|
CROP CIRCLES IN 1999 |
|
Tormarton, nr Chipping Sodbury, North Somerset. Reported 9th May.
Updated Monday 17th May 1999
Image John Sayer Copyright 1999
Diagram by AJ Samuels Copyright 1999
FIELD REPORT
Pole shots by Stuart Dike Copyright 1999
Click on Thumbnails to enlarge
The pretty village of Tormarton is
located directly next to the main Motorway from Bristol to London known as the M4. The
formation itself is situated to the east of the village on the other side of the M4.
The location is in an Oil Seed Rape field along side the rushing traffic on
the Motorway, but because of the shallow slope to the field its very hard at this stage to
identify the shape itself.
The area in particular is very ancient, with a Long Barrow and field system situated close
by, this landscape was once a thriving farmland for our ancestors. So it was quite fitting
for this rather neat design to appear in this area, which has also played host to other
crop circles in the past. The small hamlet of Pennsylvania only four miles from Tormarton
had a snail design in 1992, and also Cold Ashton just a few more miles down the road in
1998.
Mark and myself arrived at the field in question on Wednesday evening, the 11th of May.
The formation is located facing towards the M4 Motorway, and took at least 10 minutes to
reach it through 6ft of Oil Seed Rape.
First impressions were favourable, but we had entered a field, which was growing a
different type of Oil Seed Rape, which I had not encountered before. The main plant had
very small spiky stems coming off the entire length of the plant. This created a carpet of
crop flattened in an anticlockwise rotation around the entire formation, and made walking
around the shape very difficult at times.
Many of the larger plants were snapped at the very base, or at certain intervals down the
stem. But in many cases there were completely flattened plants which had not been effected
by the circle making force. Some of the individual plants were the thickest I have
discovered, but these showed no evidence of scraping or bruising.
The design of the formation is made of three interlocking nested crescents with the two
outer crescents facing towards the M4, and the third inner crescent facing towards the
other two. The overall shape and the quality of the floor construction was very
impressive, and indeed a small circle some 10ft in diameter was discovered just below the
formation which had a wonderful raised nested centre, due to the thickness of the crop.
The stems neatly bunched, but on closer inspection there were snapped stems bent around,
but I feel this was inevitable to create such a detail in Oil Seed Rape.
This had to be the most complex of all the designs which have appeared in this part of the
country, and one of the largest, as its overall diameter would be approximately 120ft,
which spread itself across two tramlines.
An amazing amount of crop to be flattened we felt, resulting in minimum breakage to the
plants, on slight slope facing towards the Motorway.
Report by Stuart Dike
