(Ref: The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash - A British Roswell?)
(Note: Mr. Roberts' text appears in italic font)
Page 1
'In 1958 author Gavin Gibbons wrote By Spaceship to the Moon a sci-fi book which featured a UFO landing on the Berwyn mountains in Wales. Sixteen years later, in 1974, those same mountains would again be the focus for a story involving a downed UFO. But this time, some said the story was for real'.
The introductory paragraph immediately sets the tone to the readers that they are dealing with something mythical. Here, the word 'sci-fi' subliminally sets in the mind that the subject of a genuine Berwyn UFO is probably not real. This continues in the second paragraph.
'The Berwyn Mountains run south west to north east across central North Wales, separating Shropshire from the Snowdonia National Park. They have a long history of human habitation. Prehistoric man lived and worshipped on the mountains, leaving behind a dramatic ritual landscape to which many strange beliefs have become attached. UFOs are not new to the area either. Local folklore tells us that these peaks have been haunted by a multitude of aerial phenomena, including the spectral Hounds of Hell whilst to the south, at Llanrhaedr-y-Mochnant, the villagers were once plagued by 'flying dragons' - a common historical name for UFOs. Contemporary paranormal puzzles abound too and besides UFOs include 'phantom bombers', ghosts and lake monsters. The region is also the lair of that most modern of mysteries the 'alien big cat'.
The use of the word 'prehistoric' is, in my opinion, extreme. At the very least, that word should be applied to people of the Mesolithic and further back in time and its use here suggests a population of very primitive humans, essentially, not very bright and ignorant of the world around them. In reality, there is little evidence of the earliest Homo sapiens in the Berwyns.
The Range is indeed well documented for its human occupation, that being during the Bronze and later Iron Age. Religious and spiritual worship was important to such people and this is marked with standing stones, stone circles etc. These were farming people with a society of craftsmanship, smelting ores, exporting items and trading as far away as the eastern Mediterranean, yet the author Andy Roberts basically denigrates them as 'knuckle-draggers' just to set in the reader's mind the image of people who shouldn't be taken seriously.
Introducing folklore into his tome, again this reinforces the idea that everything is explainable and ignorance of the time turned everyday phenomena into mystery to be feared and even worshipped. This is how the spectral Hounds of Hell appeared. One explanation is the call of migrating geese.
The Range is only about 15 miles long with four noted peaks, two being very close to the mentioned village of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant which the author has spelled incorrectly. Yet he seems to suggest the spectral hounds 'haunted' the summits including the ones to the south! This gives the impression the Range is far larger and more remote than it actually is. The geographical relevance of the aforementioned village to two peaks Cadair Berwyn and Moel Sych means such a reference as 'to the south' doesn't even make sense.
The 'flying dragons' is a bit of an odd one as my understanding is this is not something which happened here in this part of Wales or elsewhere in the nation. I certainly can find no reference to such creatures, yet the author is happy to once again link some sort of mystical aerial phenomena with the term UFO.
He goes on with the subliminal character assassination of the possibility of extraterrestrial visitation with adding into the mix phantom bombers, ghosts (which occur everywhere to those who believe such) and most interestingly, lake monsters. There are no lakes of any size in the Berwyns. There is a small, shallow pool a couple of miles walk from near Pistyll Rhaeadr (Wales' highest waterfall) and at a handful of acres in area, Llyn Lluncaws as it is named is home to small trout and frogs. The nearest body of water having any lake monster myth is Llyn Tegid (Bala lake) and that is irrelevant geographically to the Berwyns and specifically Cadair (sometimes Cader) Berwyn.
The lake monster Tegi was used in the failed and unpublished 'Dragon Lights' DVD created by self-styled UFO researcher Russ Kellett where the introductory narration was not too dissimilar to Andy Roberts' introduction here, mentioning the myths and sowing seeds of doubt in what should be a neutral presentation.
And then there's the 'alien big cat'. An absolute abuse of extraterrestrial terminology, subverting the word alien from describing a non-native animal species to describing something not of this world.
'Although popular as a tourist destination in summer the Berwyn Mountains can be highly dangerous and mountain rescue teams are frequently called out to search for the lost and injured. The highest peak, Cader Berwyn, rises to 827 metres and several aeroplanes, both military and civilian, have crashed on its slopes in poor visibility over the past fifty years. In winter the area is especially remote, often snow-covered, and dark for over twelve hours a day. An ideal spot, if ever there was one, for a UFO landing.'
