HRPI Interview Kevin Goodman:
Kevin Goodman is the author of UFO Warminster: Cradle of Contact. This book chronicles the events he and his friends experienced in the town during the mid-1970s. Kevin has a more open mind on the Warminster mystery.
Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us. Not the most original of questions to begin with, but how did you get involved in ufology?
Well, that’s an easy one to answer. I was a "Boomer" child, a child of the late 50s. I had always been interested in Space and the exploration of space, from an early age. It was a natural progression I think, to move into UFOs. I remember clearly the nightly news programmes from 1967, when the
I began to read any books I could on the subject, and it was around 1973 that Tandem Books began reprinting a lot of the old Neville Spearman books from the 1960s. Books were coming out on a monthly basis and books such as "Flying Saucers are hostile!" and "The flying saucer story mention a town named Warminster. I mistakenly thought that it was somewhere in the
On the cover were the immortal words: "Dramatic UFO sightings in
Who was the most influential to you when you were starting out?
I don't think there was one individual person, per se. The first book I read was Eric Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods", much to the dismay of my mother and father, who were devout Roman Catholics. I think they wondered if I was being corrupted.
But it was my father, strangely enough, who gave me my first UFO book, "The UFO Reader" by Jay David, around 1970. Books by such luminaries as Brinsley Le Poer Trench, Brad Stieger were my staple diet for many years.
The TV producer, Gerry Anderson made a series in 1970 entitled "UFO" and that, I think, really started my life long interest. But if I was to be pressed on this probably good old Arthur Shuttlewood a gent who always had time for young sky watchers.
Can you tell us about your book UFO Warminster Cradle of Contact?
Cradle of contact was described by one reviewer as "A non fiction Catcher in the rye written by Adamski. It's a rite of passage book, in some respects. It tells of our experiences in Warminster at the tail end of the enigma in the mid 1970s. We saw and experienced some really weird things there. It's also the story of our "alleged" contacts, which followed on from some of the weird things we saw... It's not my way to promote the book in this way, as I don't want to fall into the trap of being accused of self promotion. Arthur Shuttlewood was a great exponent of this, as I have on tape, a lecture he gave early in the 1970s. Every second sentence he tells of "his new book, out next month"
The book has been a very personal project for me, as anyone who has read it will know.
I'd like to add here that I'm not in this for money, or personal gain. Warminster played a very important part in my life, and I just feel so angry that a major event in UK Ufology, if not World Ufology has been side lined for so many years.
After all the hills around the town still, to this day, draw people back there
Most eye witnesses described seeing a seething ball of light in the sky, could this have been some sort of weather phenomena?
Quite possibly Ball lighting, Earthlights are common events. I have to say though I do hate the acronym "UFO". It does tend to bring to mind the more eccentric researchers. I do prefer "UAP", which stands for Unidentified Arial Phenomenon. People are more savvier these days.
Warminster happened at the dawn of mass air transportation, and the space age. Allied with the clean air bill of the late 1950s, the sky was clearer, and more night time lights were seen, which was a new thing for most people. Also the cold war was at its height, and I do think that the youth of the day were looking to the skies for some kind of salvation or answer. And, just a couple of years later, it was all peace and love, with the hippy movement embracing UFO mythology.
Could the army at the near by
Quite possibly. Although I do have to say that the two sightings I had in the town were not any form of manmade aircraft. And, any secret weapons that were being tested would be quite frankly old hat now! Take the stealth bomber for example. I saw that plane a couple of years ago, when it was being flown at the Farnborough Air show the plane was a small dot in the sky as it turned overhead, but the noise!. The ground shook. So, although it’s supposed to be invisible to radar, the enemy can hear the bloody thing coming!
My point is this though, is this. One of the sightings we had was at night, with four red lights, the same distance apart, performing 90* turns, in complete silence. There is no way that any man made plane could do that, and if it could, it would have seen service by now.
Do you believe Gordon Faulkner’s UFO photographs to be real or do you believe Roger Hooton when he said they faked it all by building a toy flying-saucer?
Now this is a thorny subject! Gordon did say some years later that it was indeed a hoax, to see how gullible a certain person was. Then, some time later, he retracted his story, and now claims it is, in fact genuine. Roger Hooton contacted the website a while ago, and Steve Dewey fired off a whole raft of questions to Hooton.
