The Warminster ‘Thing’ : UFOs and Supernatural Disturbances in ‘Small Town England’

Fifty long years have passed since the mysterious events surrounding England’s first ‘recognized’ mass UFO event reached a peak . The sleepy Wiltshire town of Warminster lies in ‘crop circle country’ and sits just 15 miles from Stonehenge.

During the 1960s, whilst the USA was witnessing its very own “British Invasion” a very different British Invasion was occurring in Warminster. It slowly became the epicentre for some truly weird happenings. Happenings which eventually fascinated and terrified many members of the local community in equal measures.

By 1965 the reports and rumours had become so widespread that the chairman of the town council, called a public meeting ‘to allay fears that the happenings were a danger to the Earth’. This strangest of UFO flaps has no defined beginning nor any real end. This isn’t a regular mainstream UFO story and may seem particularly odd to our close cousins from across the Atlantic and Down Under.

The Warminster tale is very peculiar in places and certainly does not cover the well worn topics of abductions, UFO crash retrievals and government cover-ups that have dominated major UFO lore since the 1980s. It does involve encounters with strange humanoid aliens, disappearing livestock, strange objects in the sky and some very interested, puzzled and terrified people.

Now let’s start at something like a beginning.... 


In The Beginning.....Let There Be ‘Sound’


There is no real agreed start date to the story of the “Warminster Thing”. Some supernatural reports exist from the 1930s.



Warminster on UK Map

In December 1930 a driver on the Salisbury-Bamford road recalled his vehicle being enveloped by a black mist. He said a grey looking hand grabbed him from out of nowhere but then released him as the mist cleared.

On New Year’s Day 1936 there is the tale of a man driving to collect his wife from friends. He picked up a woman hitchhiker in a green suit. She sat in the back seat of his car but had vanished by the time he next looked behind him.

A group of four witnesses allegedly saw a strange UFO leaving a trail of sparks in the night sky as it passed over Warminster in November of 1961.



However, a current day consensus of books and web pages, places the unofficially accepted date of the “Coming of the Thing” as Christmas Day in 1964.

Unusually for a UFO wave there were no ‘UFO sightings’ just an unexplainable noise at first.

In the early darkness of Christmas morning 1964 local resident , Mildred Head, was awoken around 1:25am by a sound she later described as like twigs and leaves being drawn across her roof. This morphed into a sound like giant hailstones falling. But when she peered out from her bedroom window she was somewhat confused by the dry and clear conditions outside. There was also a disconcerting ‘hum’ which slowly increased in volume and receded into a low whisper. But there was no clue as to where the sound was emanating from.

Sometime before daylight on Christmas morning around 30 troops, based a few miles from Warminster at Knook camp, were also awoken by a loud noise.


The duty Sergeant reported a sound like a large chimney stack had been ripped down from a building and scattered across the camp. The military guard was alerted but nothing was found to substantiate the source of the sounds.

At just after 6:00am on Christmas morning a loud, piercing, high-pitched, sound was heard by Marjory Bye as she made her way to church. The menacing sound became so intense that she could feel it pounding in her temples, neck and shoulders. But she also saw nothing to indicate where it was coming from.

Warminster's head postmaster Roger Rump, heard very similar, intense sounds to Mrs Bye. He described the noise as a ‘huge clatter’ like roof tiles being rattled and plucked off houses then slammed back into place by a powerful , unseen force. He also noted an odd humming tone that faded away after a minute or two.

Reports of these sonic disturbances came in from all over Warminster throughout the winter. Witnesses began calling it the “Thing”. No one had been able to locate the source of the strange sounds. Some folk had even reported being so stunned by the ‘Thing’ that they were knocked to the ground from the noise.

Sound and Vision

In February of 1965, scientist David Holton from nearby Crockerton, sent a letter to the Warminster Journal. Holton claimed the mysterious noise had been manifesting for years. He claimed it was frightening local children and that the ‘Thing’ was even responsible for the deaths of pigeons in the area.

"A flock of pigeons was killed in flight when tangling with the ‘Thing’. They brushed into fatal contact with paralyzing sound beams in Crockerton woods, near Warminster...
Stiff-winged, they plummeted earthward... The Thing in its most stunning guise was directly responsible... a number of people testified to a high-pitched droning..."

