“I was walking down Beveridge Lane, Barden, on the night of 16^th., July, at approximately 12.25 a.m., my car had run out of petrol just after the humped-backed bridge, and I had decided to fetch some petrol from a garage in Ellistown. As I approached the bottom of the lane, I saw a man walking towards me. He was very tall, at least 6 or 8 inches taller than me - (I’m 6’ 2”). It was very rainy at the time, but the man I saw wasn’t wearing any coat, only a polo-neck jumper. I only glanced at his face, but it seemed to be very pale, and he had high cheekbones and almost no lips - his hair was long and dark. I walked further down the lane until I came to South pit entrance, and there I looked into fields on the left - hand side, and saw what looked like a searchlight beam on top of a hump, shining straight up into the clouds. I could see no detail, only a dark hump with this light on top, but the hump looked curved and smooth.”

In Mr. W’s statement, it can be seen that his car faltered and stopped. Looking at his instruments, the witness saw that his fuel tank was registering empty, so removing an empty oil can from the boot of his car, he set off to walk approximately one mile down Beveridge Lane to a nearby garage where he knew he could wake the owner for some petrol. After leaving his car, and walking for approximately 400 yards, the witness glanced at his watch, and to his amazement, he found that it had stopped at approximately 12.25 a.m., although he knew that it was alright around 4 hours earlier, when he was inside the ‘Flying Horse Inn’, as he had corrected the time via his friend’s watch at that point.

Walking on, the witness passed the gentleman mentioned in the report, although no evidence supports the fact that Mr. W feels sure that this man was somehow connected with the black, humped object in the field he was about to see further down the lane. (See Note 1).

After passing South Leicester Colliery Coal Clearance Plant, Mr. W saw the black humped object in the field. (See Note 2).

Later, he acquired petrol, but felt afraid to go back down the lane, preferring instead to walk 3 miles to his grandparent’s house in Bagworth where he stayed overnight.

On returning to his car the next morning, the witness got in and, to his amazement, saw that his petrol gauge now registered a quarter full tank of petrol. On turning the ignition key, the car started satisfactorily, and continued to perform normally all the way to his home. (See Note 3).

The strange gentleman mentioned resembled quite closely, both in dress and stature, a person described to us by an off-duty Police Woman. The W.P.C. informed us that in the farming district of Market Bosworth, a man had been seen wandering around at night dressed only in a polo-neck jumper and slacks. He is described as very tall, and when approached and addressed, completely ignored the speaker and stared fixedly as though looking through them, before wandering off without a word or making any acknowledgement.

A close examination was made of the reported field where the black object was reported as being. No crop damage, discolouration or flattening, was found. A further fact finding visit to the area failed to produce any physical evidence or any further witnesses claiming to have also seen the object. However, the field is in a sunken fold in the countryside due to extensive coal mining from both South Leicester Colliery and Ellistown Colliery and visibility from Ellistown Village would be limited.

A brief check carried out by myself, leads me to believe that the stopping of the car was far from externally governed. The vehicle had apparently been standing for some days prior to the incident, and had been difficult to start on the morning of the 16^th. It is possible therefore, for a car to stop and refuse to start, after only a brief drive. This is usually caused by a faulty earth circuit, or a high resistance of the type mentioned, was present. In fact, Mr. W’s slowing down for the narrow hump-backed bridge, on Beveridge Lane, may have been all that was required to stop the car’s engine. My findings on the matter therefore, are that It could all have been be a series of coincidences, that caused these particular events.

After taking into consideration the apparent lack of physical evidence, I conclude that although we are here certainly dealing with a very real incident, it was not on this occasion, in my opinion, as first assumed by the witness, a close encounter with unknown agencies etc.

　 Left: The strange tall ‘man’, and the ’hump’ on the ground with light-beam - (Drawings by Investigator).

Below: UFODNA Global data - July 16^th., 1980.