Twinkle Twinkle little....Star? Comet? Invading Alien fleet?

[Burt]

I guess it's a rather long shot, and confined to England, but I saw something really weird on Wednesday.
I was driving home around 8.30 down on the South East coast (Near Brighton) and I saw what at first looked like a tiny little round fire (Ball?) in sky, really high, in the South direction. At first I guessed it might be a plane, and it could be flashing because of sunlight reflecting off it (the sun was kinda bright as it was setting). It also had a streak coming from behind it, like some planes do. Looking at it closer though, the streak was really, really black. Unusual I thought. Then the little fire thing just...went out, as it was moving through the sky a few seconds later.
I parked up, and saw 3 more of these things, over the course of two-three minutes, moving quite slowly (they were very high looking) with black trails behind them, which all went out after a bit.
Anyone with any ideas?
Now I pretty used to Astronomy, so I know what a Meteor looks like, though I can't say I've ever seen a Meteorite. The only thing I can guess, is it was something burning up in the atmosphere - Debris maybe?
If anyone saw anything at this time, be cool to know. And If anyone has seen anything like it, again, be cool to share.