Aveley and the Havering–Thurrock road corridor, England
Incident period: 27 October 1974; investigation and hypnosis sessions in 1977; publication in 1978
A family returning home to Aveley said they followed a pale light, drove into a bank of green mist and arrived far later than expected. Three years afterwards, interviews and hypnosis produced an elaborate account of a visit inside a craft. Andrew Collins’s original report makes it possible to follow those stages separately: the remembered drive, the later investigation and the developing interior narrative.
A delayed report with a recoverable route
Collins compiled his report for the UFO Investigators’ Network in January 1978. It appeared in Flying Saucer Review during 1978. He and Barry King had begun investigating the previous summer after a local UFO group passed on the family’s contact details.
The published names are the Avis family: John, Elaine and their three children. Other retellings use different names, including Day. This article follows the names in the original substantial publication, rather than treating those versions as separate cases. The enquiry began nearly three years after the journey, an interval which shaped how the date and timetable were reconstructed.
The drive from Harold Hill
On 27 October 1974, the family had visited relatives in Harold Hill. A delayed return from a school trip meant that they left later than intended, at about 21:50. Their usual drive home took roughly twenty minutes. They were travelling in a white Vauxhall Victor estate, with two children asleep and one awake.
Near Hacton Lane, the awake child drew attention to a pale blue, oval light above houses. John and Elaine also watched it. They initially compared it with a large star or a helicopter light, then thought it was moving with them. Trees interrupted the view as the car continued towards Park Farm Road and Aveley Road.
The light appeared to change direction, cross ahead and disappear behind roadside vegetation. The investigators later mapped the reported positions. That route is one of the case’s strongest historical features: the account names roads, bends, woods and a public house rather than an unspecified isolated highway.
The bank across the road
Further along Aveley Road, the family described a dense green bank across the carriageway. The radio reportedly crackled and smoked, prompting John to pull out its wiring. They said the headlights failed as the car entered the mist, with a cold sensation, unusual silence and a jolt.
Their first remembered positions afterwards differed. John placed himself near White Post Wood, while Elaine remembered a point further along near another wooded area. He also had a confused impression of being alone in the front. The report preserves these differences rather than presenting an uninterrupted film of the journey.
When they reached home, the clock showed about one in the morning. They expected to have arrived much earlier. Elaine was uncertain whether she confirmed the time by telephoning the speaking clock. The claim of missing time therefore rests on the family’s reconstructed evening and reported arrival, not an independently recorded vehicle log.
Checking the date and duration
The exact date emerged during the investigation when a relative associated the event with the delayed school-trip collection. Collins checked the school-holiday context and television schedules. John’s wish to return for a play was part of the developing account; several programmes were available that evening.
Collins and King also drove the route themselves, taking twenty-two minutes over about nine miles. That established that the ordinary journey could be short. It did not independently establish where the family spent the unexplained interval in 1974.
Enquiries at houses near the supposed mist site and at a public house produced no corresponding account in the report. The radio, John said, worked after it was rewired. Later mechanical problems with the car were also reported, but no examination demonstrated that a specific external phenomenon had caused them.
Interviews change the story
During the first interview, the couple mentioned dream-like fragments. At a further meeting in September 1977, Elaine described a large room, a car and figures. John added or corrected details while she drew. Collins explicitly recorded this interaction, making it possible to see that the developing accounts were not entirely isolated from one another.
John agreed to hypnosis; Elaine did not wish to undergo it, and the parents did not want their child regressed. Dental surgeon Leonard Wilder conducted three sessions, beginning on 25 September 1977. The report distinguishes the first session, which involved hypnotic exercises, from later regression work.
On 2 October, the session moved through childhood and a supposed earlier life before returning to the 1974 drive. The published transcript includes questions as well as answers. That context is essential to understanding how the detailed craft narrative entered the case; it was not a complete description given to police on the night.
The reported interior
The later account included a balcony overlooking a car, tall hooded figures, smaller examiners and an examination table. John described a bar-like apparatus moving above him and communication experienced without ordinary speech. He also recalled being shown rooms, equipment and images.
These scenes were assembled from interview recollections, dreams, hypnosis and material added afterwards. Collins’s continuation explains that process openly. A factual history of the investigation can describe the resulting narrative without presenting it as an independently documented tour of a vehicle.
There were differences within the accounts, including the colour of the car seen inside and how particular beings were drawn. Illustrations in the original publication are reconstructions from descriptions, not photographs. They should not be labelled as visual evidence recovered from the reported journey.
Life afterwards and the case’s significance
The family attributed changes in diet, outlook and habits to the experience. Collins recorded increased interest in environmental issues and several subsequent unusual experiences. These belong to how the witnesses understood their lives afterwards; their inclusion in an interview does not establish one cause for every later change.
Aveley became an influential British abduction account because its investigation was extensive and published in stages. It combined an unusual roadside event with missing-time claims and a much more elaborate narrative developed later. The original report’s value lies partly in documenting those stages rather than concealing them.
The UKPX marker identifies the broad Aveley locality. It does not mark the family’s private home or an exact mist position. Parts of the reported route lay in Havering before crossing towards Thurrock, so the case should not be reduced to a single point in the centre of the town. The linked reports preserve the route map and the distinction between the original drive and the later sessions.
Timeline
27 October 1974: the family reports an unusual light, green mist and a delayed return.
Summer 1977: Collins and King begin their investigation.
25 September–October 1977: Wilder conducts three hypnosis sessions with John.
January 1978: Collins compiles the report.
1978: Flying Saucer Review publishes the investigation and continuation.
Sources & further reading
Andrew Collins, The Aveley Abduction, FSR 23(6), April 1978 — Road account, route checks, interviews and hypnosis-session material.
Andrew Collins, continuation, FSR 24(1), June 1978 — The developed interior narrative and its recollection history.
Aveley and the Havering–Thurrock road corridor, England geographical reference — Broad locality used for the marker; not an exact encounter position.
Related case files
Livingston, 1979: Robert Taylor’s Dechmont Woods encounter, the ground marks and the trousers
Scoriton, 1965: Ernest Bryant, Yamski and the investigation that changed direction
Location note: Broad Aveley reference; the reported journey extended through Havering towards Thurrock, not a verified landing site.
UKPX historical case file. Researched and checked 4 November 2026. Explore the UK case map · Links & Sources.