Andy Roberts has elsewhere suggested that air crashes in the Berwyn range have been misinterpreted by the locals and confused with his 'fiction' of a possible UFO landing (or crash if one prefers) on the evening of January 23rd 1974. He shamelessly used the genuine crash of a military plane on the 12th of February 1982 - where an American navy pilot lost his life - as an excuse to character assassinate the locals by claiming they were confused about the military presence as part of the wreckage recovery and clean up to account for the claims of a military presence in January '74.
Previous to that, the only air crash on the Berwyns closest to the Jan' '74 UFO event was a civilian accident where, in 1968, four persons died when the private plane flew into the mountainside near Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant. That didn't stop Mr. Roberts lying when he invented and promoted an entirely fictitious military air crash in the Berwyns, presumably geographically relevant to either this village or Llandrillo on the other side of the Range.
He invented a crash in 1972 on an unknown date at an unknown location just to create further trouble and so he could add fuel to the fire of confusion he suggested the locals were infected with. To date, he has never accounted for this and has ignored any and all requests to provide the evidence to back up his claim.
'It is against this backdrop that an incident took place on 23 January 1974 which at first perplexed locals and later the UFO community. The events spawned a cascade of rumours which has led some UFO investigators to conclude that an extraterrestrial craft crashed on Cader Berwyn. These same ufologists also claimed that the alien crew, some still living, were immediately whisked off to a secret military installation in the south of England for study and that the whole fantastic business has been hushed up by the UK government. The Berwyn Mountain Incident has been described as '...the best example of a UFO retrieval in Britain', and likened to the Roswell and Rendlesham events.'
Note the word 'cascade' - a very colourful noun indeed. There was no cascade. In fact much of the information about a crash was seeded into the UFO community deliberately to create a smoke screen effect full of loose ends to tie up researchers and lead them to dead ends. Some claims could be attributed to over zealous UFO enthusiasts but a careful read of the evidence, stripping away the 'fluff', shows the crash scenario to be incorrect.
Unless the witnesses to the object landing and later leaving, particularly local district nurse Pat Evans and her two accompanying daughters who saw an/the object seemingly resting on the mountain slope were lying, there was clearly something there that night. Mrs. Evans herself told others that she'd learned whatever she was looking at took off some short time after she departed the scene. That doesn't sound like a crash scenario requiring a covert debris clean up and recovery of dead and alive extraterrestrial beings!
'A preposterous claim? Certainly. One easily dismissed by those with little or no knowledge of the case. But there is no smoke without fire and even the most bizarre story must have its genesis in truth, no matter how mundane or exotic that truth may be.'
This is an example of reverse psychology.
What is happening here is the author is giving substance to the positives of a potential ET visit but this is short lived as his whole approach is not one of neutrality, but of one-sidedness. Surely in the interests of fairness there must be genuine balance between the for and against arguments? The author's default position is undoubtedly one of negativity. This entire article is actually about undermining the possibility of ET visitation. Argument for visitation is virtually non-existent. This can be summed up just in the opening sentence of the following paragraph.
'But if it can be argued that there was no alien craft, then just what does lie behind the longevity and tenacity of these persistent claims? Could it have been the crash of a secret military test craft such as one of the 'flying triangles' which have dominated ufo-lore throughout the 1990s? Or perhaps a failed missile test from the rocketry range at nearby Aberporth? A hoax even? Or something far more complicated. And if it is any of these then why have the claims of UFOs, alien cadavers and military cover-ups persisted for over twenty five years?'
The only people arguing there was no alien craft are those who, for whatever reason, want (or need) to uphold that stance. To suggest it could have been a crash of any military craft, secret or otherwise, is a nonsense simply because it would have involved an overt clean-up like the one eight years later on February 12th 1982.
A test rocket would have involved something similar though few seem to have noticed another bit of psychology when Mr. Roberts mischievously claims the military hardware test site at Aberporth to be nearby. A simple straight line on a map, paper or online, shows Aberporth to be some 75 miles away.
Herewith, an image showing the distance from the centre of Llandrillo to the centre of the Aberporth facility. Hardly nearby!
It is these carefully used and placed subtle lies and inflated or deflated facts which demonstrates the author's one-sided approach. That approach isn't about balance as I say. It is about destroying in any immoral or unethical way necessary interest and further research into whatever it was on that mountain slope on the 23rd of January 1974.
'Comparisons with Roswell and other UFO crash retrieval events show the Berwyn Incident to have many of the same components and motifs and therefore to be worthy of in-depth study. Yet whilst rumours of this crash have been in existence for a quarter of a century it has only recently drawn any serious attention from the UFO community. And although dramatic claims have been made no-one had investigated this potentially remarkable case in any great depth. The Berwyn Incident, far from proven, was a kaleidoscope of rumour and fact concerning crashed UFOs, alien bodies, military retrieval teams, earth tremors, meteorites, weapons testing, disinformation agents, Men In Black and geologically created lights.