Local TV interviewed Holton who declared that he believed ‘The Thing’ came from outer space and it would only be a matter of time before the source of the noise would reveal itself.

Throughout the spring further reports from local people were of bewildering, droning, and metallic like sounds and their rooftops and windows shaking. Pets were also disturbed by these bizarre sonic events in some cases becoming violently ill.

By late spring of 1965 reports of UFOs over Warminster were multiplying rapidly.

Hilda Hebdidge a local resident reported to the Fleet Street UFO Group she had witnessed strange objects in the sky three times in the middle of May.

The objects were cigar-shaped and 'covered with bright lights which winked and blinked... They were various shades of gold and yellow..."

The Phillips family reported on 3rd Jun 1965:

The cigar-shaped glow... hung, a brilliant spectacle in the sky for a good twenty five minutes or more; she thought it did not change position at all. There was a distinct dark circular patch or aperture at the base of the fiery object, which threw off a halo of red-orange light. The craft was horizontal, not vertical, she insisted.

.... Seventeen people were either fishing or bathing [at] Shearwater... Crockerton. All witnessed the cigar-bodied extravaganza. 'It was obviously huge but high up,' said ... Colin Hampton, so surprised he fell into the lake. Some thought it to be orange-mauve...others... orange-red. Apart from these slight colour variations... the main descriptions agreed [with Mrs Phillips]."

continues below >>>

All Shook Up

On the 10th of August 1965, just before 4:00am Rachel Atwill was rudely awoken with the floor of her home violently shaking. Like others before her she too heard a piercing, droning sound and went to the bedroom window to find the source of the noise.

As she peered out, she saw a bright, brilliantly shining object with a dome on top above the hills in the distance. Despite not being alarmed by the UFO she commented on how disturbing and chilling the noise was. After around half an hour the object had vanished and the noise stopped.

On the August 17th, 1965 an unexplained ‘blast’ rocked houses on the Boreham Field housing estate.



Walter Curtis & his wife described how they could feel violent shaking underfoot thinking that the gas main across the street had exploded after a tremendous roar.

David Pinnell ran outside to see what had caused the noise to see a huge, light bulb shaped, fiery orange glow lighting up the nearby hills. As the light began to dim he noticed a large ball of smoke surrounding a strange yellow core. This then descended down from the hills with a cracking and hissing sound as it skimmed the landscape. A further witness (unknown) said the smoke ball eventually settled in the road and dissipated as the smoke and fiery centre burned out.

Other witnesses thought maybe a building was being demolished. Although the only visible signs of damage were a couple of houses with broken windows.

As news spread wide and far of the ‘Thing’, and with Warminster’s proximity to a number of important military sites, a public meeting was called by Council Chairman Merlyn Rees. This was to be held on the Friday evening before the 1965 August Bank Holiday Weekend. Its purpose was to explore all of the evidence and reassure the local residents.

The Warminster meeting

The town was full of visitors fascinated by the story and wanting to witness something for themselves. Consequently the meeting was packed to the rafters and hundreds remained locked out whilst councillors and townsfolk debated the ‘Thing’.

A Mr Inge, who manned an observation post some 12 miles away to provide information for government research centres, explained that the majority of sightings were satellites, rockets burning up, celestial events and military operations. But he admitted that 25% of the reports were still unexplained. He believed the strange sounds people kept reporting were nothing more than noise generated by helicopters.

Dr. John Cleary-Baker from the local BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) declared that hallucinations and hoaxes could be ruled out but there was no danger from the ‘Thing’.

Dr. E.R. Doel of the NUFOA (National UFO Association) said:

“We are struggling to explain these phenomena. We defy sceptics to find any explanation that will satisfy people that these things are not from outer space....You should not be afraid you are privileged to investigate them.”

He was also suggesting a local listening post, manned by volunteers, be set up to study the ‘Thing’.

Missing from the meeting was David Holton. He claimed to have compiled a dossier on the strange happenings but when invited to show his evidence backed down. He declared it had all become a media circus with press and TV attending and that revealing his ‘evidence’ would place him in an unfavourable position with those who had spoke in confidence to him.


Mr Joe Brownell questioned Holton’s reluctance to take part claiming his evidence was worthless unless he could back it up with something solid. But he did note that this could be a great money spinner increasing local tourism.

