigating whether there really is anything out there and now he wants you to join him.

It all began back in January 1995, when some of John’s police colleagues responded to a call at 6.40pm by a Birmingham doctor who claimed he had seen a UFO.

He explained: “When the doctor and the officers arrived at the scene, they were amazed to see a saucershaped object hovering above a nearby copse of trees, which then inexplicably disappeared from view.

“I was sufficiently curious to contact the British Astronomical Society and ask them if they had any reports of fireballs. When I described what had taken place they sent a hand-written postcard, warning me not to get involved in crackpot UFO organisations.

“I was amazed to be treated in such an unprofessional manner and decided to conduct my own research. I believed there must be a rational answer for what had been seen. However, I was to discover others had also seen a similar object, which they described as ‘D’ shaped, following the contours of the land in Oxfordshire at 6.37pm – three minutes before it appeared over Birmingham “The popularity at the time of the X Files television programme – now very much a cult series and still being shown – created a glut of books dedicated to the UFO subject, fuelled by their author’s desire to convince the reader that UFOs were extra-terrestrial in nature.

However, I was dissatisfied with the claims made by these books, which were often accompanied by garish drawings of aliens involved in abduction experiments on the human subject, and decided to conduct my own research into the subject. I wondered if there was any real truth to such reports or could it all be explained away rationally? At about this time I met Dawn Holloway and she agreed to assist me.”

In the last 15 years, they have met many people, including RAF pilots, police officers and ordinary members of the public, who described to them some spectacular sightings of inexplicable objects seen moving across our skies.

John said: “We also met many researchers with impressive scientific backgrounds, who, like us, had no fixed views on what these things were or where they came from, just that they appeared to exist.

“We decided to catalogue the immense amount of material we had accrued over the years and write what we hope will be judged as a unique set of encyclopedias, chronicling day-by-day activity of UFOs, which has taken place in and around the skies of the UK since 1940. So far, we have written and published four volumes. The fifth, which covers the period 1972- 1976, is in the process of being sent to our publisher.”

John points out that neither he nor Ms Holloway have made any money out of their books and don’t expect to.

“It has cost us a great deal to get them into the public domain,” he said. “Libraries are now beginning to stock them as reference sources for UFOs and we believe the public should have the opportunity of knowing just how prolific UFO activity has been during the later part of the 20th century. What they make of it is up to them.”

Anyone with evidence of UFO activity can e-mail Mr Hanson and Ms Holloway, who live in Alvechurch, near Bromsgrove, at johndawn1@sky.com.

Strange sitings

A UFO sighting over the Malvern Hills at 1.30am on May 9, 1952, by “two un-named members of the scientific community” based at what was then called the Radar Research Establishment. Their witness statement said: “Suddenly, about 30 degrees to our left, appeared a circular object consisting of an inner circle, about seven feet in diameter, with a halo ten yards in diameter, both emitting a weird green phosphorescent glow, at a height of some 2,500 feet.

“It was travelling in a south-east direction, at a speed we estimated to be 600mph, just above cloud cover, one mile east of the Malvern Hills, parallel to the Earth’s surface.

“When it reached a point of 30 degrees to our right, it vanished. We felt its movements suggested some sort of controlling force. It was not a flare, distress signal, or aircraft.”

A UFO over Worcester at 11pm on May 28, 1974, seen by Margaret Webb, a member of Worcestershire-based UFO group Sky Scan, who was in the back garden of her home in Comer Road, Worcester. She said: “I was looking up into the clear night sky, noting the various constellations when I noticed what looked like a mass of stars grouped in a triangular shape, with a bright centre hazy at the edges crossing the night sky, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the night sky.”

Another UFO sighting over Worcester in 1975. Trevor Jones, of St John’s, said: “I opened the window to look out and was astonished to see one of the strangest ‘craft’ I had ever seen in my life slowly moving through the night sky, just above rooftop level.

“The exterior appeared solid and was a dark brown rusty colour, showing a distinct circle of white lights constantly changing in colour from white, yellow, red, orange, to purple, on its underside.

“The main ‘body’ of the craft had a flat end curling inwards. Within a few minutes, the whole of the ‘craft’ became transparent, although the outer edge could still be seen before it became lost from view as it headed over the town.”

John Hanson and Dawn Holloway pictured with two of the four volumes that they have written and published. A fifth volume, which covers the period 1972-1976, is in the process of being sent to the publisher.