In 2002 I moved from London to the Warwickshire countryside and decided I should learn more about my new adoptive home. I started in a bookshop and whilst looking through the section dedicated to local myths and legends, I was drawn to the front cover of book which featured a strange dark figure in a top hat, standing by a disused cottage.

The book was entitled “Ghosts of Warwickshire” by Betty Smith and, despite it not being my usual thing, I purchased it. Once at home I settled down to read it and found it was full of the normal ghost stories one would expect with accounts of phantom coaches, haunting grey ladies and demonic black dogs.  But one chapter entitled “The Lights of Burton Dassett” gripped me immediately. The chapter described how in the winter of 1923 a series of “ghosts “, or to be more precise strange multi-coloured lights, had been seen on the mysterious and beautiful hills of Burton Dassett. These lights were seen by many people and had caused quite a stir. So much so that a local paper, the Banbury Guardian, ran two newspaper articles about the mysterious orbs. The accounts described how the lights were seen swooping over the hills, illuminating houses and flying over people. I strongly felt that, in stark contrast to the other terrifying stories in the book, this was an overwhelmingly positive account. Some of the witnesses described being excited and even happy at seeing the lights. What I quickly realised was that what the witnesses were describing were not typically “ghostly” in appearance or behaviour. In fact, what the people were describing had much more in common with Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon. It suddenly occurred to me that what all these people, possibly hundreds of people, had seen was a mass UFO event!

It is of course completely understandable why the locals who had saw these objects would classify them as ghosts. England in the 1920’s was still reeling from the effects of the First World War and we must look at these reports in that context. The death toll of the First World War is difficult to image to the modern mind. The losses of young men were felt very severely at a local level and often a whole village’s menfolk could be wiped out in a week. Death was all around and as a result Spiritualism and talk of ghosts flourished in Warwickshire as it did elsewhere around the country. Desperate families wanted to believe that there is a hope of communicating with their lost sons again. Therefore, it would be natural at this time to assign any strange phenomena to ghosts and spirits. However, I did not believe that what was being witnessed were ghosts, but what it was, was just as amazing.

Windmill Hill Burton Dassett Hills.

View from Magpie Hill to Windmill Hill, Burton Dassett Hills.

It is often thought that UFO sightings began in the 1940’s with the Foo Fighters, the report of a UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico and the increased sightings that accompanied the Atomic Age. But the early Twentieth Century also had its fair share of UAP/ UFO events, although they are often misinterpreted as other types of events. Perhaps the most famous is the Miracle of Fatima in Portugal in1917. Here it was reported that the Virgin Mary spoke to three children in front of a crowd of around 75,000 people and passed three messages about the fate of the world including, it is said, the prospect of extra-terrestrial contact. Closer to my own home in the north east of England there are numerous reports of UFO sightings dating as far back as 1801! As I read the chapter in the “ Ghosts of Warwickshire” book I increasingly came to believe that the sightings at Burton Dassett Hills were as equally important as any of those I have mentioned and I was determined to explore it further. In fact, this belief stayed with me for nearly twenty years until the time was right and when it was, I was amazed at what I discovered.

In 2018 I stated my journey into my first book on Ufology, which I entitled the “The Lights Upon the Hills”. The book title is taken from a comment made by one of the witnesses who described the lights as such to a local paper and the phrase stuck with me. The first thing I did was to read again the newspaper accounts and local stories and try to reinterpret them through modern eyes and knowing what I did about Ufology. The accounts detailed several stories from locals including a vicarage maid, a motorcyclist, a railway signalman and a stable boy. Each one having their own incredible encounter. I also became a frequent visitor to the Hills themselves. Situated around 10 miles south of Warwick they are strange and beautiful, with a lot packed into a small area. There are the traces of an Iron age village, hundreds of small craters which are the tell-tale signs of Iron ore mining and a small but pretty wood. In 1908 the graves of 35 Saxon warriors were unearthed and the grave sites are still visible. A little-known fact about the hills is that it featured in the 1990 Hollywood blockbuster film “Three men and a little lady” which was the sequel to “Three men and baby “. The latter was directed by the legendary Leonard Nimoy and no one is more disappointed than me that that Mr Spock never went to Burton Dassett! Today the area is a country park and within this area of natural beauty there are five prominent hills, with the western three set out in a distinct line. In the wintertime the constellation of Orion stands proud directly above these three hills and one cannot help but notice the eerily similarity of Orion’s belt and the three prominent hills. Is this why the strange lights were attracted there? In the book I explore this hypothesis in more detail. To further add to the character of the area less than a mile from the park, and almost directly opposite it, there is an important and secretive military base. MOD Kineton holds a large proportion of the United Kingdom’s battlefield ammunition and is connected by railway to everywhere in the county. When one understands the link between UFO’s and Military bases is it safe to say this is just another coincidence?                   