Other notable absences were senior officers from the military. Six airfields, Salisbury Plain (where the Army exercised and tested weapons) and the Army School of Infantry were all nearby. Officers were invited to comment on theories that military exercises or experiments were responsible for the strange events. But no one from the army or RAF chose to attend.

Sources : Warminster Journal/Wiltshire Times – 31st August 1965

Despite being featured on TV and in the national press many people felt no better informed after the meeting.


Above video of the Warminster meeting was shot in 1965 not 1945 as the caption in the film shows

Arthur Shuttlewood

Former councillor and local journalist at the Warminster Journal, Arthur Shuttlewood, had slowly become the focal point for the mysterious happenings in Warminster. At the outset he had seemingly viewed these puzzling events as any professional reporter would. This was an interesting local story and he naturally pursued it. His reports eventually attracted the national media to Warminster.


He told BBC reporters in the TV documentary Pie in the Sky

‘As a local journalist I have to report every item of news as it comes in and this was such extraordinary news.
Reputable people were coming forward - the head postmaster of the town, a vicar and his three children, a hospital matron, an army major who said his car was virtually stopped in its tracks at 40 mph. These sorts of people have to be trusted for their integrity’.

Further Shuttlewood Interview click here

In his journalistic investigations Shuttlewood , suspecting weapons tests may be at the root of the ‘Thing’ visited the various local military bases in the area. All the people he spoke to denied responsibility. Shuttlewood felt that theories of meteorites and shooting stars were highly improbable and slowly become obsessed in pursuing the ’Thing’ . It ultimately changed his life forever.

If you think this was the end of the Warminster ‘Thing’ though - think again.



continues below >>>

Strangers on the Telephone

On the 29th of August 1965, a Warminster resident, Gordon Faulkner claimed to have snapped the ‘Thing’ (or at least something odd) with his camera. It was a rather pie shaped looking object. He gave the photo to Arthur Shuttlewood to do whatever he felt necessary with it.



A couple of weeks into September the photo and the Warminster story featured prominently in the Daily Mirror and other national newspapers. It also was later used on the cover of Shuttlewood’s book ‘Warminster Mystery’.

This photo was eventually claimed to be a hoax in the early 1990s by a man called Roger Hooten , Hooten claimed he and Faulkner created it using a cotton reel, button and a milk bottle top. Faulkner claims he never knew anyone called Roger Hooten and has never admitted that the photo was hoaxed.

The photo remains forever linked to the Warminster case, fake or not.

During the afternoon of September 26th , 1965 Arthur Shuttlewood stated someone claiming to be from the planet Aenstria, named Karne had contacted him by telephone.

Shuttlewood, wanting some kind of proof, invited ‘Karne’ to talk to him in person. He claimed that in almost no time at all a visitor appeared at his front door. The visitor had no visible pupils in his eyes and bluish blotches on his cheeks and lips.

Karne’s message was the usual unimaginative and predictable alien mantra. He warned of the inevitable 3rd World War, environmental damage, lack of human spirituality and morality, a coming war in the Middle East (when has it ever truly been at peace?) and further UFO sightings. The messages were traced to a call box in Boreham Field, Warminster. Not far from an army barracks.

Despite the visit lasting less than 10 minutes Arthur Shuttlewood later admitted he was seriously unnerved by the visit of Karne and feared for his life. At this stage he was shocked but still suspected a hoax.

A number of ‘Aenstrians’ continued to telephone Shuttlewood repeatedly until the end of October. With their warnings of doom for the human race. He was still suspecting the calls were hoaxes at this time. But Shuttleworth eventually admitted he thought the messages were “sensible” and his whole outlook began to change.

Meanwhile the unusual sightings did not stop in the area.

During November 1965 a retired RAF group captain and his wife were returning to their home near Warminster at around 1:30am when the car headlights caught a human figure dressed in all black, wearing a balaclava and a black mask with only the nose visible, caused him to brake suddenly. On the opposite side of the road another human figure appeared to be staggering over a nearby hedge.

Their description was of a youth who seemed to be stark naked, apart from a jacket, and looked as if he had been the victim of an assault or accident. They stopped the car but the youth and the figure in black had disappeared.

On December 16th, 1965 just before 8:00pm, Reginald Roberts witnessed a curious gray clad figure with “steaming fair hair” jump out in front of him as he was driving through the area. Mr. Roberts stopped and got out to look. But whatever or whoever he originally saw jump out in front of him had vanished.

