Shifnal, nr Telford, Shropshire. Reported 20th June
Updated Sunday 12th July 1998
Saw a possible crop circle today (20th)
returning from Wolverhampton by train, it is visible only from the train. It is located
about 1 mile east of Shifnal and to the north of the tracks, the large circle looked about
5m dia, the smaller about 3m. I have attached a quick bitmap of what I think I saw, the
inner circle on the larger dia was offset away from the joining link.
It was facing east on a slight hill so was facing away from me as I travelled away
from it, oh and we were doing about 110mph on the Intercity 125 at the time, but it looked
too ordered to be natural damage, there is a lot of this from the rain today.
I have no idea when it was created
Reported by David Onions
Michael Prescott here - we went out to find the Shifnal
formation today. I can confirm its existence; we took the train eastwards from Shifnal,
and almost immediately upon leaving town, I saw something resembling the pattern reported
by David Onions. It was located no more than twenty metres from the train
tracks, in some dark green crop.We walked around, but weren't able to find it from ground
level in the short time we had. I'll head there again tomorrow to see if I can get some
photographs of it.
Michael
Eileen Prescott 5th July
Field Report
I managed to find David Onion's Shifnal
circle on the ground. He's right, it's absolutely impossible to see except from a well
elevated position. I suspect it has been around some time - the plants (wheat, I believe)
have bent in the middle to resume their vertical growth.
Despite David's relatively quick glance, he was quite accurate about the shape of the
formation. The edges were not very clean, but there was quite clearly some extra detail in
the western, smaller circle, which I have added to David's image.
This is the first circle I've seen, barring photos, so I can't claim to be an expert on
determining hoaxes vs. the genuine phenomenon. Here are my observations.
The thin lines of the formation (the central bar and the smaller circle), about 60 cm
wide, had a characteristic pattern of flattening: the central strip was flattened
completely, killing the plants, whereas plants closer to the edges of the strip had
recovered and had bent up towards the light again. This looked, to my amateur eye, to be
consistent with someone
walking along the line, killing plants underfoot, but pushing the majority of the plants
over with a gentler instrument.
All of the plants I looked at had been damaged (though obviously still alive) - they were
bent very close to the bottom, flattened in the same way as a bent plastic straw, and
split at each side.
As I had brought my compass (plastic, £1) with me, I checked the circle for any magnetic
anomalies, of which I found none.
Lastly, although I had reached the formation by the very circuitous route I had taken
while trying to find it on the ground, when I set about leaving the field, it was quite
apparent that it was quite conveniently placed. The tram lines passing through the centre
of the formation head directly to the one side of the field which is bordered by a road,
straight through a break in the hedge. Had anyone chosen this particular field to hoax a
formation, they had chosen the optimal place. It is easily reached during
the night, and offers convenient viewing from the elevated railway.
Reported by Michael Prescott
