features

formations, formations, formations

the inevitable links page

30th August 1998.  I knew it would be the last of my visits to Wiltshire for the year, my final chance for eight months to see some crop circles, and that few would remain unharvested.  But these were not my chief concerns.  I wanted a clue as to the mechanism behind the circles, reasoning that then - away from all the flash and flurry of mid-season circle-hunting - was a good time to look for it.  I also reasoned that if the circles were made by a force other than stalk-stompers this force should still be present, with or without fields to decorate.  This was my will, my mind-set, as I left my London flat and headed to Wiltshire.  And if this force was there, I had barely two days in which to glimpse it.

I arrived at Honeystreet and put up my tent, spent an evening soaking up Barge Inn tittle-tattle, went for a nocturnal walk to Adam's Grave.  Nothing but stars and darkness and the whisper of wind in maize.

I was woken early the next morning by the sound of rain on canvas.  When the rain cleared I began to walk, stopping off at a strange but charming linseed formation as Stanton St Bernard before trekking over the Ridgeway towards Avebury.   With or without crop circles, this area never fails to delight me.  I felt no sadness as I sat on Avebury Henge watching a formation succumb to the combine's blades, or as I walked past West Woods where six or seven weeks earlier I had trodden downed crop.  How absurd in a way that it makes me so happy, how excited one can get over flattened and swirled corn.

As I walked back to The Barge from Avebury I arrived at what seemed to be the only cereal formation that had not been harvested; four overlapping rings at Furze Hill, which had appeared in June (the exact date varies from report to report; it would appear to have been somewhere between 19th and 21st June).  Though it was by now looking somewhat dishevelled, I had never got round to visiting it earlier in the season so decided to have a look.  I left the field some time between 5:00 and 5:30, heading in the direction of Alton Barnes.  As I walked along the road that winds down the side of East Field, the first of the evening’s strange events occurred.

A ball of light was suspended about eight to ten feet above the road and between ten and fifteen feet ahead of me.  It was a little bigger than a pool ball, and not particularly bright;  it seemed more to glow softly from within than to radiate.  As I watched, it sank down to knee-height, pausing before shooting off at rapid speed into a maize field to the right.  Needless to say I had a peek in the maize field afterwards (and also the next day), but could see nothing.  

Back in the Barge I met my friend Peter.  Over a drink we discussed our feelings and thoughts about the season now past.  I didn’t mention the ball of light, still fazed a little by it perhaps, but I did mention that I’d visited the Furze Hill formation, and talked of the four remarkably still well-preserved circles positioned around the design, with crop bent over and folded around to create a sort of ‘nest’ effect.  This ‘signature’ had been seen in a number of formations that season.  Peter, it turned out, had visited the formation shortly before I did, and had not noticed these circles (they were very small), so we agreed to go back to the formation so he could see them.

The sun was starting to set as we arrived back at the field.  I pointed out the circles to Peter and he took photographs.  Then we noticed a second formation, in the same field and a short distance away from the one in which we were standing, to the right of the first formation and between it and the next set of tramlines.  Neither of us remember seeing it on our earlier visits.

We were unable to conduct a detailed study of the formation due to the incoming night, but did have time to do a basic examination and take photographs.  This second formation was positioned parallel to the tramlines and consisted of two circles, one larger than the other and joined by a path, with a cross-bar half-way down the path and a second path protruding from the left side only at an angle of approximately forty degrees.  It was small by crop circle standards; I’d estimate the larger circle as being no bigger than about 8-10’.  The lay was simple and a little messy.  Both circles were spiralled anticlockwise, with standing stems in the centres.  There were more than a few broken stalks.  At the centre of the largest circle the soil was very cracked, with a slight indentation perhaps suggestive of a pole-hole.

I wouldn’t like to guess how long it had been there.  The lay was suggestive of mature crop, and a marked contrast to the other, much older formation beside it.  Apart from the broken stalks and the generally scruffy, hurried appearance of the whole thing, it was undamaged and looked unvisited (though as always one can never be certain of this).

We both took a number of pictures of this second formation, though none of mine came out (Peter’s were fine).  I have since checked the negative strips, and noticed that I have the negatives for the pictures either side of these, but the negatives for these shots are completely blank.

There was an obvious implication here that this formation had appeared between our visits (a window of about two hours).   Neither of us remembered seeing it earlier, though there was a fair amount of lodging in the field, so it is possible that I may have looked in that direction and assumed that any ‘dip’ in the crop was also lodging.  At his first visit Peter had taken some photos of the main formation from the opposite field, which we’d hoped would reveal whether the dumb-bell was present earlier, but these were inconclusive.  One shows a dark form which could be it (and also features a strange white shape, vaguely rectangular, in the sky overhead), but this dark form is not present in the other pictures taken at the same time.

As far as I am aware, nobody else visited this formation.  I have not seen any other reports on it.  Indeed, nobody I spoke to at the time and afterwards even knew of its existence.

As we all know, tag-ons to existing formations are not rare, though this formation seemed more a separate entity than an addition, tied to the earlier formation only by proximity.  Though for the sake of argument, if one believes that some kind of 'energy' (whatever that may or may not mean) has a hand in the creation of formations, there is no reason why either (a) the same energy cannot strike the same place twice, or (b) if such energy is considered 'residual' or tied to particular locations, then why it cannot manifest twice in the same field in the same year.  Conversely, if one believes that both these formations were man-made, repeated formations in the same location could suggest familiarity with the area, with means of access, and with available places to leave a vehicle.

So if this formation did appear that afternoon, then why?  Perhaps a last-minute addition to the season in what was one of only two unharvested wheat fields I could find in the Avebury /Alton Barnes area?  Though having said this, the other field was right next to this one, and completely 'virgin', so any 'circle-making forces' wanting one last spurt - or indeed anybody fancying a last-minute stomp - would perhaps be more attracted to that one.  Peter speculated that perhaps it had something to do with the renewed interest we had both shown in such a relatively old formation, as if we were being given something in return for our interest in the subject.

Whether the ball of light was in some way connected to this formation is another issue.  Sightings of such lights in and around crop circles, and in areas where crop circles appear, are well-documented. It does seem interesting that my sighting occurred between my two visits to the field and less than a mile and a half away.  Some might assume that since such lights are seen in and around the circles, they must therefore play some part in the circles' construction.  This does not automatically follow.  Perhaps they don't make the formations but are attracted to them, as curious as we ourselves are.  We don't know.  The data is inconclusive.

The tug of crop circles is subtle and elusive.  Their appeal is not a thing one can categorise or pigeonhole.  You either get it or you don't.  If I wanted clues, perhaps I had found them, but I still have little idea what they mean, exactly.  Did the formation appear that afternoon?  Was the BOL connected to it?  Was I connected to it?  We are dealing with unknowns.  At present we can only guess, and fill in the gaps with speculation. 

Thanks to Peter Ainsworth.  This article was originally written in 1999/2000, and draws upon an article published in September 1998 on the Crop Circle Connector as part of a report on the 31st August Furze Hill formation.  However, due to the peculiarities of CCC membership, DF is now unable to access the original version of his work without paying for it, despite the fact that he received no recompense whatsoever in return for its publication.

The author's take on the subject has changed somewhat since this article was written, though we have decided to keep it largely in its original form here; partly for nostalgia, partly to preserve the accuracy of the BOL account.

*

For a different version of the events described in this article, click here.  For a clarification of what actually happened, click here