Mysteries of the New Millennium Convention - 4th March 2000
The day was extremely successful, with a very pleasant atmosphere because of the lack of UFO Politics - something that we hope to duplicate at our next event at the same venue on 10th June.
Steve Mera started the day off with details of the Winter Hill Men In Black case, involving the disappearance of Mr Stuart Murphy, a farm worker and UFO witness. Further information about this case can be obtained from the MAPIT website at
Steve also had some excellent photographs from the realms of the paranormal, including a strange-looking transparent figure which appears to be sitting upside-down outside Woolworths!
Carolyn Buckley followed with a talk about Paranormal Cheshire, covering the legend of Marbury Hall, phantom hitch-hikers, mysterious lights in Winnington, haunted public houses and hotels (including the Patten Arms Hotel), crop circles, sacred Celtic sites and the link between electromagnetism, water and strange occurrences. Her presentation started off with several technical problems which, according to Jackie Hamlett (co-author of a House with Spirit, a dedication to Marbury Hall) could have something to do with ghostly intervention. Apparently, when people try to tell the story of the Marbury Lady, things start to go horribly wrong!
Arthur Tomlinson amazed the audience with some interesting revelations about the statues on Easter Island and took everybody on a visual journey around the hidden places of the Ancient World. Arthur also revealed possible hidden codes in ancient artefacts using symmetrical transposition to show some weird and wonderful visual effects.
Eric Morris presented some frightening evidence from Hack Green Nuclear Bunker near Nantwich, including a genuine UFO photograph consisting of a triangular pattern of three translucent spheres over the former RAF base in the area. Possible foreign Intelligence was discussed, along with a flap of sightings over Audlem in 1988 where ground traces, burn marks and mutilated or dead animals were seen and investigated.
Tim Matthews was, as usual, interesting and informative in his excellent talk about UFOs and declassified documents. Military Flying Triangle and Saucer testing projects were mentioned in great detail, backed up by US literature obtained under the Freedom of Information legislation. Tim stressed, however, that not all UFOs are military in origin. He mentioned a Close Encounter case which terrified the witness, who likened what he saw to the creatures portrayed in the Predator films.
The final speaker of the day was Andy Buckley who showed exclusive video footage of ball-shaped silver objects over Wiltshire crop circles in 1999. Hoaxing was certainly out of the question - the video showed a tractor driver avoiding one of these flying objects!
Perhaps the strangest thing which occurred on the day was the guest appearance of the Patten Arms Hotel ghost! This was seen in the main conference room during Steve Mera's presentation. Also, a door handle was seen to move on its own by Carolyn Buckley and was heard to move by Tim Matthews at the same time. Upon investigation, the room beyond the door in question was found to be empty!
