FIELD REPORT FROM WOODBOROUGH HILL 10th June 2012 

I arrived only just in time at 09:30. The formation was in the middle of the field on the right of the bridleway up to Woodborough Hill and as it straddled 4 tramlines it would have been hard to pick the wrong one. The crop was young winter wheat, which was surprisingly tall and well grown for the season. Still, the curvature of the field and the smallish size of each component of the pattern meant that the formation was invisible until I was 20m away or less.

[first view looking SE to PickedHill] 

Only from the slopes above leading up to Woodborough Hill was it easy to spot.

[overview from N side].  

My first impression was of the lightness and flow of the lay. It looked very fresh and untrodden everywhere.

[lightly laid].  

Many stems were kinked at the nodes indicating regrowth towards the light, which suggested that the formation was at least several days old.

[regrowth1] 

Bear in mind that the weather has been wet and rainy all week and only someone standing on the slope above the field could have seen the formation. However there were also numerous stems which had apparently never been flattened and which still poked up through the laid crop.

[unaffected stems] 

Sometimes the two types of stem were even visible right next to each other

 [mixture].  

My impression was that the crop had only been lightly laid to start with. This was supported in my mind by the nature of the swirled circles which gave me the impression of very rapidly drawn brush strokes

[swirled mini circle]   

Nevertheless there was a sense of great power in those 'brush strokes', shown here by the way the surrounding wheat was pushed out to the sides

[whoosh].  

The next photo shows the 'joint' of what I called the angel's wings  - from the aerials, I saw the three units of the formation as 3 angels for some reason, with short stubby wings! - and also shows how the force radiates from a single point.

[angel's wing].  

You can see there and maybe better in the next photo that there are mud splashes on the leaves, not surprising after the heavy rain we've had and again suggesting the circle was laid down several days ago.

[mud on leaves] 

Some might think that the lay was messy in this young wheat, but I saw it rather as simply rapid brush strokes which gave a sense of energy and mastery. Here's the 'tail' of the first angel on the NW side .

[one of the 'tails'] 

Each of the 'angels' had a faint outer ring which was so delicately traced that I couldn't help but widen it just by walking carefully along it.

[delicate outer ring] 

I was still exploring the first 'angel' when after 20 minutes the farmer (or his son) drove into the field with a tractor-mounted mower and asked us to leave (there were three of us there by this point). He was polite and considerate about it but was obviously not up for a discussion, Apparently his family had had many crop circles on their land and had originally been well disposed towards cc enthusiasts, and when more people started coming they had tried collection boxes, but they'd given up after the boxes were stolen. He said he was concerned about 'too many' people visiting, which might mean he was worried about damage, although it was pretty obvious we were being very careful not to cause any damage, and I can't imagine that even a hundred visitors could have done as much damage as he did himself by mowing the whole area out. I don't think the money from a collection box could have made any difference either; he was driving a £70,000 tractor and it was obviously a very large and profitable farm. He did mention that someone had parked a car by the farm buildings, and I think that annoys many farmers even if it wasn't in anyone's way at all. (I always try to park well away from the fields and on public roads in cases like this). But I was sorry not to get the chance to find out more about what needs really lay behind his decision to ban visitors and destroy the formation.

[mowing (3)]

[mowing (1)]

[mowing (4)]

Final view from the canal bridge, formation and tractor at upper right.

[from canal bridge] 

Graham