BBC News, Wiltshire
BBCA 20m-long mural has been created to mark 60 years since a string of UFO sightings in a town.
The sightings, well-known among enthusiasts and locals, are known collectively as the “Warminster Thing” – and were accompanied by many strange sounds and experiences in the Wiltshire town in the 60s.
A community Facebook group raised £1,000 to fund the spray-painted artwork in a car park, which covers another mural about the UFO phenomena created 10 years ago.
Artist Paul Boswell included saucers, creatures and parts of the town where mysterious happenings occurred. Arthur Shuttlewood, a local journalist who documented the UFO experiences at the time, features prominently.
Mr Boswell grew up in this part of the world. “Being young in the 80s and 90s, it was a bit of a thing around this area,” he said.
“We used to go up on Clay Hill and do UFO spotting. We’d go up there and sleep out there all night expecting to be taken away by aliens, when we were 14.”
Lesley Blain helps to run the Heart of Warminster community group.
“The people of Warminster came up trumps,” she said. “They’ve been so generous and this is the result. It’s fantastic, we feel it belongs to the town.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the mural was carried out by Warminster’s mayor, councillor Andrew Cooper.
“I think whatever you do or don’t think about the folklore that lies behind it, things like this bind a community,” he said.
“It enriches a community, it gives it something that perhaps other people don’t have.”
Interest in the Warminster Thing has persisted since it became famous in the 60s – this month, there is a UFO conference scheduled in the town.
The conference organiser, Stuart Dike, has been following the progress of the mural.
He said people had approached him beside the wall, remembering the Thing.
“I think we’re going to get a combination of ufologists [to the conference] around the country but also people here from different generations that are very intrigued about the actual mystery that happened 60 years ago,” he said.
Speakers expected at the conference attended the mural unveiling, including John Hanson, a retired detective who has built up a large UFO archive.
“What’s vital is to record for posterity what people have seen,” he said. “It’s important because it’s part of our history.”