The story is a complex one and I have pieced together a composite account from statements and articles by witnesses, informants, ufologists and newspapers of what allegedly happened on and around January 23rd 1974. This is 'the story', the generally accepted account, variations on which have become enshrined in the UFO literature and which has seeped out into the public's consciousness. It is closely referenced so that the reader can check the origins of these claims.'
On the face of it the story is complex except that in truth it is relatively simple. The author of the article uses the phrase 'kaleidoscope of rumour and fact'. That's not wholly true as he has not included his own contribution of disinforming the public.
The author clearly states that his account is a 'composite' from statements and articles and does not mention fieldwork. On occasion in the past, including on Joe McGonagle's once extant (it may still be so?) internet forum UfologyInUK, I posted asking Andy Roberts to account for such things as had he been physically up on the mountainsides and by that I mean two or three miles cross country from the nearest driveable road?
I asked such because I have. I've walked and wild camped on the Berwyns clocking up many dozens of miles and I know that some of his claims simply cannot be. Perhaps on a two dimensional map and perhaps definitely so if an agenda is at play, one could draw conclusions based on testimony and documentation alone, but going on to the actual range and looking up, across and down from the summits, a very different picture emerges.
By not doing this, Mr. Roberts' conclusions are heavily flawed and far from accurate.
Indeed, to even attempt to claim his account is 'the story' is wholly disingenuous. To further claim it is the generally accepted story is utter rubbish. The vast majority of UFO enthusiasts in the UK see Andy Roberts (rightly or wrongly, in part or whole), as an agenda-ridden debunker. The only reason it is claimed it is the accepted story is because that is how it has been promoted by a very small group presenting themselves as authorities via academic qualifications, access to media and wholesale frustration of common or garden Joe Public attempting to gain access to information. That is something I myself can testify to.
Any member of the public able to access exactly the same sources as this author would inevitably draw up a different composite and therefore different conclusions.
'A' story would be more accurate. 'The' story is stretching matters.
'Prior to the Berwyn Incident the north of England, had been plagued by an aerial phenomenon dubbed the 'phantom helicopter'. Over a hundred good sightings were made of this anomalous object which was seen flying low at night, often over dangerous terrain and in appalling weather. These sightings largely took place between spring 1973 and spring 1974 and ceased, coincidentally or curiously, immediately after the Berwyn Incident. Despite the numerous sightings and keen police interest, which led to a still-secret official report, no one explanation was ever found. But something was flying around the northern skies and many of the witnesses concurred that whatever it was, 'it seemed to be looking for something'.
The existence of phantom helicopters aside, at the start of Mr. Roberts' article he references such aircraft in relation to the Berwyn incident and for that, I'll reiterate here, that to include phantom helicopters in the subliminally suggestive list is just an attempt to inflate the number of reasons locals at the time must have been ignorant and fearful of things they were incapable of understanding.
'Wednesday the 23rd of January 1974 was just another day in Bala and the nearby villages of Corwen, Llandrillo and Llanderfel. UFOs were the last thing on the villagers' minds as Britain huddled in the depths of winter and the recently introduced three day week. But as night closed in an event took place which was to change all that.'
Corwen is actually a town and, Llandderfel is spelt incorrectly. UFOs I'd suggest were not on anyone's mind let alone the three day week as mentioned. More psychological warfare on the reader with this colourful description of Britain and the wholly irrelevant mention of that three day week.
It is concerning to me that the author mentions only these three locations when he's been happy to use the Bala fault line and the earth tremor that night as the primary reason for the whole story. People felt the earth tremor over a 60 mile radius and residents in the Upper Dee valley in villages like Llanuwchllyn, Llidiardau and further afield like Cerrigydrudion and Llangynog are further examples, yet, though having some relevance from the same experience as say Llandrillo locals, they were written out of the story.
Readers here should be reminded that officialdom claimed the earth tremor was some 5000+ metres below the town of Bala and though shock waves moving through the geology act differently depending on the rock types, to ignore the experiences of those outside the area of interest is either sloppy or contrived.
'Just after 8.30pm thousands of people in the area were jolted from their winter musings by at least one, possibly two, explosions, followed immediately by a terrible rumbling. The whole event lasted four or five seconds. Furniture moved, ornaments rattled, buildings shook. Livestock and domestic animals voiced their terror. As people shot to their windows some saw lights streaking across the sky. Villagers flooded out into the streets in an attempt to discover the cause of the violent disturbance. As they looked up into the mountains several saw a mysterious white glow, lasting a few seconds. Others saw beams of light being projected into the night sky.'
