On the night of November 16, 1963, a chilling encounter unfolded near Sandling Park in Hythe, Kent, England, involving four teenagers who claimed to witness both a UFO and a strange creature, later dubbed the “Bat Beast of Kent.” The incident, occurring just off Sandling Road near Slaybrook Corner in the village of Saltwood, has since become a notable case in British UFO lore, often compared to the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which began three years later in 1966. The event’s mix of extraterrestrial and cryptid elements, along with its lasting mystery, continues to captivate researchers and enthusiasts.
The teenagers—John Flaxton, 17, Mervyn Hutchinson, 18, Jenny Holloway, 16, and Tony Harrison, 17—were walking home from a dance around 9:30 p.m. They were heading north along Sandling Road toward Sandling railway station, where Jenny needed to catch a train, when they noticed a bright, glowing orb in the sky. Initially mistaking it for a star, they soon realized it was moving toward them, descending silently over a field near Sandling Park. Described as a golden, oval-shaped object just a few meters in diameter, the light hovered briefly before disappearing behind a grove of trees in the park. Curiosity drove the group to approach the tree line, but the light seemed to have extinguished, prompting them to turn back.
Moments later, the orb reappeared, following them as they moved—stopping when they stopped, moving when they moved—before vanishing behind the trees again. As the teens quickened their pace, Hutchinson noticed the brush shaking, and a creature emerged from the foliage. They described it as a five-foot-tall, headless figure resembling a bat, with large webbed feet and bat-like wings protruding from its back. Flaxton later recalled feeling an overwhelming cold and fear, a sentiment shared by his friends. The group fled in terror, with the creature’s appearance and the glowing orb leaving a lasting impression.
In the days that followed, additional reports bolstered the teens’ story. On November 21, Keith Croucher, a local, reported seeing a similar oddly shaped craft hovering over a soccer field near Sandling Park. On November 23, John McGoldrick, a respected Kent resident, visited the area after hearing the teens’ account and discovered three giant footprints—24 inches long and 9 inches wide—along with flattened brush near the sighting location. McGoldrick returned on December 11 with media, who noted an eerie, glowing light emanating from the woods, a phenomenon that reportedly persisted for days. These findings, documented in the Kent Messenger and Folkestone and Hythe Gazette, added weight to the initial report, though no further investigation was pursued at the time.
Local UFO experts dismissed the sighting as a misinterpretation of natural phenomena, but the physical evidence and witness reactions challenge this explanation. The footprints and glowing light suggest something tangible was present, and the teens’ consistent accounts—Flaxton’s cold sensation, the creature’s detailed description—echo patterns in other UFO and cryptid cases, like the 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter in the U.S. Researcher Neil Arnold, in his book The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent, notes the similarity to the Mothman, a winged entity tied to UFO activity, raising questions about whether the Sandling Park event was an early manifestation of a similar phenomenon.
Skeptics argue the glowing orb could have been a meteor or atmospheric effect, and the creature a trick of light or mass hysteria among the teens. However, the lack of a sound from the orb, its deliberate movement, and the physical traces undermine these theories. A military experiment—perhaps tied to nearby RAF bases like Lydd—might explain the lights, but the creature’s description and footprints don’t align with known technology or hoaxes of the era. The 1963 sighting also fits into a broader wave of UK UFO activity that year, with reports of strange lights and objects in Kent and beyond, as noted in historical accounts of the period.
The Sandling Park case remains unresolved, its 50th anniversary in 2013 prompting renewed interest from researchers like Arnold, who called for witnesses to come forward. No new evidence has surfaced, and the original witnesses have largely remained silent. The incident’s blend of UFO and cryptid elements, its credible witnesses, and the physical traces make it a compelling mystery, one that challenges both extraterrestrial and conventional explanations, leaving a haunting question: what did those four teens encounter that night in Kent?
