ESSEX
If you have information regarding a sighting listed here, or if you would like to send in the details of your own sighting, please email us on sightings@eaufo.co.uk.
Please note that all of the sightings below have been sent in by viewers of this site, and accuracy cannot be guaranteed. As the group and site matures, we intend to form a sub group to try and assess the items for likelihood of being genuine before uploading to the site.
Stansted
In November or December 1988 my mother and I were driving south on the M11 having visited family in Cambridgeshire. We spotted 6 lights in the sky near Duxford Airfield and they seemed to follow us along the M11. As it was a late winter‘s afternoon it soon got dark and we lost sight of the lights. When we first saw the objects they were clustered together but were moving around. They certainly looked unusual which is why we kept an eye on them.
We then went on the M25 and onto the A127 towards Southend when the lights suddenly appeared again over our car. They were so low that we actually pulled over onto the hard shoulder (I think around Basildon) to take a closer look.
When we pulled over the other cars did not stop and did not seem to notice. We did get the sense that the objects were following us. When we pulled over to the side of the A127 and went to the edge of the field they started moving in the circular formation over and above us. We saw 6 spinning discs with lights on the edges moving over us in a circular formation. They made no noise whatsoever and after what seemed like a few minutes they whizzed off into the sky at an impossible speed. When the objects disappeared we got back in the car and drove away.
I would say the saucers were silver–grey in colour and as far as I can remember the lights underneath were multicoloured. We didn‘t notice any delay in time when we arrived home in Southend.
I can‘t remember the exact date but I would be very grateful if you have any record of this in your files. My mother later told me that the sighting had been reported in a paper such as the Yellow Advertiser or the Standard Recorder which apparently said Basildon was "a window in the sky".
I would love to know more about what we saw and if anyone else saw anything that night.
I would say they most resembled F9 or G7 – they seemed to be flat underneath.
Stansted
In November last year at around 7:30pm I was travelling home from a trip out to Bishops Stortford together with my two children aged 10 and 16. We was turning right on the Stansted roundabout to travel south on the M11 going home. While entering the left hand lane of the slip road, I noticed the hovering object and pointed it out to my children. It was totally motionless and was dark gun metal coloured dart shaped object just 60–70 feet into a field beside the slip road around the height of a house, maybe a bit more off the ground.
My children and I quickly tried to work out what it was and said it cannot be a plane because it [was] stationary and horizontal. It just appeared to hang there. There was 5–6 cars on the slip road and they all slowed down and everyone was cranking their heads to see whatever it was. However, nobody stopped, possibly because it was a busy road and was unsafe to do so.
My youngest daughter was not too interested as the I–pad had more of an interest, but my eldest at sixteen was along with me quite shocked. At seeing this object which was about the size of 2–3 tennis courts. We don't recall any sound, but the car windows were closed and the radio was on, so that may not be surprising. Although it was dart shaped, two side elevations were longer that what may have been the back. About half way down the two long sides (possibly slightly toward the pointed end, the surface had a convex cutaway in the object, with the complete what I took to be the rear part as one large convex area. The pointed end was facing north.
We were looking at it almost side on, so could see some of the top and the bottom, but as we went down the slip road, more of the bottom came into view. The underside which had a slight belly a bit like the bottom of a boat and had a large round bluish white and very bright light which glowed blue and could be seen at the top in the same place. In each corner was what looked like electric blue swirling lights coming down from the object. They looked a bit like giant spinning lampshades.
I looked in the rear view mirror and kept an eye on it for just under a mile. I can't recall what the rear of the object looked like.
Epping
A big orange/red oval ball of light that just hovered, was too big of a light to be a lantern, it was quite far away from me which is what made it catch my eye as it was so big, but I was watching it for around a 40 seconds and it just disappeared but left a cloudy line behind where it had been, I did not see it actually go anywhere but the light literally just disappeared!!! The cloudy line stayed for around 5 mins which I kept staring at until that also disappeared!!! No photo as it all happened so quick and the cloudy line would not show on my phone .
Colchester
I had taken my dog out to the garden and was looking up at the sky as it was so clear and full of stars. I noticed a dark triangle shape flying over the house opposite; there was no sound or lights even though it was flying at speed. It was darker than the sky and I saw it very clearly. Been puzzled by it since.
Colchester
Sitting out in garden looking at the stars as usual and we saw two round objects glide past each other in opposite directions, flying very slowly. Now we see many planes in Colchester but they have flashing lights. These objects were definitely not planes or satellites.
Clacton-on-Sea
"Me and My son was watching the fireworks go up at Clacton Pier from my flat which is on the top floor. When suddenly a Green Light orb appeared and moved slowly then quickly across the evening sky. It then paused and moved quickly back an forth and slowed down again."
Source: UFO Sightings
Blackmore
"A bright light sped across the sky in varying directions, a star appeared to glitch and move out of its way. There was then another bright light and it was all over. It was neither a shooting star or a plane, as it was one insanely bright light, no flashing lights, no other colours and it was rapid."
Gants Hill
"Strange pulsating red light crossing the moon in the east at some distance away, probably near Romford. It was around 5% the size of the moon, it did not seem like a plane as there wasn't a blinking light or a white light – moved slowly northwards."
Witham
"I was looking out my window at the morning sky when I saw a small light in the distance. I knew it wasn't a star, because it was too light outside for them, and it was too bright and too big a light to be a plane or helicopter. Within the next 10 minutes, it gradually got closer to me in the sky. Eventually when it was almost right above me I could see it more clearly, it was flying extremely low, and was circular in shape. It was pitch black, but had a couple of flashing green and red light all around it. The area of sky around it was also distorted and hard to see. I don't know if anyone else would have been awake at that point to have seen it."