I stand to be corrected, but in all the research I've done including speaking to locals, I've never learned of anyone mentioning the possibility of two explosions. I myself have never come across a local farmer who claimed the event disturbed their livestock unduly. Likewise, pets or, even notes on unusual wildlife behaviour.
While it is true residents across the whole of the affected area looked out of windows, doors and indeed ventured outside, some people didn't even know there'd been an earth tremor. Such is the peculiar effect of seismic activity affected by varying geology. Some residents did indeed claim to see flashing light beams though the only ones who've claimed to see a white glow were Huw Lloyd and the other vehicle occupants. One of the on-duty local Police officers that night claimed to have seen a green light flash in the night sky after the event but nothing more.
There is frequent mention of a landslide mostly notably within what can be termed debunking literature. Despite enquiries, I've discovered no one in the narrow affected area concentrated on by the author - or indeed further afield - who could identify this. In fact, when I mentioned it to Huw Lloyd, his frown was eye-catching!
It would have been useful for the author here to identify which villages he was referring to when claiming villagers looked up and saw lights. Only some villagers in Llandrillo saw beams of light which were directly above the village on fields over a ridge called Cefn Pen Llety which today is planted with conifers. This was the light from hunters often referred to as poachers who were lamping. This is the process of dazzling foxes, rabbits or hares with a beam of light while illuminating them to shoot or be run down by a dog. In this case, it was gun use.
'Many villagers immediately called the emergency services believing that a disaster of some kind had taken place. After speaking to the police one local nurse was certain that an aircraft had crashed and set off for the mountains in her car, dreading what she might find there, but eager to offer help until the emergency services arrived. Once above the tree line and on the high mountain road she stopped her car, baffled and startled at what she could see. For there, high on the desolate mountain side, was what appeared to be a large glowing sphere. Whatever it was lay too far from the road to be reached on foot and all the nurse could do was watch. The sphere seemed to pulsate, changing colour as it did so from red to yellow to white, while other white lights, 'fairy lights' as the witness described them, could be seen above and below it on the hillside. Realising she could not possibly reach the lights she drove back to her village. As she did so a group of police and soldiers stopped her and forcefully ordered her off the mountain, saying the road was being cordoned off.'
Some locals called the Police but during my enquiries North Wales Police persisted in claiming they no longer held records of who called and from where, something I refute. The only bit of information was a well-used part log of a few people with only one Llandrillo resident being identified. That information has now been pulled from public distribution after I challenged North Wales Police as every single name or address had been altered. North Wales Police had been perhaps knowingly disseminating false information into the public domain and, incredibly, the only documentation the Force claimed to still have simply fed a false trail to enquirers. Everything else apparently had been destroyed in the changeover from Gwynedd Constabulary to North Wales Police later in 1974.
An identical tactic was used by persons within the Holyhead Coastguard station where claims were made to enquirers that no records existed beyond some fabricated details deliberately supplied to Russell Kellett as part of the so-called Operation Photoflash event which was built on the concept of a disinformative UFO crash on Cader Berwyn.
Yet it transpired that there were log books and lots of them which the Maritime & Coastguard Agency insisted didn't exist. They lied to Russ Kellett and furnished him with a faked suggestion they had just enough information to support the JW hoax regarding a naval engagement with UFOs just off the North Wales coast.
One of the local Police officers contacted headquarters claiming he too feared a plane had crashed above Llandrillo, he concluding what some residents also did, putting the light beam and explosion sound together to create an imaginary disaster.
The author then moves on to Mrs Pat Evans, a local district nurse at the time. Note how Mr. Roberts isolates her as a witness. He and his cohorts writing and speaking about the Berwyn event have continually portrayed Mrs. Evans as a lone witness. This is important in order to make it easier to denigrate her testimony. Throughout, the author has always known she was accompanied by two daughters but persists in failing to mention this. The reasoning is obvious. The more people involved in a lie means there's more chance of the lie unfolding. The opposite of that is the more people involved in a truth means there's more chance of the truth standing firm.
(Image Ref: Metro article dated 21 January 2024)
It took Mrs. Evans some time to get through to the Police as the switchboards across North Wales were jammed such was the scale of the affected area. I'll mention more later, but it is vitally important to note here that by the time Mrs. Evans spoke to Police and offered her services as a trained nurse fearing some sort of disaster, other Police officers along with then 14 year old Huw Lloyd were already en route to the fields and higher moorland above Llandrillo where it was believed a plane might have crashed.
