Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England
Incident period: 4 January 1979; interviews and local reporting in 1979; substantial publication in April 1980
An orange light in the garden was followed, Jean Hingley said, by three small winged visitors entering her home. They examined her Christmas decorations, asked for water and left carrying mince pies. Her account brought the language of fairy encounters into a modern UFO setting. The earliest detailed publication preserves a long domestic conversation and the enquiries that followed it.
A winter morning after Christmas
On 4 January 1979, Hingley stood at the back door as her husband Cyril left for work. It was dark and cold, with snow on the ground. Their Alsatian, Hobo, was beside her. The household’s Christmas tree and cards were still up.
She noticed illumination near the carport and first assumed a light had been left on. When she checked, it was switched off. The source she then described was an orange glow above the garden, changing towards white and lighting the small outdoor space.
The substantial account appeared in Flying Saucer Review, volume 25 number 6, published in April 1980. Eileen Morris had met the couple several times and transcribed shorthand notes in March 1979. She said Hingley had read and accepted the resulting account. A shorter local version had appeared in the Dudley Herald on 12 January 1979.
Three figures through the door
Hingley said three luminous beings floated through the open back door, accompanied by a buzzing sound. She initially felt unable to move or speak and gripped the kitchen sink. Hobo, normally confident in her description, swayed, went to his bowl and lay stiffly on the floor.
As her fear eased, she went towards the lounge. She described an intense light around the visitors which later reduced enough for her to inspect them. They were small and slim, wearing green-silver clothing and caps, with clear helmet-like coverings around their heads.
Their faces appeared pale and their eyes dark and angular. Most remarkable were the large translucent wings, patterned with dots and glowing in colours she found difficult to compare with ordinary ones. The account therefore did not simply describe miniature astronauts: it combined equipment-like details with a very different, fairy-like appearance.
The Christmas tree and the living room
The visitors touched furniture, cards, the clock and the small artificial tree. Hingley described the tree shaking and its fairy decoration falling. They bounced on the couch until she told them to be careful. Those familiar household details give the narrative much of its distinctive character.
She thought they could understand her thoughts. When they communicated aloud, she associated the sound with their chests rather than moving mouths. A reassurance that they would not harm her encouraged her to treat them as guests, although she remained conscious of their apparent ability to increase the light around them.
Their reported conversation ranged from Christmas and religion to the Queen, honours and the position of working women. These exchanges were part of Hingley’s own account. They are not a separate message independently recorded on tape during the visit.
Water before mince pies
Asked whether they wanted a drink, the beings requested water. Hingley brought four glasses on a metal tray, including one for herself. She said the tray seemed pulled towards the visitors. When they appeared about to remove their face coverings, the illumination intensified and prevented her seeing clearly.
She did not describe watching them swallow. She said the glasses were empty afterwards. That small distinction is preserved in the early text and is more faithful to her story than a modern illustration confidently showing their uncovered faces drinking.
She then offered mince pies, placing six on a plate. Each visitor took one. The scene which gave the case its popular nickname was therefore the end of a longer interaction, rather than the only thing she said happened in the house.
The object in the garden
A cigarette changed the mood. Hingley said the visitors recoiled when she struck a match and began moving towards the back door. She followed and described an orange, glowing object in the garden, roughly eight to ten feet long and four feet high.
It had round window-like features and an unusual rear appendage she compared with a scorpion’s tail and a wheel. The beings entered while still holding their pies. Lights flashed and the object rose over the fence, departing across the open ground towards Oldbury.
Hobo then became active again. Hingley reported an impression in the garden where the object had stood. The publication included a drawing of the mark; it was not an independently dated photograph proving what made it.
Police and civilian enquiries
Afterwards, she noticed that the clock and radio had stopped. A neighbour suggested calling police. Officers visited, and civilian UFO investigators subsequently measured the ground impression and took soil samples. Hingley told Morris that she had not received results of those tests.
The original article’s closing notes list people and organisations said to have visited or heard the story. Their role was to receive an account or investigate its aftermath. They were not presented as additional people who had watched the beings in the lounge.
Students from West Bromwich College of Technology arranged to film Hingley recounting her experience. That production belongs to the documentation of the witness’s story after the event. It should not be mistaken for footage of the January visitors themselves.
A story between UFOs and fairy lore
Morris thought the beings resembled elves. Hingley received letters suggesting fairies, robots or other explanations, but the published account did not show her settling confidently on one identity. The wings, bright clothing and domestic hospitality encouraged readers to compare it with older encounter traditions.
At the same time, Hingley described a vehicle, helmets, lights and a departure over the fence. Those details explain why the case entered UFO literature. It is useful to retain both sides of the narrative, rather than choosing either a conventional spacecraft design or a purely traditional fairy appearance and rewriting the story around it.
Later discussions often reduce the case to a joke about refreshments. The original is more elaborate: it concerns fear becoming hospitality, questions about social standing, religious conversation and an ordinary working household trying to absorb an extraordinary claim.
What the earliest full account preserves
Morris’s text is an edited, witness-approved narrative based on repeated meetings. It is not a word-for-word recording made while the alleged events were happening. Its strength is the detailed presentation of Hingley’s own description and the identification of subsequent enquiries.
The source also records discomfort, time away from work and concern about ridicule. Those details help explain the human consequences without establishing a medical cause for the experience. The lasting historical question remains what happened in that house on a winter morning, not whether a later nickname makes the account sound amusing.
The map uses a broad Rowley Regis locality marker. It does not identify Hingley’s former private home or invite visits to a residential garden. The complete Morris article is linked below so the description, the visits and the limits of the reported follow-up remain available together.
Timeline
4 January 1979: Hingley reports the garden light and visit to her home.
12 January 1979: a shorter account appears in the Dudley Herald.
March 1979: Morris transcribes her notes; a college film of the witness’s story is arranged.
April 1980: Flying Saucer Review publishes the substantial account.
Sources & further reading
Eileen Morris, The Winged Beings of Bluestone Walk, FSR 25(6), PDF pages 25–28 — Witness-approved narrative and notes on the police, civilian investigators and college filming.
Related case files
Alfred Burtoo, 1983: the fisherman, the canal-side craft and the visitors who sent him home
Ranton, 1954: Jessie Roestenburg, the hovering disc and its two occupants
Location note: Broad Rowley Regis locality; not a private residential address or an invitation to visit the former garden.
UKPX historical case file. Researched and checked 4 November 2026. Explore the UK case map · Links & Sources.