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Is West Yorkshire a Hotspot for UFO Sightings

Is West Yorkshire a Hotspot for UFO Sightings

UFO Sightings are always a controversial and divisive topic, and that’s before we even look at the evidence of extraterrestrial life from beyond the stars. Still, whichever side of the fence you are on, there are a series of events in the 80s in one area of West Yorkshire in the UK with an unexplained and eerie feel. This series of events starts with the unexplained death of a coal miner named Zigmund Adamski, who disappeared on the 6th of June 1980 and sparked a UFO and Alien Mystery that still baffles most to this day. 

Where in West Yorkshire?

The main parts of this mystery take part in a quaint town called Todmorden and flake off into the surrounding areas of Ilkley and Tingley. 

Each is about 20 miles apart from the other as the UFO flies. Todmorden and Ilkley Moor lay in the Idyllic Countryside surrounded by Green hills and Fells with Hebden Bridge, Howarth and Keighley between the two areas.

Tingley is South of Leeds and a fair distance from Todmorden, which makes the first part of this mystery even more intriguing.

The Coal Miner Mystery

Zigmund ‘Ziggy’ Adamski was a 56-year-old polish-born Coal miner living in Tingles with his Chronically ill wife, Lottie. On the 6th of June 1980, Admski left his home to go shopping and disappeared off the face of the Earth. 

It wasn’t until 5 days later, when a police officer, Alan Godfrey, serving in Todmorden, received a call from his station requesting him to investigate a reported dead body at a local Colliery, that Adamski would be next seen. 




The Body of Adamski was laid on top of a pile of coal ten feet high. Upon inspection, Adamski was dressed in an ill-fitted suit, missing his shirt, wallet and watch. His hair was roughly cut, which revealed several burn marks around his forehead, neck and shoulders. The Burns had been covered in a green goop ointment-like substance. However, the most mysterious part of this discovery was that his clothes and body were not covered in black dust or marks, as one may expect if an individual had climbed ten feet of coal. Also, the expression on Adamski’s face showed pure fear, which Alan Godfrey didn’t believe fit with the injuries present on Adamski’s Body. 

Coroner, James Turnbull, set out to investigate the cause of the death of Adamski. In his findings, he disclosed that:

  • The Burn Marks on Adamski’s body were a couple of days old.
  • The Stubble on Adamski’s face was no more than one day old. 
  • The time of death was approximately 8 hours before the body was discovered. 
  • There were no identifiable restraint marks on the body.
  •  The Green substance found on the burn marks was tested scientifically, but it could not be identified, And finally;
  • The cause of death was a heart attack.

During investigations, it was discovered that there were no significant reasons for Adamski to be abducted, tortured and murdered, no one was charged, and despite the location and cause of death being a mystery, the investigation was closed. This was something that Alan Godfrey would find hard to accept. Godfrey knew that something had killed Adamski and scared him to death. Why had he been shaved in the period when he was missing? What was the Green Goo? Who or What had put him on top of the coal pile? All these questions needed answers, but he could do nothing without his colleagues’ support. 

A few months later, on the 29th of November, 1980, Godfrey would learn the truth about what happened to Adamski. 

The Abduction of Alan Godfrey

PC Godfrey had been called out in the early morning of the 29th of November, 1980, to reports of escaped cattle roaming around a housing estate in Todmorden. 

The site of the incident happened to be only a short walk from where Adamski’s body was discovered earlier that year. 

However, when he went to the site, he could not locate any cattle and returned to the station.

He later received another call from an elderly resident of the same area stating that a herd of cows was roaming in her garden. Godfrey went out to investigate. Upon arriving at the lady’s residence, there were no signs of cattle again. 

So, Godfrey, curious to know whether this was a hoax call, knocked on the residence door. The older woman answered, stating that the cows had been present earlier but had disappeared into a bright light.

Puzzled by this and the other report from earlier at 5 a.m., Godfrey went on the hunt for the missing cows. Towards the end of his journey, he turned onto Burnley road and was met by a large UFO approximately 20ft by 14ft in size. Stunned, Godfrey pulled over in his car and set the handbrake. He tried his radio to alert his colleagues of what he was seeing, but nothing was working. There was some interference with the signal of the radio. So Godfrey sketched what he was seeing in his police notepad.




Godfrey was next encased in a bright light emitting from the UFO, and he felt paralysed. When the light disappeared and his eyes adjusted, he realised that his vehicle was far from where he had parked. The UFO had vanished, and upon looking at his watch, Godfrey realised that 30 minutes had suddenly passed. When assessing the road where the UFO was placed, he noticed that the road was dry, whereas everything else was wet due to the raid that had been persistent through the night. He also saw quite a large amount of debris around the area, such as sticks and leaves, as if the UFO had caused disturbance upon disappearing.

Alan Godfrey credit: Triangle News

Godfrey left and returned to the station to speak to his chain of command about the incident he had just witnessed. Instead, Godfrey met friction from the force and was ridiculed for his account of what happened. Godfrey also recalls a man who was introduced as a man from the ministry who had warned him about revealing his story to a broader audience. He also recalled the man having a file approximately an inch thick that he spotted contained his sketch of the craft and details surrounding Adamski’s mysterious death, solidifying Godfrey’s opinion that the two incidents were linked. 

