A village just 90 minutes from Greater Manchester is unlike any other - dubbed a UFO hotspot, the unusual area also has an annual tradition of hens running around a course in eagerly anticipated races each year.
Clad with pretty cottages, a couple of pubs and a tea room - it certainly sounds like any other village you’d come across in the beautiful Derbyshire Dales. Visitors to Bonsall, near Matlock, come to admire the gorgeous surroundings and enjoy a slice of quiet country life.
But, it has an intriguing secret. Bonsall is in fact known for being a UFO sighting hotspot, with connections to Hollywood and NASA. A former pub landlord even used to take tourists up onto the nearby moors on 'UFO tours'.
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In 2001, housewife Sharon Rowlands reportedly sold footage she had captured of a flying saucer for £20,000 to a Hollywood producer. It is even said NASA officials asked to examine the tape as they believed it showed a similar type of craft once spotted by the space agency's cameras during the STS-75 Columbia Space Shuttle mission in early 1996.
On top of Ms Rowland's footage, in the early 2000's 19 sightings of UFOs were reported. One woman reported seeing a 'ball of fire' in the skies, another 'two big, bright lights', and a man out walking his dog witnessed a 'pink glow, vertically-shaped like a shoe box'.
And if the possible sightings of UFOs weren't enough, the village has its own unique, quirky tradition. Each year people bring their own hens to town to coimpete against each other.
The annual feathered champion receives a bag of grain as well as a unique trophy.
The World Hen Racing Championship event takes place every August in the car park at the Barley Mow pub in Bonsall. Participants can either bring their own hen or rent one for a £5 donation, where the hens race a 30-foot course with the help of their owners.
The hens have to race a 30-foot course with their benefactors enticing the clucking birds with mealworms and corn.
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