By Tim Binnall
A legendary case of an alleged alien visitation in Britain is being celebrated by way of a new sculpture depicting the eerie interloper known as the 'Sandown Clown.' The truly strange incident occurred in May of 1973 when two children claimed to have encountered a bizarre-looking being in the seaside town of Sandown on the Isle of Wight. Said to have been clad in a costume resembling a clown, the odd entity chatted with the children for nearly an hour, offering cryptic answers about its origin and nature. After the youngsters left the weird being to presumably tell their parents about his presence, the creepy figure was never seen again, leaving UFO researchers to speculate that it was an otherworldly visitor.
The bizarre appearance and behavior of the being led to the case becoming something of a fixture in British paranormal lore with all manner of speculation as to what exactly the children had encountered. The subject of countless podcasts and media articles over the years, the Sandown Clown was in the spotlight again this past weekend with the unveiling of a new sculpture that celebrates the peculiar figure. According to a local media report, the piece (seen below) is the brainchild of artist David Jones, who painstakingly crafted the work over the course of nine months.
Designed to depict the visitor exactly as he was described by the children following their encounter, the Sandown Clown sculpture stands over six feet tall and sports an array of peculiar details such as a robot-like face. Explaining his inspiration for creating the piece, Jones mused that the case "had a peculiar charm and an almost mythic quality that felt worth exploring further." Fittingly, the piece has been installed outside the Sandown Airport near where the mysterious figure was originally seen by the two youngsters over fifty years ago.