All Saints Church, Burton Dassett, Warwickshire.

Northern doorway entrance to All Saints Church.

Angel or Gargoyle figure North Wall.

King or Magi with Orb, All Saints Church.

Close up of Magi’s hand and Orb. It can clearly be seen that if a line of the Magi’s hand and the bottom of the orb are naturally drawn the orb is floating above the hand. The space between has been eroded either deliberately or through the passage of tim

However, the place which held the most fasciation for me, and which was to become instrumental to the story of the “Lights Upon the Hills”, is All Saints Church. Situated in an unusual place for a church, this magnificent Norman building is known as the” Cathedral in the Cotswolds” and it is inside the building that things get very interesting. Within the church there are some amazing medieval stone carvings and medieval painted wall art. The carvings are on the northern support columns and they depict animals and hybrid creatures as well as the ancient and mysterious Green Man figure. Some of the figures are fighting and some are even upside down as if being beamed up! What are these strange illustrations trying to say? The north side of a church is often referred to as the “evil side” so are they there to ward off evil spirits? Are they just decorative or do the hold a deeper meaning? Even more intriguing is the painted wall art. Painted wall art is very rare in English churches as most have succumbed to erosion or the seventeenth century Puritans. The pictures in All Saints church depict the religious icons one would expect to see including the Virgin Mary and St Michael but there are also paintings of a mysterious King and a Magi from the Christmas story. In my book I explain how it is these figures that I believe show a fantastic secret. A secret that speaks of UFO encounters in the area and one that has been overlooked for hundreds of years.

Egg or Rugby ball Shaped object on South Wall. All Saints Church. To the left is a fish or a repeat of the pattern.

Medieval Carvings, All Saints Church, Green Man and upside-down animals.

Medieval Carvings- Strange half man, half animal creature lower left.

I truly believe that the strange lights witnessed in 1923 and the unique area in which they were seen, when looked at holistically, tells us an incredible story. A story which has been hidden for some time but may at last be revealing its secrets and hinting that there is more to come.   

Sketch showing Orion Connection.

MOD Kineton Central Ammunition Deport.

High Density Explosive Housing Storage (EHS), MOD Kineton.

About the book:

The Burton Dassett UFO events of 1923

It is the winter of 1923 and in the Warwickshire countryside there is great excitement about a series of ghostly sightings which have been seen by hundreds of people. Everyone is talking about it and the local papers are speculating about these “Ghosts”. But are they Ghosts? Described as bright multi coloured lights, with the power to illuminate buildings and to fly at height before disappearing at fantastic speeds. Are they not in fact Unidentified Flying Objects?

In The Lights Upon The Hills Richard Rokeby has researched an important mass UFO event that is little known amongst the UFO community. The story is set in the mysterious Burton Dassett Hills, an area which has a rich and fascinating history. Within this gripping story there is a series of significant hills, an important and secretive military base and a beautiful Church that could hold an incredible secret.      

Presenting the argument with enormous persuasiveness The Lights Upon the Hills explores the individual accounts and the historical and scientific information behind this incredible event. 

The book will is out now and is published by FLYING DISK PRESS. It is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats.