It's been 285 years since the first recorded sighting of a UFO - and it happened right here in Dorset.

The term UFO didn't become common until the 1950s, but the first time a sighting of an unexplained object in the sky was recorded was December 8 1733 by a man called James Cracker.

Mr Cracker of Fleet, a village in West Dorset, saw a silvery disc fly overhead in broad daylight.

Dorset is packed full of tales of the spooky and unexplained. There have been countless ghostly sightings, inexplicable flashing lights at Zig Zag Hill, tales of big cats on the prowl and once, even a monkey was spotted on the loose in Dorchester.

Here is Mr Cracker's eyewitness account of the UFO in 1733:

“Something in the sky which appeared in the north but vanished from my sight, as it was intercepted by trees, from my vision. I was standing in a valley.

“The weather was warm, the sun shone brightly. On a sudden it re-appeared, darting in and out of my sight with an amazing coruscation.

“The colour of this phenomenon was like burnished, or new washed silver. It shot with speed like a star falling in the night.

“But it had a body much larger and a train longer than any shooting star I have seen

“Next day Mr Edgecombe informed me that he and another gentleman had seen this strange phenomenon at the same time as I had.

“It was about 15 miles from where I saw it, and steering a course from east to north”.