The Garden of England and UFO Hotspot

Kent, The Garden of England earns its name from its lustrous and rampant greenery. Not only is there ample places of nature to visit, forests, coastlines and so much more, but it is home to a plethora of historic locations, buildings and monuments. I’ve been a resident in Kent for just over two years. Compared to the gritty run down locations I lived across Essex, it is like Eden. I consider myself lucky to have found a home here. 

Back in 2019 I was in a car being driven past Bromley Common during the early afternoon and happened to see a large crucifix-ish shape moving across the sky. It was not like some religious beacon, but a series of ball-like lights. 

My very poor doodle of the lights I witnessed in the sky.

I didn’t think much of it but tried to lean and get a better viewpoint of the curious effect. Then it was gone. When I got home and for the next few days after, I tried to find out what it was and also questioned some of my colleagues at work. This was when I discovered that sightings like this are commonplace in Kent. Most adults that I’d spoken to had seen or were close to someone that had seen a light or series of strange lights in the sky. One child of a woman I spoke to insisted she’d seen an "alien spaceship" when she was younger and could recount the incident vividly.

An example of someone else's sighting. 

While a lot of these sightings are due to aircrafts, satellites, meteors, stars, weather balloons, birds, paper lanterns and perhaps falsified reports, some remain unexplainable. The Ministry of Defence showed that the Garden of England's reported sightings were second only to London's after the Royal Air Force (RAF) shut down a 50-year-long investigation. Back in 1961, the government placed the RAF in charge of recording reports from the public and submitting them to the national archives. However it was ended in 2009 due to the lack of evidence that there was any threat. In March of 2011 the government released their "X-Files” to the public. Within these documents it’s highlights that they feared a possible invasion in 2003 which was believed to be targeted at Bromley in Kent. This was deduced from several witnesses reports that say they saw a fleet of twenty to thirty UFOs “zig-zagging” over the area. One family filmed the event before calling in the authorities. For whatever reason nothing came of the event, it wasn’t explained and that was the end of it. 

UFO data from 2009, compiled by Fresh Student Living

using the Governments released X-Files

During the pandemic UFO sightings have been on the rise, is there something to be read within them or is it just that people have had more time on their hands to simply stare into the sky. One thing is for certain. The speculation certainly makes life more interesting. Perhaps one day in our lifetimes we will get some concrete answers.

Links:

UK Governments Released X-Files in the National Archives