Despite knowing this, a major incident log having been opened and a RAF search and rescue team being summoned from Anglesey's RAF Valley, Mrs. Evans was not asked or directed to the scene of any alleged disaster. North Wales Police deliberately withheld that information leaving Mrs. Evans to decide for herself where to go. There was no mention of coordinating or liaising with anyone in charge at Llandrillo which was bizarre on the face of it. But of course as things developed, it was more senior officers who worked to involve as few civilians as possible.
Even in the event of a possible air crash, they deliberately subverted her by denying important information. And, although it has been mentioned that the Berwyns are inhospitable, at times requiring injured persons to be assisted to safety by mountain rescue outfits, on this occasion they too were not asked to attend despite an incident log being opened - something which raised eyebrows among established volunteers.
Mrs. Evans chose to head for the road which goes up and over the Berwyn range before dropping down to the village of Llangynog in the direction of the border with England. This road is the B4391. It was a logical route to take considering she was effectively working blind. At its highest point it is flattish for some two thirds of a mile. Just after a sharp hairpin on the road and still climbing, the mountainside of Cader Berwyn comes into view on the left along with its sub-peak Moel Sych. On the straight section, the whole vista to the left opens up and in daylight, the bulk of the Range including the further peak Cader Bronwen can be viewed easily. If one continues forward, the ground soon rises on the left and the view vanishes. There then is a little track of some 100 yards in length leading to a car parking spot hidden by a surrounding bank. Just at the same roadside location is the Merionethshire county boundary as it was then back in 1974.
It is well documented what Mrs. Evans (and her daughters) saw. She stopped a little before 10pm to look at the light on the mountainside. Having camped in such locations and at that spot, I can myself testify how dark it must have been that Wednesday night as there was no moon. it didn't come above the horizon that night though that didn't stop some debunkers claiming Mrs. Evans had been looking at our celestial satellite.
As the oft told story goes, she observed the spectacle noting little lights she called fairy lights approaching the 'Object'.
Mr. Roberts claims here they approached from above and below the Object but as far as I'm aware he is the only person to perhaps embellish the story by claiming this.
Mrs. Evans thought the lights were perhaps rescuers' torches and she did mention seeing a distant vehicle's headlights. Simply standing on the B4391 where she stopped, and looking at the topography of the land in daylight and in the dark, she undoubtedly saw the headlights of the commandeered vehicle driven by Huw Lloyd. He drove in a clockwise direction and was confined to the land above Llandrillo. Her time and position on the mountain road ties in perfectly with that of the initial Police search with Huw Lloyd and both were at an altitude where they could see each other though undulating ground meant those in the vehicle could not possibly see the Object. They did however see a white glow from it for a few seconds as previously mentioned.
The 2008 documentary from which the above audio clip was taken:
It will perhaps be of interest that the documentary Britain's Closest UFO Encounters aired in 2008 should have included me. More correctly, just me.
This particular programme became my most iconic example of two-faced, back-stabbing anti-ufo activity by the Establishment. I say this as the UK's Channel 5 brought out the short-lived and seemingly incomplete series at the behest of the Ministry of Defence, which apparently commissioned Channel 5 to make and air the programmes to coincide with the release of hitherto classified UFO files. Channel 5 in turn commissioned Firefly Productions to make the documentaries.
I was contacted by a researcher working for the production company. Today, that person, Livia Simoka is listed as a TV producer. She wanted (or so she claimed) to do a documentary on me and my knowledge at that point on the Berwyn event, I was interested but cautious and told her that I wouldn't ever do any progamme which included certain persons one of whom was Andy Roberts. I gave her a list of names and she assured me the progamme was only about me.
Based on that, but noting the company put nothing in writing, times and dates were agreed. I knew they were going to interview Huw Lloyd and I visited him at his farm house in Llandrillo to talk about matters in advance.
What became all too obvious was that the Director of the film crew, Ian Levison, was smart enough to become agitated out in the field as the reality of that demonstated that it did't fit his script/remit. When visiting various locations on the Berwyns, he was clearly aware the narrative was askew. This was of course all being filmed.
I was disappointed but watched the progamme anyway. It was an eye opener. Every single person I'd named was in the documentary. I joked it was the Andy Roberts show. While that was annoying, what was more worrying was that the researcher Livia Simoka blatantly lied about why I'd been contacted and who was/wasn't to be in the progamme. She must have known from Day 1 those skeptics and debunkers were to be part of the documentary.
It must be considered, if there was a plot never to use my footage, why bother contacting me in the first place? At the very least they'd have saved themselves a lot of filming time and £200. I've mentioned this to many people since 2008 and the response has always been the same. They wanted to see just what I knew and had worked out.
