Schoolboy spots 'a meteor' in skies above Ashton on Mersey

Jake Southward was stepping out of the back of his house on Ennerdale Drive to go for a run with dad Anthony Southward at around 4.30pm on Wednesday when he saw it.

At first the 10-year-old – who is in Year Six at Wellfield Junior School – thought the fireball was an aircraft crashing to earth, but he soon settled on the idea it was a meteor.

Jake Southward.

He shouted for his dad at the front of the house to take a look, but he dismissed it and did not come.

Fortunately, the fireball was caught on camera.

Jake said: "I've never seen anything like it before. At first I thought it was a plane about to crash, but I realised if it was a plane about to crash it would've been going down."

It was later at teatime, once mum Yvonne Southward was home and a video was shown to the table, that the family realised it might have been something out of the ordinary.

Yvonne said: "The children come out with rubbish all the time, so you don't really pay a lot of attention to it. But then I saw the video and I thought: 'Actually, that's weird'.

The 'meteor' as seen from Ennerdale Drive in Ashton on Mersey.

"I said: 'You'd better start looking out for a bit of rock, it might be worth some money'.

"I was going to send them down to Ashton Park to see where it landed."

The Messenger has asked a number of authorities on celestial bodies, including the British Astronomical Association and the UK Fireball Alliance, for an explanation of the video, although no one has been able to give confirmation on whether or not it is a meteor.

But Yvonne suggested the explanation might be something altogether more mysterious.

She added: "It might be a UFO. I might have MI5 round!"

The 'meteor' as seen from Ennerdale Drive in Ashton on Mersey.