Field Report for Wayland Smithy, Oxfordshire
by Mike Callahan 

(Images coming soon)

My visit to this formation was carried out on the afternoon of August 10th.When I arrived at the formation the weather was fine and there had been no rain. As you can see from the photographs there were a few visitors who had come to dowse, meditate or simply enjoy the magnitude and wonder of this latest creation.

There is no doubting the impact of this beauty from the air but at ground level I tried to be more discerning. It was a difficult one as the crop was very mature and ripe and everything was very dry.

The lay was generally neat and tidy and in my opinion lacking the fluid swirling feeling of other formations. There were very little standing stems around the outside. As I walked around the formation I checked the stems periodically and everywhere I looked they were broken. As I have mentioned the crop was very mature and dry. I checked at the side of the formation away from where people would have walked and I found the same thing. In various places the crop overlapped but there was no multi-layering.

There were numerous nests around the formation. They consisted of standing stems with a swirl around the base spreading out to the floor of the formation. The crop was not woven together as in some formations. The appearance of these nests was consistent throughout.

Click on thumbnails to enlarge

In terms of nodal anomalies, I found none. No nodal bending, no expulsion cavities and no visible nodal elongation. Whether this and the broken stems throughout could be attributed to the dryness/maturity of the crop is up for discussion.

The formation is well worth a visit as is Wayland Smithy. I always enjoy meeting the enthusiastic and interesting people that gather together at crop circles and this one was no exception. As usual I am reporting what I saw and not what I felt. I have strong opinions on this one and I would love to hear the thoughts of others.