Allington Down, East Kennet, Nr Avebury, Wiltshire. Formed 26th July.

This magnificent formation, that graced the hills close to the ancient mound of Silbury Hill, was the third double pictogram design to appear in the Avebury area in 1990. As many of you can appreciate, this was my very first year of research, so to experience these formations, and being completely new to the phenomenon was quite honestly life changing. But I meet many of yourselves every year, just like myself 10 years ago!

These additional photographs, and a series of pole and ground shots, taken down the main axis of the formation, and around what we called the head circle at the time.

The formation appeared just 12 days after the famous Alton Barnes pictogram, and the lesser known Stanton St Bernard event. Both of these enormous designs appeared on the same night, and the Allington Down formation was the third in the sequence. There is no doubt there designs were related in some way, and ten years on, we are still debating over their possible meaning.

The actual field the formation appeared in, has been hit a few times in subsequent seasons, including the enigmatic key formation of 1991, and in the year 2000, with the Grid and the Heart formation. It really is a glorious setting, with Silbury Hill in your sights, as you look out in a westerly direction.

The Allington Down formation, was positioned in such a way, that its axis was just offset from the mound of Silbury Hill. You can just make out this alignment in one of the additional photographs. This oddity was also noticed on the Alton Barnes pictogram, as the formation was also just offset from the ancient hilltop mound of Adams Grave. Interestingly, this is a characteristic of the ley system, which the ancients certainly had knowledge of, and practically used.

Report by Stuart Dike

CROP CIRCLES OF 1990