Burnham-on-Crouch
"Whilst walking home a large fierce ball of flame slowly came towards me high in the sky.
It then stopped and turned towards the coast and slowly disappeared. I assumed this to be a Chinese lantern of which I had heard sightings of, but I thought I would report it anyway. Took 5 to 10 minutes for the whole episode from the time I spotted it, came towards me from the direction of Clacton to burnham on crouch marshes. Mentioning it in case anybody else saw it."
Colchester
"A stack formation of 6 to 8 white orbs rotating around each other, appox at 1 o clock in the sky under clear blue sky. No sound no vapour trail. After reaching for my smart phone I filmed, managed to capture two or more objects which broke formation? It was soon obvious that it was aware of me filming it. This location was near Fordham heath."
Epping
"A big orange/red oval ball of light that just hovered, was too big of a light to be a lantern, it was quite far away from me which is what made it catch my eye as it was so big, but I was watching it for around a 40 seconds and it just disappeared but left a cloudy line behind where it had been."
Billericay
"Driving home from work it was still daylight when I noticed what I assumed was a Chinese lantern floating in the distance directly in front of me. It was quite a way off and very high but clearly a Chinese lantern but I kept watching it as I thought it was odd to have let a Chinese lantern off during the day, on such a clear day too, then it changed from an orange/yellow flame colour to bright red in a flash then within a second of changing colour it shot off to my left covering a very long distance in a second and went behind a cloud which lit up red also. Someone else must have seen this.. it was very likely between billericay and basildon."
Ingatestone
"Then the cloud lit up with rotating lights, I could only see the colours rotating, nothing else, then three or more small round discs dropped below the cloud, and then quickly returned to the cloud as if they didn't want to be seen. The cloud then, disappeared leaving a clear blue sky again."
"I did report this incident to the Essex UFO society at he time."
Basildon
"Low flying Craft, rounded off square shape. 4 lights which flashed red in sequence."
Clacton–on–sea
"A bright orange star shape in the sky it moved very fast but not in a straight line and fast one minute it was there then it just disappeared. I know it wasn't an airplane."
Basildon
"A bright light moved slowly though the sky for around 4 seconds, and then speed up and zigzagged away in all directions ultra fast, weird for it to be so bright when the suns was out hardly any clouds."
Gt Bromley
"Saw a steady white light from bedroom window moving from East to North in a slightly staggered movement at about helicopter height. We often have helicopters flying around us as Wattisham base is not far away. This was definitely not helicopter and very strange as the light was highly visible going away."
Aveley
"About 50ft from the ground and less then 50yds away we both saw a large Florissant green cigar shaped craft."
Gossford Hall
"I noticed a small bright orange shaped light hovering over the horizon toward the direction of Stanstead airport. The light caught my eye as it was moving in a completely unusual way exactly the way I had seen purported UFO footage."
Brentwood
"I see a very large triangular object come in to view of the window. The object came from the east moving no faster than a aircraft then changed direction an headed south at a speed I can only describe as incredible."
Upminster
"On this occasion I spotted a bright white light in the sky (east of my location) appeared to be a ball / bean / kidney shaped light and was much brighter than an aircraft or satellite or the ISS."
Finchingfield
"I was just about to go to bed, looked out to back garden, mainly to see if there was a frost, and I noticed something circular hovering high up above the clouds, with red and white lights flashing off and on."
Langdon Hills, Basildon
"As I nonchalantly gazed out of the window, a very bright circular ball shape suddenly came into view from the right of my window. It remained completely motionless, very clear and above the tree line, for approximately one minute."
Thorpe Bay
I was on my laptop by the window when out the corner of my eye I could see a really bright light in the sky shining through my curtain. I looked out my window and thought it was a star burning up as it was stuck in one place in the sky but then it started to drift across the night sky with a couple of flicking red lights behind it. The main source of light was the bright white light, which occasionally dimmed, but it was definitely too bright to be an airplane, when I later spotted an airplane to compare it too. The bright light then drifted out of my view past some houses.
Pitsea
I was cycling to work early morning, and thought I could see a shooting star shoot fast across the sky in the direction of Basildon Industrial Estate. It then seem to reappear and come back and shot upwards with another one behind. They seemed to have trails behind them and the way they moved made me thing they weren't shooting stars. Don't know what this was!
Colchester
"I have seen, on most nights, over shrub end, gospeck perks road area, a white light, it looks like a star, this happens at around 4.30 to 5.30pm every night, most nights, there are four of them."
Essex
I was out walking my dog and was shocked to see a group of about ten bright flashing lights in the sky. I watched these for a while and then noticed another smaller group behind them. I watched them for maybe 5 minutes and they shot off together in a southerly direction. Did anyone else see this?
Harwich
I couldn't get to sleep and i lay on my bed staring out of my bedroom window and i saw a hazy orange light out the window, at first it looked a bit like a Chinese lantern but as i concentrated on it more i could make out a pair of green and red lights flashing bleep bleep and it was just hovering there (there wasn't whirring sound so it wasn't a helicopter) and all of a sudden it vertically went up around 25m off ground and over my house and as it did make out a teardrop shaped UFO.
South Woodham Ferrers
I was watching Perseid's meteor shower when a friend and I saw a really bright light. We thought it was just an extra bright star so we thought nothing of it. We carried on looking out for more meteors when all of a sudden the bright light we had just seen, started moving at a steady pace, until it reached the middle of the sky. There were no flashing lights with it so couldn't have been an aircraft, it made no noise and was going far too slow to be a meteor, it left no tail. It then started fading until it had completely disappeared. What was it?