Firefly Productions ended up with substantial footage showing large holes in the official narrative. Looking back, there is no way that would ever have been aired as it may have undermined the very reason the series was commissioned in the first place.
Since then, I've been approached several times by TV goons and not one has been honest. As soon as I request it all to be put in writing and I hand over my list of subversives, they run a mile. That tells me all I need to know about their integrity.
Some of the claims made by Andy Roberts are outrageous. One only has to stand on the B4391 and target the higher ground covered by Huw Lloyd and Police on that night armed with nothing more than a rifle telescopic sight to see how no one even at Mr. Lloyd's altitude - or indeed anyone in the Pennant valley leading out of Llandrillo or the village itself - could see any Object on any part of Cader Berwyn visible to Mrs. Evans and Co. The only person who we know saw it directly on the mountain slope of Cader Berwyn is Mrs. Evans and daughters.
It has often been claimed that Mrs. Evans was stopped by a military vehicle (not Police) on her journey back home which she started about 22.10 hours. There's a lot of mystery surrounding this claim. Andy Roberts has claimed Mrs. Evans showed him a note that she saw no one on the return journey which has puzzled quite a few people. Why would someone note they'd not seen anyone without a prompt?
He seems to have done this to perhaps aid Mrs. Evans post 1997? When I first got to know Margaret Fry I read her diaries and I recall reading how, when interviewed by Margaret, she recorded that Mrs. Evans had indeed claimed she met with a military vehicle on her return journey. This was not an aggressive encounter as reported by some over-zealous UFO enthusiasts or seeded as disinformation. As I read in Margaret's diary, Mrs. Evans claimed she met a military vehicle and stopped of her own volition. Some brief words were exchanged and she continued on her way, the military vehicle heading to where she had stopped to look at the Object.
From my own timings, that vehicle must have arrived on the scene while the Object was still on the mountainside, but not for long. Mrs. Evans later told other locals that she was sorry she didn't wait longer as she heard the Object lifted off about ten minutes after her departure. Clearly someone else was privy to that information. Indeed Mrs. Fry had recorded claims from two independent witnesses in the village of Llangynog that they each saw a 'UFO' of sorts pass overhead and over their village at about 22.20.
The fact Mrs. Fry had recorded what apparently Mrs. Evans stated became rather odd as, some time in or after 1995, Mrs. Evans suddenly changed her story and started claiming she'd never said anything of the sort to Margaret Fry. This was odd as it coincided with the start of claims by Andy Roberts that she'd showed him a note that she didn't meet a soul that night as I mention above. It seems the race was now on to bury any references that Pat Evans might have changed her story, something she very much disputes.
This was further complicated because several people over the years who were in school with her daughters claimed Mrs. Evans' offspring had told them of stopping to chat with soldiers on their return home. I myself had the opportunity to have a perhaps untrustworthy conversation with a semi-drunk relative of the Evans family who insisted Pat Evans had indeed changed her story.
It seems Mrs. Fry and Mrs. Evans fell out over this and I suspect rightly or wrongly that it was the fact a reputable diary entry existed which in most walks of life is good evidence.
As for story changes, although the article author here is relating some claims made before he offers his take on matters, it must be pointed out that at no time was the Evans family anywhere but on the B4391 road. They never left their vehicle and were never on a mountainside to be ordered away by anyone.
'Official reaction was quick to the initial explosion. Suspiciously quick some say, with more police and military arriving within minutes, turning people away from the mountain roads. In the days following it seems there was an unusual and large military presence in the area. Roads remained closed and farmers reported they were forbidden from tending their stock. Something was obviously being sought, or why would military jets and helicopters be criss-crossing the area and strangers combing the mountainsides? Scientists from university departments also came to tramp the hills, but far more suspicious were the official-looking outsiders who turned up in the villages immediately after the event, tight-lipped about their business but keenly interested in the events on the mountain.'
It is well documented that, at least officially, there was no military presence in Llandrillo at the time of the earth tremor. Police were already present as the village of Llandrillo had its own village Police house station and compliment of officers. What seemed out of the ordinary was the village also seemed to have a compliment of non-local cops swelling the numbers, this only coming to light when the population unexpectedly left their homes due to the explosion and some seeking to consult the local bobbies. Huw Lloyd himself in a conversation with me said one of the officers in his vehicle had pips on his uniform and another had come from Barmouth over 30 road miles away.
As the event unfolded from 20.38 hours when the earth tremor occurred, to the Police showing up in Huw's farm yard just 30 mins. later and only just after 9pm, a major incident log being opened, it would have been impossible for an officer from Barmouth to be in Llandrillo and in Huw's yard at 21.10 hours. Yet, that is what Huw Lloyd claimed.
