While poaching for pheasant one night on the banks of the River Weaver, four youths from Frodsham,UK, ages seventeen to nineteen, were stationed in an area known locally as the Devil's Garden, bordering the Mersey Estuary.

One of the foursome was startled to see a silver sphere- -which he first assumed to be an out-of-control satellite approaching from the southeast and skimming no more than twenty feet above the surface of the water. It was giving off an odd combination of sounds, a faint humming mixed with the sigh of rushing wind. All four watched as the object passed their position and then settled into some bushes nearby.

Approaching, they spied a round, sphere-shaped object, approximately fifteen feet across. Flashing lights were seen on the visible side of the sphere, along with a series of windows from which shone a brilliant "fuzzy" light, rendering the interior impervious to inspection. This was likely an ultraviolet type light (although the men did not call it this, their description makes it apparent) and it was painful for the eyes to stare at it for any length of time. The bottom of the sphere was encircled by a short flange or skirt, from which flames (retro-rockets?) had briefly flared as the object landed. Shortly all outward illumination ceased, plunging the landscape into darkness.

Fearing contamination, as a Soviet satellite with radioactive components had recently crashed in Canada, the four were preparing to flee when a figure in a silver, one-piece suit walked out from behind the "satellite." Atop the figure's head or helmet was something resembling a miner's lamp which gave off a bright violet light.

The figure appeared to acknowledge a herd of grazing cows in a nearby field, then retreated behind the sphere, only to reemerge immediately with another silver-suited figure. Both were now bearing a large cage of some sort, seemingly composed of thin, aluminum like bars in a vertical and horizontal pattern. They approached one of the standing cows, which remained stationary, and placed the cage over it. Then they proceeded to slide the cage's struts and bars about the cow's body, as if conducting a series of calculated measurements.

At this stage, wondering whether they might be measured next, the four decided to flee the scene. No one saw the object depart.As they ran away, one of the four reported a tugging in his testicles.

The next day his testicles were still sore and the surrounding area red and tender. That embarrassing detail, coupled with the fact that the four were trespassing in the first place, prevented them from going public with their identities.

Eventually, however, the story made its way into a small, local weekly newspaper, and from there into the hands of English ufologists.

SOURCE Jeff Knox via

Jenny Randles and Paul Whetnall, "Four Young Men and a UFO," Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 5-7, September, 1980