A field Report by Stuart Dike

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Image  by Stuart Dike.  Copyright 1998

Diagram by Stuart Dike.  Copyright 1998

Situated in the heart of the homeland for the crop circles, was the second formation to appear in this country. Located on the sloping field in front of West Kennett Longbarrow, and facing towards Silbury Hill, is what can only be described as a Beltane Wheel. Its also known as the Pagan fiery Wheel. It appeared in Oil Seed Rape in full flower, and is a spectacular sight from the A4.

Accurate measurements haven't been obtained yet, but it's diameter must be at least 120-40ft, and is placed in the exact location of the Scorpion in 1994. Its construction was pinpointed to around 12-2am in the morning of May 4th. More on this later.

On entering the formation, I was quite taken with the condition of the floor construction. Luckily, only a few people had been walking around the pattern, so it's fair to say I can give an accurate report on the lay of the crop.

The amount of crop that has been flattened is very little relation to the size of the formation. Basically what we have are two outer concentric rings, with a standing middle section. Between the two rings, there are a number of spokes, or blades which sweep from the inner ring, out into the outside area. On the outer perimeter of the formation there are notches, which arc into the standing crop, which form part of the sweeping flattened crop coming out of each blade. On the outer perimeter of the middle standing section the notch feature is mirrored, but these sections are independent to the floor construction on the inner ring. It was very noticeable, that this formation must have been flattened simultaneously, as many sections of the flattened crop were lying onto of each other, were they shouldn't be! This didn't make sense to me, by a was thinking how someone could have constructed this design by simple methods. One other problem would be taking into consideration the undulation of the topography with the field, and how to keep a symmetrical design.

The floor itself, had a wonderful fluid action to it. The blades form a kind of lazy "s" feature, which are copied around the formation. Indeed, even the rings themselves have crop which flowed from one side to the other, with what I call minimum breakage on the plants. There were very few stems that were snapped, and no bruising or scrape marks were present, some plants were snapped at the very base of the plant, but remember this crop isn't easy to work with, and would snap with extreme
ease. I am still confident that the genuine phenomenon can break Oil Seed Rape plant, it is a myth to me that we should always look for the "Perfect" floor construction.

While I was taking photographs of the formation , and got talking to a gentleman by the name of Tony Crerar. He is a enthusiastic photographer, and was taking time exposure photo's of the immediate area this morning (May 4th) of the moon set, and Sun Rise. He spent most of the night monitoring the area, and did not notice any strange lights, or cars in the vicinity. There was a time window though between 12-2.30am in the morning, when someone or something could have created this formation, any other time and Tony would have noticed.

So this design seems to be connected with the Beltane Festival which is on the evening of the 6th May, and sunrise of the 7th. This is normally based on the Bronze Age calendar, which works on a 16th month principle.

Report by Stuart Dike.

The Beltane Fiery Wheel formation at Silbury Hill.

by Tony Crerar

Groundshots at the Noise Room