Arthur Shuttlewood, in one of his books – Warnings From Flying Friends – Flying Saucer Revelations, published by Portway Press in 1968, wrote:
During the third week in November of 1967, the retired surveyor and chief public health inspector of Warminster and Westbury Rural Council, Frank Merrett, was out shooting pheasants on the Rye Hill Farm estate of Claudius R. Algar, who is chairman of Warminster Magistrates’ Court and farms at Longbridge Deverill, a few miles south of Warminster.
Shooting friends and beaters were with Mr. Merrett on that Thursday afternoon. A shadow uncurled on the ground – and the surveyor sportsman immediately raised his gun into the firing position, expecting to see a covey of game birds winging overhead.
But there was no whirring sound that one associates with such mass flight. Above the farmhouse itself, casting its shadow in accordance with the position of the wintry sun, was a long torpedo shaped object that shone grey-white and sparkled along the top where the sun rays struck and bounced off its casing.
It was more rounded at one end than the other. What appeared to be dark slots or windows darkened the side facing the shooting companions. Frank told me bluntly, in front of a dozen people: ‘I have always thought you and other so-called witnesses of these phenomena mad, you know.’
His eyes gleamed as he shook a wiser head. ‘All I can now say is – if you are insane, I am proud to join you. It was in sight for over three minutes altogether and made no sound. I ran along by the hedge to warn a gamekeeper friend in the shooting party, but when I reached him the object had gone.’
When he left his co-shooters, it was moving over the house and slowly heading towards the downs to the north, he told me. Having actually seen something unworldly and incomprehensible, the former disbeliever was adamant that it is futile and resolves nothing if such information is kept secret. He was quietly thrilled to have had his sighting, I could tell.
Other witnesses affirmed that the aerial torpedo continued its gentle course towards the downs, then vanished. Changing of form is not restricted to night-time alien craft.