Updated Tuesday 23rd June 1996
An aerial shot by Steve Alexander. Copyright 1996.
A field survey by Steve Alexander and Karen Douglas.
We have a possible siting of the first Crop Circle of 1996 situated just outside Cambridge near Junction 14 of the M11 at Dry Drayton. The crop is Canola or commonly know as Oil Seed Rape. It was reported around 12th May and may include curves in the design. Dated 20th may.
We now have confirmation of this Crop Circle just outside of Cambridge. It's now located on the right hand side of the M11, near the suburb of Girton. The design is a single circle in Oil Seed Rape with a shape inside. The OS map grid reference is TL:4180 6040 (approx.). This might contain the curves we were mentioning in the last message. More information will be forthcoming in the next couple of days. This report came from the Cambridgeshire Convenor.
Another report of the formation by Diahann Krishna
The first (reported) crop circle in the UK is conveniently located nr. the cross of the M11 & A14 (in the NW corner of the city for US people). I've been looking at that field for over a week (distinctly spotted it on my way home from work last Monday). Have been driving past that field everyday on the way in to work for many months. I even scouted the field last Wednesday night because I noticed it looked different, but got there so late that I had to leave before finding it as it was getting dark. I was less than 30 metres away! On the 154 Cambridgeshire Ordnance map it's number 418605.
Now for the details... it's in oilseed rape, which is now approximately 4' tall. Nothing like the feeling of walking in the middle of a bright golden field and stumbling upon a massive disturbance spread out at your feet! This formation is rather large (I would guess around 100' in length north to south), but will go back for measurements tomorrow. The lay of the stalks starts from the centre & swirls out in a counter clockwise direction. It's going to be tough to describe. It is similar to a galaxy formation of last year, but is more rounded. A yin/yang symbol is a close image of the wave-like interior of the main part. There is an offshoot that ends with a circle about 4' in diameter to the south. From the ground sketch it seems like the offshoot is similar in shape to the standing stalks inside the circle/ellipse. There is no symmetry to the shape, but it has a "bulging" effect. The pathways that go around the centre vary in size from 2'-6'. This will be very difficult to measure accurately, but I'm going to take two basic measurements later today.
Hoax factor? I was curious to see a formation in oilseed rape b/c I'd heard of it's brittle nature. It's like trying to bend a pot of mums that are four feet tall with thick stalks that snap easily. In addition, when you try to push down a large section in the middle of a field to the ground... it's really heavy! And the stalks don't bend at the base as I observed in the formation. I have a sample I brought home & will try to put a photo on the web ASAP so others can see. I know the formation occurred within the past week & a half right next to the busiest intersection in Cambridge.
Following a call from Stuart Dike, the Avon CCCS convenor, he told me about a new crop circle formation reported by Christine Saltmarsh the Cambridge CCCS convenor. She had seen the crop circle on the west side of the M11 just before junction 14 last Tuesday (14) in oil seed rape close to the motorway. The area is a place called Girton , just outside Cambridge, where crop circles have appeared most years. At Wandlebury very ancient sites exist on the hills, and in this area some very fine crop circles have appeared over the years, as is the case around Stonehenge. On the O\S map the position of the new crop circle did not have any ancient sites nearby, which normally hints to it being genuine; the only way was to check the formation myself on the ground.
Wed (22) the rain was pouring down all the journey to Cambridge , it was not going to be a good day for dowsing. I watched the fields either side of the A14 for signs of any crop circles. Many fields were sown with oil seed rape, but all remained empty at this time, but in the coming weeks new formations may appear here. I drove along the M11 at the place where the formation was reported , and I could see an outline of a crop circle from the road, it looked a good size, but the tall crop hid many of its details.
I found the farm manager and asked for permission to check out the crop circle; he had never seen a formation on his land before but agreed to allow me to have a look. He told me that he did not want the public going in the field, but was happy to allow me to survey the formation this once. The crop circle was some way into the field, so I had to walk through the oil seed rape soaking wet for some hundreds of yards, it was head high in places. My waterproof leggings were good for about ten yards, after that I could feel the water filling my boots, and it was still raining - not that you would notice now as I was wet from head to toe already.
From the edge of the field the formation dowsed good, with a spiders web of concentric and radial earth energy coming from it, so I was happy to get wet for this crop circle. The tractor line brought me out right into the middle of the outer ring path; this was all swept anti-clockwise round the outside of the formation. The path was 4-4.5 feet wide for most of the circle, with the oil seed rape stalks laid very close to the soil, with the odd one or two standing upright here and there. This outer ring path I measured 166.6 feet all the way round the crop circle ; but the formation had a strange middle pattern , and it also had a semi-circle path off 84.5 feet long on the south side, with a grape shot at the end 8.5 feet wide.
All of the main crop circle had a nice laid anti-clockwise crop lay; but the semi-circle path off was clockwise crop lay and 5.6 feet wide, wider than the other path. At the point where this semi circle path first forms, the outer path grows to eight feet wide at that position, and continues that size round into the centre pattern.
The middle pattern is hard to describe, it looks to me like an ultrasound scan picture of a very small human embryo, round sort of head shape and tail-like body. The natural earth energy force pushed the crop before it around the entire crop circle, this natural power force pushed the crop before it round all parts of the crop circle in a spiral wave.
The radial earth energy in the outer path contained 107 lines from the middle out, but its energy pattern was off centre in the middle, its concentric energy lines were mixed with the grape shots pattern. Both the concentric and radial earth energy force in these spiders webs were only a portion of the normal energy strength, it was only possible to dowse this crop circle from short distance. While the crop lay in all parts of the formation was laid well, with most of the oil seed rape close to the ground, the natural earth energy was weak. About the same time last week when this formation was made, all the last summers crop circles spiders webs of earth energy were being removed from the fields; its just possible that some of its natural earth force was removed as well at the same time. That's the only way I can explain why this crop circle is very weak in its natural earth power; the pattern is there and genuine but very weak, unless this summer we are seeing yet another change in the crop circle phenomenon.
Something also I noticed in this crop circle, which I have never seen before in an oil seed rape formation, and that's broken stems 12-14 inches from the ground. Just the odd stalk here and there , but broken right in two pieces, with the stalk , finger thick, snapped in an uneven torn break. None were broken at ground level , yet the stalks were bent level to the ground . No burn marks were on the stalks broken at 12-14 inches - strange. Both the grape shot on the end of the long path and neck of the head-shaped pattern in the centre of this circle seemed to have absorbed much earth energy. In both places the crop lay was immaculate , and you could dowse and feel the power strong at your feet. This is the first crop circle of the year for the CCCS; and it dowsed genuine for me - a very good start.
Farmers - Cambridge University Farm
Huntingdon Road, Girton.
Cambridge CB3 OLH
Phone Cambridge - 276208.
