NOSTALGIA: UFO spotted above Boston during build-up to 1979 and £400k traffic-busting scheme in 1999

* ‘What did they see in the sky?’ ran the headline following numerous reports of an unidentified flying object near Boston on New Year’s Eve.

At about 7.10pm, Kitty Ellis was testing her son’s Christmas present – a telescope – at Frithville, facing Sibsey, when suddenly, an orange, red, and yellow object came into view.

Arcing in the sky, it had a long tail and there were sparks flying from it.

“I screamed to my husband, Dick, ‘God, look at it’,” said Mrs Ellis. “I thought it was an aeroplane on fire at first, but there was no sound.”

Mr and Mrs I. M. McCreary, of Somersby Way, Boston, saw a ‘white flare’ in the sky, roughly in the direction of Freiston Shore.

“I rang the police as I thought it might be a signal from a ship in distress,” Mr McCreary said.

Lincolnshire Police received four calls about a UFO in the county that evening.

No planes had been reported missing and it was believed the object could have been a meteor burning out.

* Boston had a library again following a fire at its County Hall home in December.

The temporary library opened in mobile buildings in the unused playground of Park Junior School.

This week in 1999 ...

* A £400,000 re-vamp of Boston’s traffic system was about to begin in a bid to ease congestion.

It would include: removing the roundabout at the junction of Spilsby Road and Freiston Road; a new puffin crossing at Bargate Bridge; new pelican crossings in Horncastle Road and Wide Bargate; traffic control and signals for the Bargate roundabout, South End junction, Broadfield Street junction, and Liquorpond Street roundabout; and a new anti-skid surface near the junction with Main Ridge East.

The work would take three months to complete.

* With the threat of the ‘Millennium Bug’ looming, bosses at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital were not taking any chances.

Every single piece of equipment at the site was being checked for ‘compliancy with the millennium’ and about £500,000 was being spent on updating equipment.

Among the items replaced were the lifts.

The plan for New Year’s Eve 1999 was to have labels on all the equipment with information to help staff cope with any problems. Back-up power would be available should the electricity supply fail.

Some key staff would also be asked to be on hand – and sober – in case of emergency.