Stantonbury hill, nr Bristol (2). Reported 29th July

CROP CIRCLES IN 1999

Stantonbury Hill Formation 1999

Field-Report from Thomas Peterlunger, Switzerland

To have an overlook to the formation you have to climb a little hill on the left side of the main street from Bath to Marksbury. But to enter the field you have to cross the busy street and go to the far corner of the long parking place.

Not many people took this way before we (three Swiss croppies) did, but we were definitely not the first. (There were footsteps inside the tramlines.)

The whole formation was very nice and interesting and included two mayor circles and two little grape shots (if we want to call it „one" formation at all!) A circle with a crescent and a circle with nine petals (I call it circular saw.) All plants were lied down counter clockwise. The circular saw had nine teeth and we could find some radial help lines below the flattened area in the centre. They started 2meters away from the centre point and leaded to a tangential-teeth. But the strange thing was, that only seven radius’ instead of nine could be found. One missing help line should be exactly inside a tramline. (so we can accept its disappearance..), but the second missing line should be there! The teeth themselves were formed quite exactly. (see picture number 1.)

Please click on thumbnails to enlarge.

Image T. Peterlunger Copyright 2000

Some parts of that circle showed a complex pattern of different layers on top of each other. For me, it was really difficult to say, which layer was first. Some „faults" looked strange to me, because it was more work for hoaxers to construct these faults than to do it correctly! (see picture number 2)

Please click on thumbnails to enlarge.

Image T.Peterlunger Copyright 2000

The grape shots where not round, but star shaped (or a little bad copy of the big circular saw). They looked aggressive to me. (The black line on the picture number 3 is my arm with the camera...).

Please click on thumbnails to enlarge.

Image T. Peterlunger Copyright 2000

The circle with the crescent was perfect in shape, but had no special details from interest. So I didn’t send ground shots from this one.

If you have more questions, please contact: thomaspeterlunger@swissonline.ch

with friendly regards Thomas

Field Report

These two designs are among the finest we have witnessed around our local landscape out of many different and very diverse patterns. Their location near to the main Marksbury road has meant that their discovery was very late, and access was difficult due to the positioning of them within the field.

The larger of the two designs, is certainly not a new pattern to us, as it was first seen on the Danebury formation in 1998 in Hampshire. They are almost identical in design, but the Stantonbury formation has more petal arrangements on the outside, but out of the two the Danebury formation was far superior in its overall construction. The smaller formation was a circle with a crescent along the same tramline and can be view here.

It took us a while to locate these two patterns, as there is no advantage point from the main road, making sighting very difficult. After driving around the local country lanes for at least an hour, we decided to walk up a few hillsides to see if we could spot them from a higher position. Ironically, I climbed a steep field where two circles had formed in 1997, as I arrived at the top, I could just see the new formations positioned very close to the main road. We then agreed to take some telephoto shots with the Video Camera from Stantonbury Hill, on the opposite side to the main road.

Entering the field that took you up to the top, I noticed some young heifers (Cows) at the bottom half of the field. Now, anyone who knows me will understand my hesitation on entering a field with Cows grazing. Not an animal you would immediately acknowledge to be hostile, but unfortunately in the past, my experience with them has not been easy. Because I was wearing shorts, and Mark wasn’t, I was unable to climb over barbed wire fence, which gained access to the top half of the field were the formations could be seen from. So Mark left me alone in the field with these Cows. Hmmm, I said, as they started to cut my access off at the Gate, which would be my only exit from the field. Their journey to the other side of the field was only to take some water from their trough, as it was an extremely hot day, but I was becoming increasingly apprehensive I walked towards them. Suddenly as I was only 30 feet from the Gate, one of them charged towards me, which set off the rest of them. I can only tell you, that I hardly touched the gate, as I dived over it to safety. Amazingly my Camera in my hand at the time was not damaged, as I managed to dive onto my side, while holding the Camera. Normally I would be embarrassed to tell you this story, but recently Cows attacked someone, because of their young, which is why I am telling you my experience.

On arriving at the top of the field, quite shaken by the whole event, I managed to take some telephoto shots of the formations, but alas that is all we managed to do in the end. Finding the Farmer proved to be very difficult, and entering the field from the roadside would have meant being too exposed. Unfortunately no ground reports will be forthcoming, but all I can say is that the two designs were very impressive from a distance, but I never expected my life would be in threatened trying to find them. J

Reported By Stuart Dike