The Summer of Love and Beyond

In 1967 Arthur Shuttlewood’s book “The Warminster Mystery” was published detailing many of the stories detailed above and concerning the ‘Thing’ in his own flowery language.

Shuttlewood was an outstanding speaker and people flocked to Warminster anticipating an experience of their own at many of his sky watches. Consequently Arthur Shuttlewood became a minor celebrity and participated regularly in nightly sky watches in hills surrounding Warminster. He promised people that if they stood on Cradle Hill from around 9:30 at night they would see something unusual before midnight.



Above video of Warminster Skywatch

The strange and supernatural events continued.

Late in the summer of 1967 a herd of cows at Chitterne just vanished one morning. They were missing from the pastures and milking sheds for more than 24 hours. The farmer and his staff searched the nearby land to no avail. Eventually the search had to be called off by a very concerned farmer. Then, next morning, the cows were all back in the field, closely herded together as if nothing had happened and after inspection it was clear they had come to no harm.



Shuttlewood published a further book “Warnings from Flying Friends” in 1968 and completed his trilogy in 1971 with “Key to the New Age” before taking a hiatus from writing.

Paranormal events were still being reported around the town into the early 1970s.

On August 13th 1972 sky watchers on Cradle Hill reported a ‘supercharged atmosphere’ and loud thumping noises from the nearby hedgerow. As they approached the bushes, three 8’ tall humanoids with large domed heads, no necks, wide shoulders and long dangly arms came into view. The beings then turned transparent and ‘glided’ along parallel to the sky watchers for a short time before vanishing as vehicles approached the area.



At 2:30am that night a couple were parked in Longleat Woods when they noticed two small red lights leave the woods and shoot into the sky. As they approached the area where the lights had come from they heard a strange ‘shooting’ sound. The husband said he saw what he thought was a goat-like creature, but it was a strange green colour, and had scales on its belly like a fish!

Terrifying sounds, anomalous lights in the sky, supernatural beings or aliens; Arthur Shuttlewood seemed to be at the centre of it all.

Sceptics believed it was all down to Shuttlewood’s charismatic presence and his followers misperceptions of astronomical and man-made objects in the night sky. His religious like leanings towards the ‘Thing’ were also used to discredit him.

But by the mid-1970s interest was waning in Warminster.

Arthur Shuttlewood had two further books published – “UFO Magic in Motion”, and his final book, “More UFOs over Warminster” in the late 1970s. He passed away after a long illness in Warminster in 1996.

By the 1980s everything had become a lot quieter. Warminster had seemingly became an embarrassment in the annals of British Ufology. Shuttlewood was seen as a journalist who had seriously lost his objectivity (and his mind in some quarters) . Much of his work was placed in doubt.

There was also the problem that the Warminster story lacked a punch line.

continues below >>>

The excitement and fear had reached a peak in the middle of the 1960s.

Nothing interesting continued to happen on a mass scale to keep Warminster in the public eye. There was no Travis Walton type abduction to dissect. All we had were the strange reports of noises, lights in the sky and the bizarre experiences of Arthur Shuttlewood and a few individuals whose stories could never be properly verified.

Now with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight what do we make of it all?

There was never serious talk of government conspiracies or suppression of information regarding the Warminster 'Thing' and it belongs to an era shared with early Dr. Who and the Avengers.

Some think the 'Thing' was just a noise generated by the armed forces testing secret weapons.

Others that it was all just a cultural & social phenomenon of the times.

Or perhaps it really was something supernatural and mysterious?

Something really did happen in Warminster during the 1960s that captivated the nation for a short while. It also had a long lasting impact on a few others like Arthur Shuttlewood.

Warminster remains somewhat of an enigma in British Ufology.




Sources and Further References

THE WARMINSTER THING

The mystery of Warminster's 'UFO' (BBC) inc “Pie in the Sky” documentary.

UFO Warminster

In Alien Heat: The Warminster Mystery Revisited

The Warminster Syndrome

1964 : The Warminster Things

Albert Rosales Humanoids

Ken Rogers – The Warminster Triangle

History of a Mystery

1990s Documentary with Arthur Shuttlewood interview about an hour into the video

George Knapp talks with Kevin Goodman author of “History of a Mystery”

This is a fantastic thread. I had never heard of this before and look forward to doing a lot more reading on it.

