Crop Circle at South Harting, nr Petersfield, West Sussex. Reported 23rd June.

This complex formation lies just north of South Harting in a barley field on the right of the B2146 road as you head to Petersfield.

It is hard to see from the ground, and the best view to be had is from Torberry hill fort on the overlooking downs, though the shape still appears rather distant from there.

The flavour of the design is reminiscent of several Hampshire patterns from recent years, and it feels as if this is a formation which has escaped from there, as it is only just within the West Sussex border. A double-ringed circle once appeared at South Harting in 1994, but was nearer to the village itself.

The farmer, inevitably, has refused permission for people to enter the new formation on grounds of Foot and Mouth precautions, though there have been no F&M cases in Sussex as yet.

(Thanks to Southern Circular Research’s Keith Parker, Melanie Gambrill and David Russell for information.)

Reported by Andy Thomas

On Sunday 1st July we visited South Harting to see the 2 formations below Torberry Hill which had been reported in the last week.

They were not clearly visible from the road so we climbed the hill for a better view. We could see the first formation from the top of the hill, but the second one was barely visible, except for a vague outline of circles. We thought it was possible that the second formation had actually been there at the time the first one was reported and have asked David Russell for copies of his aerial shots taken on Monday 25 June to examine them more closely and see if this second formation is discernible. We then walked back down the hill and as we could see a group of people in the first formation already we proceeded towards it along the tramlines. The barley crop was not laid flat and was not as well defined as some formations. We did find many single bent nodes, which we have photographed. In the centre we saw a piece of ribbon tied to a crop stem and several feathers had been placed around it. We did not take measurements inside the formation. Walking across the formation towards the Petersfield Road, we continued down the same tramline which led us into the second formation. This was in a similar condition to the first formation. It was smaller and consisted of 3 interlinking circles with 4 smaller circles at each intersection. We found several double bent nodes and on the east side observed many shrivelled heads on the crop.

No such effects were seen in the standing crop immediately outside of the formation. We collected crop samples from each formation and photographed these.

If anyone would like to use the crop samples for further research please contact Lyn Collin via Crop Circle Connector.

Late news: It seems the so-called later addition to the South Harting formation field actually appeared at the same time as the main design. It was photographed from Torberry Hill the first weekend it was reported and when the photographs came back, both formations werepresent in the same field - thus, both probably appeared the same night as each other and the 'second' formation simply didn't get noticed as it was further over in the field and less visible.

It was reported finding a dead crow in the centre of the main formation when she entered the field a few days after its appearance.


Bent nodes in first formation.	Shrivelled crop from inside first formation.


Ground shot of first formation.	Taken near centre of first formation.	Two standing tufts of crop (as seen in lower left part of David Russell's aerial shot) - this 'signature' pattern has been observed in a number of Hampshire formations in recent years.