Above: Witness interview from the TV programme 'Out of This World': 1977

Extracts from a newspaper interview: 'In 1954, a Ranton woman, near Stafford, told the Express & Star that she and her two children had been terrified by a flying saucer, carrying 'two long-haired human-like creatures'.

The machine landed in the garden, she stated "when she heard a noise like a crashing aircraft, yesterday, Mrs Jessie Roestenburg, of isolated Vicarage Farm, ran out into the garden.

She found her two children lying prostrate and terrified.

Above the children was a huge, saucer-like object with a dome, the front part of which was transparent, she stated.

Staring at the children from the machine were two 'unsmiling, human-like creatures, with long faces and long hair'.



Above: Mrs Roestenburg's drawing of what she saw

She told our reporter that she ran to the back of the house in fright. The objected moved over the house, hovered for about 15 seconds, and then shot off at high speed.

"The boys were so terrified that they would not go out again last night," she said. "The dog was no-where to be seen. I think it must have bolted."

Incredibly, "in June of this year, the vicar of nearby Seighford, the Rev Cedric Wright, also reported seeing a flying saucer over the vicarage at about midnight." End quotes.

Above: Incomplete newspaper cutting from 1959 - please click to enlarge



Above: An aritist's rendition of the beings Jessie saw was later created -and here is the witness herself holding the picture up during an interview; click to enlarge .



Researcher Gavin Gibbons wrote that one October evening in 1954, a Dutchman living in England named Tony Roestenberg returned home to find his wife, Jessie, “in a terrified state.” According to Jessie: earlier that day nothing less than a flying saucer hovered over their isolated farmhouse in Ranton. In addition, Jessie could see peering down from the craft two very “Nordic”-like men that could have stepped right out of the pages of the controversial Desmond Leslie-George Adamski tome, Flying Saucers Have Landed.

Their foreheads were high, their hair was long and fair, and they seemed to have ‘pitiful’ looks on their faces. The strange craft reportedly circled the family’s home twice, before streaking away. Curiously, on the following Sunday, Tony Roestenberg had a “hunch” that if he climbed on the roof of his house “he would see something unusual,” which he most certainly did. It was a high-flying, cigar-shaped object that vanished into the clouds.

Gavin Gibbons, who investigated the case personally, stated: “When I visited the Roestenberg’s house almost three weeks after the sighting…Jessie Roestenberg appeared. She seemed highly strained and nervous and her husband, coming in later, was also very strained. It was evident that something most unusual had occurred.” Source: 'The Coming of the Space Ships' by Gavin Gibbons - 1956

Above: Preserving the social history of UFO sightings: A short clip of Jessie Roestenberg when aged 90; recorded in 2015 by John Hanson.