Thanks for sharing

S&F

a reply to: mirageman

Good job, great thread... S&F
First im hearing of Warminster too!

On New Year’s Day 1936 there is the tale of a man driving to collect his wife from friends. He picked up a woman hitchhiker in a green suit.

This immediately reminded me of the green children of Woolpit.

a reply to: mirageman

Mighty fine thread mate and certainly some extremely strange testimony from the town residents!

"It was a giant plate of light. It lit up the whole horizon with a glare. It was flying low over the landscape and appeared to be spinning"
Police Constable Eric Pinnock - Warminster



"The objects were cigar-shaped and 'covered with bright lights which winked and blinked... They were various shades of gold and yellow..."
Hilda Hebdidge, Warminster



"The cigar-shaped glow hung, a brilliant spectacle in the sky for a good twenty five minutes or more. There was a distinct dark circular patch or aperture at the base of the fiery object, which threw off a halo of red-orange light. The craft was horizontal, not vertical."
Patricia Phillips and family, Heytesbury



"... a large red ball in the south which rose into the sky and hung down, opening up once more into a flaming pojer. It had a black base at its rim...It was the size of our front room to my eyes – it was so close... A sizzling or crackling sound, not unlike eggs and bacon frying in a pan, could be heard..."
Dora Horlock, Warminster



"Fantastic spectacle... shining Thing going sideways... Porthole type windows... To my eyes it was the size of... a bedroom wall... Windows were lit up..."
Kathleen Penton, Warminster



"Woken by a terrible droning sound. It made the bed and floor shake. I went over to the bedroom window and looked out... about 200 yards above the range of hills... was a bright object like a massive star... domed on top and huge in size, and unwinking light of uncanny brilliance."
Rachel Atwill, Warminster



Its speed and change of direction were almost unbelievable.'
Terry Pell, Warminster

For what it's worth there's also an interesting report here from a few years later in which a Royal Marine was 'genuinely bewildered' by a UFO encounter at the same location - this thread from Stealthyaroura also describes a pretty freaky incident around the same area in 1967.

Awesome stuff man. Good work.

a reply to: mirageman

You never disappoint. Do you think it could have been some microwave or ultrasound project? Most of the witnesses seem to indicate the sound was directed. And in some cases they saw aircraft. Clearly from the birds it was some force that disrupted and killed them... wonder if any autopsies were done?

At any rate the good old new age cult followed up to promote their one world government...

It is no coincidence that Warminster is on the edge of Salisbury Plain, a major army training groun. Only a short hop to Porton Down and Boscombe Down, with all the attendant secrecy and hush-hush military programmes.

Of course, Warminster also sits in an ancient landscape full of mysteries, cairns, iron age forts, standing stones and henges.

My money is on military activity.

Interesting!

Everything prior to the August 17th, 1965 "blast" and "smoking ball," sounds very anomalous and difficult to account for fully (particularly the consistent reports of similar noises and the cigar shaped object(s) seen by multiple, allegedly credible, witnesses.) If those reports are accurate (and who can say with the passage of time since then,) that's incredibly odd and compelling imho.

The August 17th, '65 "blast" and "smoking ball" sounds like a meteor or something similar imho. And after that, the stories become increasingly fanciful and potentially explainable through hoax, as even Shuttlewood conceded, before becoming so enamored with the phenomena that he arguably lost objectivity. (That's a consideration, not an assertion, incidentally. I'm not saying I know or have a firm belief what happened one way or another. I don't.)

Very interesting indeed.

Peace.

originally posted by: Ridhya
a reply to: mirageman

Do you think it could have been some microwave or ultrasound project? Most of the witnesses seem to indicate the sound was directed. And in some cases they saw aircraft. Clearly from the birds it was some force that disrupted and killed them... wonder if any autopsies were done?

I think the events before 1964 are pretty hard to substantiate. In fact EVERYTHING in the case is hard to substantiate. We have but a single photograph of perhaps dubious origins and a very grainy one at that. Then all we have is stories from witnesses.

I think the core of the mystery is the sound that people were hearing through late December 1964 into the middle of 1965. There are too many witnesses for it to have been nothing. Yes it could have been some kind of ultrasound project or esoteric project.