So, either Huw Lloyd is mistaken, telling porkies or there were already additional Police officers in Llandrillo. What was also interesting from my recorded chats with Huw Lloyd is he claimed none of the officers in his vehicle were local. That itself would be astonishing as it would mean non-local officers who were unfamiliar with the village and wider village area were sent off to explore land which would have been well known to local Police officers. If a major incident had occurred surely one would expect speed to be of the essence?
As it happened, no local farmers were excluded from their land. One of the few things Andy Roberts claimed which I can agree with is locals did after some years had passed confuse events from the 12th of February 1982 when a military trainer plane crashed not far from the summit of Cader Berwyn. The Air Force did seal off the crash site area ONLY and had a group of airmen working a shift pattern to guard the site until the dead pilot and wreckage was cleared.
I do know of one witness who resided in Llandrillo who was working in Corwen that night. She returned home late in the evening as usual only to find a makeshift road block just up the Pennant lane and not far from her home. She was asked who she was and where she was going and was then let on her way.
This is important not just because of the road block but also because there is anecdotal evidence of a military operation taking place in the location of the Object which ties in with the landing and departure of said object. The lane leading from Llandrillo to the hamlet of Pennant two miles further up the Ceidiog valley (named after the stream therein) is the access to that part of the Range where the Object was. I can mention this as a claim was made that soldiers called in at a farm in that little valley at about 21.30 hours asking if they could use the telephone as their radios wouldn't work.
It is anecdotal as the claimant refuses to be identified and the story came to me by request via a third party. It is not my policy to use such claims as evidence, so it can be nothing but an unsubstantiated claim. That aside, I do believe, if true, I know the farm in question and by coincidence it is less than a 30 minute walk uphill for a fit person to where Mrs. Evans' fairy lights were. Because I'd bothered to do proper field work and not make up stories from a convenient driveable track, or roadside or other convenient vantage point, my logic was that, if true, the radios may have been disrupted by the Object's presence which had been on the mountainside from at least 21.20 hours. Mrs. Evans arrived on the B4391 just before 10pm.
This was simple procedure and though I agree with Mr. Roberts on the cordon issue and memories, he has over-exaggerated this and has created a blanket approach that all, every single one, of the locals who claim they saw soldiers linked to the Berwyn event eight years earlier were wrong and confused. He even tried to claim the trainer plane was carrying top secret hardware to justify his inflated military presence claim. He wasn't wrong there. He lied. That plane was so primitive it didn't even have a black box flight recorder on it. Mr. Roberts knew this from Day 1 yet offered up a totally different reality.
The only person I know whoever claimed a plane or indeed any aircraft seemed to search the Range that night was Mike Saville. He testified to Mrs. Fry, to me and put it on record in a documentary made by Richard D. Hall, that he noted what was to him a blacked-out propellered plane seemingly going back and forth along the Range later that January 23rd night in 1974. No mention of helicopters by anyone. There were aerial searches in later days during daylight hours as scientists searched for evidence of an impact crater from perhaps a crashed object or a meteorite or such like.
The official-looking outsiders were staff from the British Geological Survey who were asking questions and passing out questionnaires. There were four of them who stayed in the Plas Coch hotel in Bala but Andy Roberts inflated this to six to seemingly character assassinate the locals that bit more on their recollections.
'The incident was immediately taken seriously by the media, with national TV and radio reports being broadcast over several days. The Guardian, The Times and other national newspapers gave the event in-depth coverage as did the Welsh regional and local press.
Speculation about the cause of the explosion, rumbling and lights was rife. An aircraft crash would have accounted for the noise, lights and keen official involvement. Indeed one local newspaper was certain that whatever had taken place involved a crash of some kind and that something had been retrieved from the mountains, noting, 'There is a report that an Army vehicle was seen coming down the mountain near Bala Lake with a large square box on the back of it and accompanied by outriders.'
Speculation was indeed rife and the media had a story of sorts. I recall broadcaster John Craven visiting Llandrillo and asking locals what they saw etc.
As for the 'unnamed' local newspaper, the statement about the army vehicle near Bala is worthless. No paper identified, no dates, no locations. Very poor including the fact that taking Bala as a central point, it is eight road miles from Llandrillo though much nearer to the B4391 location of Mrs. Evans. In fact, that road goes to Bala.
'But the authorities steadfastly refused to acknowledge that anything unusual had taken place. And in any case, not one of the 'explanations' took into account the totality of what had been reported by witnesses. Meteorites and earth tremors were also suggested as being the cause, and indeed would have explained some of the mystery. But what could possibly explain the 'glows' and 'beams of light' seen on the mountain? They were swiftly dismissed as the villagers' imaginations, shooting stars, or more ludicrously as people out poaching hares. Natural phenomena was also unlikely to lead to roads being closed by the army or large areas of mountain side being closed off.'
