This strange object was spotted hurtling through the night skies by several local residents.

It's sudden appearance over homes on Wymbrel Avenue at around 9pm on Wednesday left many baffled.

Stuart Welsby was he returning from a shopping trip with wife Emma and their young son when he spotted a 'glowing orange blob' floating across the Newton skyline and took these pictures on his mobile phone.

Amazingly, he spotted the same strange glowing light at around the same time the following night.

He said: "We just saw this thing in the sky and both said 'what an earth is that'.

"It was right above us but was moving at the normal speed of an airplaine but it had no aviation lights and when I turned my engine off there was absolutely no noise coming from it.

"I would describe it as like a bright orange glow. You could by the way it was moving that it wasn't a shooting star or a meteor.

"I stopped the car and got out to take a better look and there were a few other people milling about who'd also noticed it. It was very odd.

"I took a picture on my mobile phone but we were only about a minute from our house so we dashed home to get my digital camera.

"When we got back it was still there but by the time I had got the digital cameras it had disappeared, which was also very strange because it was a clear night with not much cloud.

Stuart, a 31-year-old mobile paint sprayer, says he has no firm beliefs on the existence of UFOs before his unusual encounter on Wednesday night.

He joked: "We have a 16-month-old boy and had just been shopping, so we'd certainly not had one too many! In fact, we were rushing to get home because it was past our son's bedtime but this thing just stopped us in our tracks.

"Afterwards my wife said that this thing had really got to me because I was on the internet checking web forums to see if anyone else spotted it.

"There were quite a few people about so other's spotted it as well, I'd really like to know what other saw and what they think was behind it."

* Did you spot anything unusual on Wednesday night? Registering below and post your comment on this story or email sthelens.reporter@lancspublication.co.uk