Joyce Galley was informed of this formation through a phone call which she received on 12 April. This was from a caller who refused to divulge his name, apparently through fear of ‘being associated with this kind of thing’ by his workmates, who were allegedly working on the new channel tunnel railway link and described as tree fellers from Somerset. Unfortunately, Joyce did not remember to ask how this person had obtained her name.

The formation is near but invisible from the M2, a short way down the road to Meopham/Istead Rise (A227) from the turnoff off the A2M. It is in oil seed rape in a field spanning a small valley on the right hand side of the road from which it is easily seen. It is adjacent to a public footpath which crosses the field and close to an access road to works associated with the tunnel rail link. There have been formations - basically lines - and some ’ghosts’ in the oil seed rape crop - in this same field in 1993, but these were not investigated at the time.

The crop was about 2 ft high, and only just starting to flower at the time of appearance. On entering the formation via the nearest tramline the crop was seen to have been badly crushed with very many broken and crushed stems and leaves and substantial amounts of mud on the downed crop. This was the same in various parts of the formation visited. At the same time there was scant evidence of entry by visitors, as the nearest accessing tramlines were not trodden down and there were no paths made across the crop to reach the formation. I estimate it must have been about 2-3 days old when I visited it (i.e. it must have been made during the preceding weekend - 10-11 April), although this would have meant that it had been visible, and possibly accessed by visitors during Sunday.

The formation is remarkably complex and with a well executed design, consisting of twelve overlapping circles in a ring with alternatively the inner and outer arcs downed, and with wide arcs between each circle on the outside. Just over 3 tramline-widths are covered by the formation. Photographs were taken from the roadside opposite on 12 April, and on 26 April when plant samples were taken from within and from outside the formation for nitrogen analysis by ADAS.

While this formation shows all the hallmarks of having been man-made, it is nevertheless strange that so much trouble should have been taken to make such a complex formation away from the Wessex tourist areas, and not visible from the motorway. Possibly it must have been thought that alerting CCCS (through Joyce Galley) at such an early date would have resulted in a ‘major-event’ response with the associated publicity in the crop circle magazines. Or else it could have been a practice run by ‘Team Stan’ or others of that ilk for events in more public areas in the future. 

ABS King & J Galley.