It goes without saying that the dismissals villagers suffered actually came from skeptics and the hunting of hares etc. is not ludicrous as that is what occurred. Indeed those responsible packed in their lamping by 9pm as their battery was almost dead and in one claim watched the Police move their vehicle blocking the lane and track up on to the moorland on their way to search the land the hunters had just left.
Once the Police et al proceeded on their way, the lads jumped into their car and cleared off. The locals, leaving their Llandrillo homes after feeling the tremor and hearing the explosion sound, saw their light immediately after 20.40 hours above the village and out of line of sight behind the ridge previously mentioned as Cefn Pen Llety. Claims of shooting stars is ludicrous as that night was cloudy with light drizzle. There was no moon.
Natural phenomena might not provoke a military presence but such was seemingly used as a cover story when it came to a scheduled bolide meteor shower that night.
'With no further information coming to light the media soon forgot about the incident. The locals too let the matter fade from their immediate concern if not entirely from their memories. UFO researchers realised that something had taken place which had not been satisfactorily explained. Lights in the sky, and mysterious explosions, together with unusual military activity are avidly noted by the UFO community. However, in 1974 UFO crash retrievals were barely mentioned in the UFO literature, especially in the UK, and there was no immediate template for the events in the Berwyn's to fit into. Various UFO journals reported the events at the time but no investigation was undertaken and no real conclusions were offered.'
I have always believed the concept of a UFO crash retrieval was disinformation seeded into the public domain to mislead researchers. Once out there, over-zealous researchers and UFO enthusiasts certainly added to that and inflamed matters which I understand was the desired effect.
There was never a crash. Therefore there could never have been a crash retrieval. The crash retrieval story persisted until UFO researcher Tony Dodd mentioned that there was evidence the Berwyn UFO actually took off, again undermining the crash story. By the late 1990s, the crash story was taking its last gasps as the evidence for a controlled landing and departure of the Object grew.
The concept of a crash was still being kept alive by a guy known as John Williams aka JW aka JW Conway who approached Margaret Fry by early 1997 trying to get her to accept a most bizarre story to justify the Berwyn crash scenario. This was rejected by Mrs. Fry.
Self-styled UFO investigator Russ Kellett then got involved in 1999 and swallowed the outrageous story hook, line and sinker, totally ignoring the brazen alterations to the original tale given to Mrs. Fry. Seemingly moving the alleged crash location three miles didn't raise any alarms with Mr Kellett!
'But shadowy forces appeared to be at work. Within months of the event UFO investigators in the north of England began to receive official-looking documents from a group called Aerial Phenomena Enquiry Network (APEN). These documents claimed that an extraterrestrial craft had come down on the Berwyns and was retrieved for study by an APEN crash retrieval team which had been on the scene within hours of the event. More significantly APEN claimed there had been a key witness to the UFO crash who they were recommending for hypnotic regression. Hypnotic regression was at that time virtually unknown in the UK UFO community. In fact besides having being used in the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill 'abduction', hypnosis was not used within ufology at that time.'
Shadowy forces were at work and I'll take the reader back a few sentences re: the crash scenario being disinformation. I have believed for some years now that the existence of APEN and the information put out by the organisation was entirely orchestrated to uphold the Berwyn crash scenario. A ruse to inflame, cause confusion and send researchers on a wild goose chase. The fact that hypnotic regression was rare and even unknown in Britain within the UFO community simply suggests that it was known by others operating on different levels and the suggestion of its use was simply to plump up the illusion of a crash scenario.
'If APEN were hoaxers then they displayed an uncanny and detailed knowledge of both ufology in general and the Berwyn Mountain incident in particular. Some researchers have speculated that APEN may have been part of a government cover up, using UFO mythology to spread disinformation and so divert attention from secret weapons testing. APEN also issued similar enigmatic communications in conjunction with other UFO events, notably the Rendlesham Forest case.'
This paragraph tells me all I need to know. APEN weren't hoaxers. The actual organisation, if it existed at all, was part of a wider hoax about a Berwyn UFO crash. That to me perfectly explains the 'uncanny and detailed knowledge........'
As there was clearly something on the mid-slope of Cader Berwyn that night, it was important enough to waylay researchers. For me, the UFO crash scenario enhanced by the likes of this APEN outfit etc. wasn't to cover up a secret weapon test. I like to think it is a double bluff using a UFO hoax to cover up a UFO event.