But from what I've read there seems no deep suspicion placed on the military that they were covering something up (despite Warminster's proximity to various military properties). I haven't checked the National Archives releases in detail but a quick search didn't reveal anything obvious.

I'll pop back later on to respond to other posts.

originally posted by: mirageman

I think the core of the mystery is the sound that people were hearing through late December 1964 into the middle of 1965. There are too many witnesses for it to have been nothing. Yes it could have been some kind of ultrasound project or esoteric project.

Heres an idea
en.wikipedia.org...

The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed to penetrate a well-defended forward battle area at low altitudes and very high speeds

This aircraft and others

English Electric P 1, forerunner of the English Electric Lightning, the Folland Gnat and Midge, the BAC TSR.2

would have been flying out of the MoD Boscombe Down aircraft testing site located at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. 17 miles from Warminster.
en.wikipedia.org...

These aircraft being supersonic would have created a sonic boom accounting for the crashing noise reported and Jet engines kind of make a scratching noise don't they ?

Excellent work bringing this to the public Sounds like a place worth visiting if in that area. Makes me wonder about the relationship between Warminster and the energy grid laid over the United Kingdom.

originally posted by: combatmaster
a reply to: mirageman

Good job, great thread... S&F
First im hearing of Warminster too!

On New Year’s Day 1936 there is the tale of a man driving to collect his wife from friends. He picked up a woman hitchhiker in a green suit.

This immediately reminded me of the green children of Woolpit.

Hello combatmaster,

I can see why it reminded you with the lady in question being dressed in green. But I cannot offer any further information on it. It's possibly just a piece of local folklore

Great job. Great Thread.

And this, and stories full of "high strangeness" like this one are what makes the UFO enigma so difficult to unravel and provide any one-size-fits-all explanation to the broad scope of it.

I lean towards the military and such organizations with this stuff, though... even the weirdest stuff, because who knows what extra-dimensional experimenting or consciousness manipulation they're trying.

But who knows... maybe it's just good, old fashioned areas where the fabric between realities break down... just like the old lore says.

a reply to: karl 12

Thanks Karl. Yep something weird was going on back then

For the benefit of everyone else here's that news clip you linked to



Seems like the strange sightings were still going on in 1975 (a whole decade) later.

originally posted by: paraphi

............My money is on military activity.

It almost seems the obvious answer.

Arthur Shuttlewood did contact nearby military bases without getting any information. But it seems this angle has not really been pursued. Perhaps because of the way the Warminster story has been treated. It was mainly a local story for about 7 or 8 months into the summer of 1965. Then it became the focus of the national media in August and September 1965. But then it all faded away again.

It's almost like no one wanted to actually find what the cause was after that meeting in August 1965 because they'd decided it was whatever they wanted it to be or they thought it was all bunk.

originally posted by: AceWombat04
Interesting!

Everything prior to the August 17th, 1965 "blast" and "smoking ball," sounds very anomalous and difficult to account for fully (particularly the consistent reports of similar noises and the cigar shaped object(s) seen by multiple, allegedly credible, witnesses.) If those reports are accurate (and who can say with the passage of time since then,) that's incredibly odd and compelling imho.

What I find incredible is that there seems to be not much in the way of photographic evidence if this 'Thing' really did go on for a decade or more. I know we were still dealing with a pre-digital world back then. But people did have cameras and they were holding sky watches.

I found these allegedly taken in 1966 near Warminster.

The August 17th, '65 "blast" and "smoking ball" sounds like a meteor or something similar imho. And after that, the stories become increasingly fanciful and potentially explainable through hoax, as even Shuttlewood conceded, before becoming so enamored with the phenomena that he arguably lost objectivity. (That's a consideration, not an assertion, incidentally. I'm not saying I know or have a firm belief what happened one way or another. I don't.)

Very interesting indeed.

Peace.

It's plausible and considering that the Perseid Meteor Shower can be seen during mid-July to August could that be part of the answer? Maybe> Maybe not?

a reply to: Marduk

The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed to penetrate a well-defended forward battle area at low altitudes and very high speeds

It's an interesting theory. But surely someone would have seen a jet in the sky sooner or later? Plus isn't there are rule that RAF pilots can fly at supersonic speeds over land in emergencies?