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Location: ALFRISTON, EAST SUSSEX
First reported: 21 May 2006
Crop: Oilseed rape
Design: Ring with spur
Dimensions: Unknown - possibly around 50ft diameter
Viewed by: ANDY THOMAS, 22 May 2006
REPORT: A ring with some kind of protruding spur is visible in
an oilseed rape field from the top of High and Over hill at Alfriston,
looking north-west. Whether it can truly be called a 'formation' is
debatable, as from a distance it looks distinctly unimpressive, and
viewing with binoculars reveals a rather scraggy ring which could even
be where some kind of farm vehicle has simply turned a circle in the
field.
That said, this may be too negative a view of this event, which has
clearly been laying in the field for several days at least, maybe
weeks, and hence it is difficult to be sure of its original
quality. There is very little left to see now. It certainly wasn't
present before 28 April, as this same field had already been checked
out when a wall and grass patch were misreported as a
formation. Curiously, this new sighting is just a few hundred feet
away from the patch.
The site is a cerealogically historical one - the adjacent field to the
south was home to the famous quintuplet formation photographed by the
then
Labour MP Denis Healey in 1984. But this year's event is rather
less dramatic, to say the least, and hard to get too excited
about. The appearance of such a minor marking would usually merit
little attention - its profile is raised, however, by the fact that it
is the first official UK sighting of the year (if one ignores the
recent commercial formation made for a Wiltshire newspaper).
Report by ANDY THOMAS
Photo by ANDY THOMAS
Southern Circular Research
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