If there were a chart for the strangest of Britain’s high-strangeness UFO cases, Alfred Burtoo’s bizarre night-fishing excursion in the early hours of 12 August 1983 would be pushing for the number one position.
The former soldier, farmer and gardener had retired in the garrison town of Aldershot and regularly enjoyed lengthy spells of night fishing with his dog in a favourite spot on the Basingstoke Canal.
Alfred settled down just to the north of Government Road bridge, with a view southwards over the nearby barracks.
A strange invitation beside the canal
He saw a light descend, apparently landing behind trees somewhere to the south and near the canal. Thick foliage obscured his view, but he clearly noticed when two small humanoid figures approached him and beckoned him to come with them.
Alfred duly followed, crossing Government Road and walking down the eastern bank of the canal for a short distance until he saw a landed craft on skis. He was directed inside, where a device scanned him and he was asked his age.
Pointing out that he was coming up to his 78th birthday, he was crudely informed that he was “too old and infirm” for whatever purpose his visitors had in mind.
Having few other options, Alfred returned to his fishing, saw the craft depart and got his first chance to report the strange event much later in the morning when two military police came down the towpath on horses.
His wife was talking to a friend at home when he returned, so the pair heard Alfred’s story first-hand. Despite being a down-to-earth type with no previous history of such stories, Alfred did make the pages of his local paper, largely in the hope that somebody else would come forward with a sighting or other details to corroborate his account.
Why the Alfred Burtoo case endured
He had died before the case became widely known, largely as the result of an extensive write-up in Timothy Good’s bestselling Above Top Secret (1987). Alfred’s wife outlived him and regularly confirmed that he was not prone to making up stories.
The surreal nature of the story and the ageism displayed by the reported aliens have allowed Alfred Burtoo’s encounter to live long in the memory of the UFO community and prompt lively debate.
I’ll claim a personal interest, having visited and photographed the towpath in autumn 2026. An adult standing there can span the whole path simply by sticking out their arms, a salient point considering this is the same place that apparently hosted a landed craft capable of containing one adult, two small humanoids and a scanning device.
Nobody at the time came forward with photographic evidence of the thick growth on either side of the towpath being flattened. The place today looks very much the way it did in 1983, so if a craft fitting Alfred’s description did land there it likely had Tardis-like properties concerning the space available inside.
Trying to explain a high-strangeness encounter
I regularly discuss the case in live talks about UFOs, where it often prompts a range of ideas in attempts to explain it. But the case lingers because of its strangeness and the many possible explanations.
If this was a physical event as described, it is the highest of high strangeness. It is bemusing to think of beings advanced enough to land such a craft more than 40 years ago who were nevertheless incapable of assessing the physical health of a nearby human without an onboard scan and basic questioning.
This could potentially have been a sleep-paralysis event or something similar, but it is odd in that case that Alfred did not subsequently pick himself up having fallen to the ground. He reported the whole tale as part of an otherwise normal night of fishing.
If this was some intrusion into his consciousness, it is hard to find any purpose or meaning. High strangeness indeed.