After some time, Godfrey began having flashbacks of the incident, each revealing little bits of memories during the 30-minute window he had seemingly lost. Finally, a friend suggested that he see a hypnotist to see if he could recall the lost memories.

Taking his friends’ suggestion on board, Godfrey went to see a few hypnotists, two of which he recorded their sessions. Then, Whilst in his trance-like state, Godfrey revealed the events of the 30 minutes he was missing.

Godfrey divulged that in the 30-minute window, he had tried to escape from the scene by putting the car in reverse, but suddenly the car had cut out a short way down the road. The light emitting from the UFO lifted him and transported him to the UFO until he was inside. He was greeted by a bearded Humanoid who addressed himself as Joeseph. Godfrey also describes several smaller creatures in the UFO. He was examined on a medical table and taken on a UFO tour by Joeseph before being allowed to be released.



Godfrey, before this incident, was a very well-thought-of individual in the police force and a well-respected member of the community. Godfrey, to this day, stands by his account but states that he wished he had never seen the UFO as it has made life for him and his family very difficult at times.

However, Alan Godfrey’s account may not be the only compelling story in this area. Some years later, in 1987, another UFO sighting with a possible abduction took place just 20 miles from Todmorden, but this one comes with photographic evidence.

The Ilkley Moor UFO Sightings

A retired police officer had recently moved to Ilkley in West Yorkshire. The individual who has not been officially named but has been represented by the pseudonym Phillip Spencer had moved from London to be closer to his wife and child. 

On the 1st of December 1987, Spencer set off for a walk to the following local town, East Morton, where he planned to visit his father-in-law.

The walking route took him a long Ilkley Moor. Unfortunately, the day was cold, and the visibility wasn’t excellent. Due to this, Spencer, being relatively new to the area, had left with a compass to help navigate his way on his route if the conditions were to worsen.

Spencer was also a keen amateur photographer, so as many enthusiasts do, he carried his camera to take shots of the scenic countryside on his travels. 

As Spencer walked along the moor, he approached a small hill. There he noticed a small figure approximately 4ft tall. Spencer initially described the figure as gesturing for him to leave with its arms as if it was shooing him away. 

After years of experience in the police force, observing and pursuing criminals, Spencer naturally picked up his camera and obtained evidence of what he had stumbled upon. 

UFO Sightings

The figure shuffled away and moved out of his line of sight behind an embankment. Spencer continued moving towards the figure he had seen, but then a ship from out of this world suddenly shot up and faded into the wintery sky above. 

He left the scene and went to the closest town to his current position rather than carrying on to his intended destination. When he arrived, he noted the time on the town clock and suddenly realised it was about two hours later than expected. Like Godfrey, he had experienced a case of Missing Time. Spencer also noticed that his compass had started to perform incorrectly and no longer indicated North correctly.

After the incident and upon having his photograph developed, he contacted UFO researchers Jenny Randles and Peter Hough to discuss the events. 

Hough Sent off the photograph to have it verified and suggested that he see a hypnotist to see if he could recover the memories of his apparent missing time. 

The photographs were sent to a wildlife photographer, a Photo specialist at Kodak and an optics expert at the US Navy. 

The US Navy Expert returned to say the image was too grainy to check the authenticity. Next, the Wildlife Expert confirmed that the figure in the picture represented no wildlife known on Earth. Finally, the representative of Kodak could confirm that there was no evidence of tampering with the photograph.

On the 16th of March 1988, Spencer visited Hypnotist Jim Singleton after having recurring strange dreams.

Under hypnosis, Spencer recalled the events missing in the two hours Spencer had lost, which Singleton had described as Genuine Recall. 

Spencer recalled that when first seeing the mysterious creature, he became paralysed. He was then lifted into the air by an invisible force that carried him into the ship. He was told to be calm by a voice, and more little green creatures performed medical examinations on him. He was next given a tour of the craft before being shown clips of catastrophic events such as nuclear explosions, floods and famine. This served as a warning to the future of humanity if wars were not avoided and climate issues were not addressed. In the following clip, Spencer was shown he has never disclosed the content due to the repercussions he says this will have on life on Earth.

Spencer finally went on to recall that he departed from the UFO, and that is when he took the photo and the hand gestures that he previously thought were shooing movements were a goodbye. 




It has been reported that on multiple occasions, much Like Godfrey, Spencer was also visited by a ‘men in black sort of individual, maybe another man from the ministry who had warned Spencer not to divulge the information to a broader audience.

The Case of the abduction of Spencer has come under much scrutiny, and the photograph has been said to be staged with cut-outs. This would mean that there was no need for the picture to be tampered with. 

However, like Godfrey, Spener was seen as an upstanding citizen with an exemplary record in the police force. Two individuals would be the last on anyone’s list to be staging an elaborately fabricated story of alien abductions. 

This area of West Yorkshire has been the focal point of numerous UFO sightings throughout the last forty years. 

More recently, Vicky Dinsdale, a resident of Todmorden, was out walking with her dog and her grandfather above Todmorden when they spotted a diamond-shaped object high in the sky in front of them.

The incident occurred in 1981, approximately one year after police officer Alan Godfrey’s close encounter with a UFO in the town.

Other officers and a bus driver also stated that they had seen a UFO on the same night as Alan Godfrey’s alleged abduction. So is it all an elaborate hoax, or is there a genuine Alien activity hotspot in this quiet rural area of West Yorkshire? 

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