The Edenfield Drone
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Way back in the 2010’s I had written an article called “The new UFOs” which you can find here on the BUFORA website:
Since this time, civil drone ownership has not only increased vastly, but the number of variants and specialisms of these include making custom ones to someone’s own specifications.
Here is an interesting case from Edenfield in the beautiful rural setting of Lancashire, UK.
The witness was out walking in the pathways up the rolling hills around the valley of their Edenfield town area when he gave this account and report to us:
“This sighting occurred on Sunday 14 June. I was walking up the hill towards Cowpe Low from the Rostron Arms in Edenfield. As I approached the top of the hill I noticed an object on the path ahead that was moving away at some speed. My first thoughts was that it must be a motorcycle but there was no sound and as I stared, I observed it was hovering 3 or 4 feet over the ground. I then thought that it must be a bird but it's movement was strangely smooth as it sped away from me and followed the path as it curved ahead (to the left). As it turned, I was able to observe that it was a metallic, bronze coloured rectangular object, glinting in the sun and about the size of a car battery. It rounded the corner and out of my sight at the hilltop.
I'd estimate it must have been around 200 feet away from me. It was moving at quite a pace, but I could see clearly enough to note some details. I made a sketch when I returned home which I have attached. It seemed to be divided by a back line and there was some kind of panel on the side. The panel was a lighter colour than the bronze of the main cube, kind of yellowish.
Overall, it reminded me of the size and shape of a large toaster. I've also attached a picture of the rough location with a green line showing its path and where I lost sight of it.
I've returned there a couple of times since and seen nothing unusual. It was just strange.”
The witness kindly sent us a photographic reference and a sketch of the UFO as seen here:
In investigation, the object itself could have been orange or darker to brown due to the light and cloud conditions of the latter part of the day. However, from a distance, the object being so close to the ground and then disappearing from any possible pursuit in observation beyond the time the witness observed this, it was looking possibly at a drone hovering at low level as the prime candidate.
When I wrote the article in the 2010s, most drones (not military ones or jet powered) for public use and sale were typically the criss-cross version with a small battery and camera mount in the middle of them, with exposed propellers on each tip.
The other main type that still are used and have the distinct four 0-ring types.
In the most current ones in the 2020’s, it’s now easy and freely available to buy other models of rectangular shapes and as power weight ratios have become more efficient, so flying time and range of the top end have become longer in control distance and various chip technology for a multitude of uses for both practical, professional or leisure purposes.
Examples could be as follows:
Orienteering and planning walks over terrain.
Rescue.
Monitoring livestock movements for agriculture.
Security of land (rustling or poaching).
Monitoring of landscape, weather conditions and safety.
Surveying for road or railway projects or maintenance or infrastructure.
Capturing landscapes to demonstrate town or rural places of interest for documentaries from amateur to TV company use.
Archaeology or demonstrating the path of old railways or canal paths.
Pure leisure use for fun.
There are some fun activity retailers that provide very basic drones for flying with no camera or other equipment on board. There are also some that are manufactured to look like a classic flying saucer with or without the lighting effects.
This drone could have been returning from mapping a pathway or having traversed the streams and other features such as the nearby reservoir terrain and for reasons unknown only to the operator, who could be up to a kilometre away in range and so the owner may be quite out of sight.
However, we still have the issue of the main shape and no propellers detected in the sighting.
Returning to the shape and development of propellers on drones, there are many available that have quadruple blades on each corner and the battery ridges and equipment means they will have compartment ridges in their main body housings. Most of the propeller blades for all drone types tend to be black and will become less detectable.
There are also a lot of the rectangular shaped drones to purchase which do not have the O-rings around them, like the four-ring type with the camera in the centre of the body.
The propeller blades do not protrude from the main body far and have developed foldable stems, for ease of opening and closing when in or out of use.
From this distance of sighting, we now can factor in the ‘wagon-wheel’ effect.
This iOS when aircraft, helicopter or drone blades are moving at full speed and the brain’s detection of them as separate blades dissolves from human perception and close up, you start to see a reverse slow single blade effect.
Move away from the propeller blades a reasonable medium to longer distance and even this becomes difficult to see anymore and only the stub of the motor they are attached to can be seen and further away, this then becomes difficult to detect.
In conclusion, this is highly likely to be a drone sighting with this wagon wheel effect at play.
As drone bodies can be purchased in a range of colours beyond the original popular early days of manufacture, being very dark, future sightings can now be expected to be any colour and less so with the o-rings type making the blades more obvious in their mounting block within these variants.
With custom kits available to make one with different on-board equipment, range, altitude and operating time (battery power to weight ratios), the variety to be seen has never been more extensive. With so many unusual types deviating from the original versions from a couple of decades ago, it is no surprise to find a report such as this one kindly submitted to us.
Matt Lyons
Accredited Investigator
BUFORA
August 2026