Oakenholt, Wales being encounter — July 17, 1976

The Oakenholt record belongs to the Sunderland family reports investigated by Jenny Randles and Paul Whetnall. In July 1976, nine-year-old Gaynor said she stopped her bicycle on Coed-on Road and looked through a hedge into a field. The inherited July 17 date is more precise than the investigated article's secure month; later catalogues offer other approximate days. She described a roughly thirty-five-foot silvery, cigar-like object with yellowish rectangular windows, a narrow rim and a dull red box above. A thin, angular figure in a silver suit and helmet reportedly used an instrument to make small holes in the soil. Its face was pale, with large round whitish eyes and tiny pink centres. A shorter, similarly dressed figure, interpreted as female, subsequently examined the holes with another tool. Gaynor associated their glances with coldness, dizziness and a feeling that her thoughts were being examined. These were her impressions, not demonstrated telepathy. After about half an hour, she said she fled, returned for her bicycle and saw the object climb into a cloud amid a humming sound and burning smell. She later reported discoloured grass. Her younger brother Darren described a separate, much more elaborate encounter; the investigators noted inconsistencies and possible embellishment in his account. The children told their parents in 1978. Gaynor's detailed conscious account preceded a February 1979 hypnosis session. The published investigators explicitly reported no initial missing-time or abduction suspicion. Hypnosis repeated the narrative and supplied minor details, but cannot independently verify it. The plate illustrates Gaynor's exterior account and keeps the later family experiences separate.