He still has to reply! But, the photograph is the iconic image of the "Warminster Thing" Steve is the guy with the knowledge on that one. It's one of those stories where you believe one person and not the other. I sit on the fence on this one. Although, as a photographer myself, it is interesting that the actual shot is so enlarged that the grain of the film emulsion is clearly visible, and there are no reference points for scale. so, as a UFO photograph, sadly it is worthless in my opinion. But if it is not genuine, it did fool a lot of people.
Did this discredit the whole story afterwards?
Not the breaking news of the hoax, no. This happened in the late 70s, when things had quietened down in the town. Warminster has been sadly neglected by the majority of researchers, for what reasons I have no idea. Some of the "big hitters" in the modern field of UK Ufology actually cut their teeth in Warminster during the late 60s and early 70s.
a personal opinion here is that Warminster is actually an embarrassment to Ufology, why, I don't know, Warminster was driven by one man alone, Arthur Shuttlewood. He basically kept the enigma in the public eye for nigh on 15 years, and when he retired from Ufology, in the early 1980s, due to poor health, Warminster began to slide into obscurity.
So what did happen in Warminster in your opinion?
Warminster was very much a product of its time. Steve Dewey and John Ries have re-looked at the whole phenomenon in their excellent book, "In alien heat". They conclude it was a social/cultural event. But, although I agree with Steve to a degree, I did see and experience some weird things around the area...
And, there is no smoke without fire. Remember, at it's height, on one bank holiday Saturday, there were close on 2000 people on the hills around the town, all scanning the skies. I am convinced that the press played a part in all this, and if you were to look at Shuttlewood's report of the first event in the town, during Christmas, 1964, in the Warminster Journal, it bears only a scant resemblance to what he later wrote in "The Warminster mystery. For example, on the flyleaf of Brinsley Le Poer Trench's book, "The Flying Saucer Story" there is an advert for a forthcoming book, "The Warminster Sighting". It is believed that faulkner's photograph was to be the basis of the book, and that shuttlewood, or a ghost writer actually rewrote the book, which became know as "The Warminster Mystery."
CHANNEL FIVE are making a 4 part series on UK UFO hotspots, will Warminster be added to this documentary and what new evidence do you think will come out of this for you and other researchers?
Funny you should ask this! One part will focus on the
Sadly, many of the major players have since died, and its only the latter part of the "Warminster Thing" that can still be looked at. I'm staggered that any researcher who “Googles” UK UFOs would never have come across references to Warminster.
How do you like Warminster being classed as a fad according to Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts as mentioned in Fortean Times Magazine
Quite chuffed actually! David has been very kind and supportive, and with out blowing our own trumpet too much here, the resurgence of interest is down to people like Steve and me. Warminster has faded from the public's memory, but us old farts still remember those cold nights on Cradle Hill with a great deal of affection. In fact, I organised a sky watch last year, on the August Bank holiday Saturday.
I expected perhaps a dozen or so people to turn up. In the end, over 30 people made the effort to come to the hill, some travelling as far as the Lake District to be there. So the appeal or draw of Warminster is still there, but only to a certain age group. It was interesting that a car with some local youths turned up, probably for a bit of nooky on the hill!
When they saw these oldsters milling around, they asked what we were doing there. When we had explained why, they were shocked, as they had no knowledge of what had happened in their town 40 years ago!
the local population seem embarrassed about what went on. It's quite sad really.
How have your opinions on UFOs changed since your early years?
Oh indeed, yes! 30 years ago, I'd have said that UFOs were from another world, nuts and bolts space ships, now no. It’s a phenomenon that needs serious research.
Do you think there are less UFO sightings since the turn of the millennium if so why?
It’s difficult one this. When the "X-Files" was on TV, sightings reported to the MOD went up. It's a culture thing now, and sadly the idea of a strange light in the sky has now almost become a UFO, due to the media.
What are your future plans and are you working on anymore books?
Stay healthy, and continue writing, as I believe there is still another book to be written on Warminster. I've started it, and the working title is "Warminster, the forgotten mystery, in which i hope to tell the story in a correct timeline, up to the last year or so.
Or, I'd like to write some novels! I have an idea to open a UFO museum in Warminster, but its at a very early stage at the moment and if I was honest, the chances are it won't come off. But we can all dream!
The problem I now find is that getting fresh information on what happened 40 odd years ago is difficult. I have tired to contact the family of Arthur Shuttlewood, and to date they have not responded.
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