CROP CIRCLES IN 1999

Diagram by Stuart Dike

"Oh my god, there is a crop circle in that field!" These are the words Mark and myself shouted almost in unison as we turned the corner onto the A4 Duel Carriage way near Newton St Loe. We were on our way to Avebury to work on the Travelogue, when our journey was suddenly cut short!

This is (as far as we know?) the first formation of 1999! And what is so amazing is that I/we both live only a few miles away, we still can't believe our luck. This was a gift from the Circlemakers to the Crop Circle Connector, and we thank them for it. :-)

The crop itself, is Oil Seed Rape. Its a very early field to be in full flower at this time of year, most of the Rape Seed fields are only a few feet high, but this Newton St Loe crop is about 4-5ft in height. I had been monitoring it for sometime, as I drive past the field every weekend, always in anticipation for something to appear there. Well it was only yesterday (Saturday 10th April) that I drove past the field and said to myself, "Its about the right height now for a circle, just a single circle on that brow would be nice"

So there you have it, didn't think I had it in me :-) But to be serious for a moment, this mind interaction with the possible source of the phenomenon I personally feel is very important in understanding our involvement with the crop circles. Did I pick up on something, I'm not sure.

Apparently on the night the formation appeared, a part of Bath experienced a power cut, but in which area is at this present time not known. I will endeavour to find out the details, and hopefully publish an update on this event. This may have been just a coincidence, but major power cuts are very rare, so it’s was a little strange that this took place on the very night of the appearance of this formation. Let’s not forget that these events are well-documented in crop circle history, so at this time it can't be rule out.

So what do we actually have at Newton St Loe? It is, as you can see from the photograph, a formation  which comprised of three circles of varying sizes, with connecting avenues to each one. On the middle circle as well as the bottom ring, we can see small arms leading off at certain positions.

The bottom circle as you can see from the photograph has a single outer ring, which was just over 5ft in width. The floor construction on entering the ring wasn't to bad; it was flowing in an anticlockwise rotation, in unison with the inner circle. As I walked around the ring I noticed a slight presence of mud on the leaves and also a selection of plants around the ring had their stems snapped at the very base. The inner circle was also flowing in an anticlockwise rotation but I have to say the overall pattern was extremely neat, there were a few stems that looked as if heavy pressure was applied. The small arm off the ring showed a few stems that had a split base.

Moving down the connecting avenue to the middle circle, the plants flowed in the circle in tune with the floor construction of the circle itself. This middle circle is flowing in an anticlockwise rotation, and is 30ft in diameter with three arms coming off the circle at 2 o'clock, 4' o’clock and 10 o'clock respectively. Each of the arms had a small appendage creating a fork feature on one, and an 'L' shapes on the other two.

The avenue connecting the middle circle to the main circle, the stems themselves appeared to be intact, with a slight sway to the left and right.

The very top circle is massive in size, approximately 140ft in diameter. I have never entered such a large circle as this in Oil Seed Rape, and neither had Mark. It was quite a sight, and the floor construction was extremely good! The stems were very clean, many of the thickest stems were bent over beautifully, and there was no evidence of any mud on the leaves themselves. Walking down the tramline racks, I did notice at certain positions split bases on the plants, but I have always stated that the phenomenon would find it difficult to create a formation without any breakage, especially in a difficult crop as Oil Seed Rape.

This formation has left me overall feeling quite positive, but I am still astounded at the date of visiting the first formation of the season. If the season gets any earlier in future years, and then we will be visiting circles in March, you never know. This is officially the earliest formation to appear out of all of the previous seasons, and does seem to be the first English event of 1999! What a treat to have it on our doorstep, lets hope its a start of things to come. 

Report by Stuart Dike.

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