Readers will have probably read Reg Presley's latest attempt
to drum up interest in the subject following various media
stories at the beginning of May. Presley (one time lead singer
with "The Troggs") appears to have made a substantial
amount of money because his song "Love is All Round"
has been sung by the pop group Wet Wet Wet in the hit film Four
Weddings And A Funeral. Presley claims that he is going to
spend the princely sum of # 1 million on hiring helicopters to
film the formation of a crop circle. Surely ringing up the U.B.I.
is a cheaper method of filming a circle forming ?
In a disgraceful article in the Daily Express (June 25)
Reg Presley promotes Colin Andrews as a "leading
authority" on the subject. Presley claims that Andrews first
began researching crop circles in the "early Eighties",
something which The Crop Watcher has demonstrated to be
quite untrue. Presley's contribution to the public's perception
of the phenomenon includes the outrageous claim that:
"All we know is that some kind of energy has passed through the area very quickly. Any longer and the crop would catch fire. The area becomes magnetically charged too. People have been able to pick up stones and pieces of corn with magnets. But only the area inside the crop formation is magnetically charged, not that outside".
If any readers know of published test results which
demonstrate these claims your bemused Editor would be interested
in knowing about them !
Back to the 1994 hoaxes. The Southampton UFO Group
Newsletter lists 26 outbreaks of circles across Britain plus
a few overseas (eg in South Carolina, USA). These include a
ringed circle close to junction 13 on the M4 north of Newbury
(one of Jim Schnabel's favourite locations for making circles),
four formations at Meopham, Kent and a pictogram at Borstal,
Rochester, in Kent. Jim Schnabel has been in the United States
this year so who is mimicking him ?
Once again a large formation has appeared at Dundry Hill south
of Bristol whilst someone has been busy making circles in West
Sussex. Suspicions have been raised about a new group of hoaxers
from the Dorset area. It is noticeable that for the third or
fourth year running about a dozen formations have appeared near
Dorchester. It has been suggested to The Crop Watcher that
many of the Beckhampton/Avebury circles have been made by this
new group travelling further afield to keep the crop circle myth
alive and kicking.
Meanwhile, around Britain a number of other formations have
appeared. On Monday 10th July BBC Radio Berkshire interviewed
local farmer Richard Jackson who discovered nine circles ranging
from a few feet to seventy yards in diameter in his field at
Garson Hill, Ipsden, a few miles north of Reading. The farmer was
convinced that the circles were man-made, although he admitted
that he could find no trace of how the hoaxers accessed his
field. On July 16th these circles were mentioned in a spoof
article in the Daily Mail discussing the sudden overnight
disappearance of trees and hedges in the nearby village of Cray's
Pond ("On the trail of the firs that went clump in the
night"). According to Schnabel and Irving's article in The
Independent Magazine (29 August 1992 page 37) one fringe
member of the UBI lives in nearby Reading. Again like many
other hoaxes these circles appeared over the weekend.
A quintuplet was reported to The Crop Watcher on July
12th. It was seen from the M6 on the northern side of the
carriageway near Rugby, close to a railway line. Birmingham CCCS
reported several other circles in the Midlands in June. A set of
"squashed" circles appeared underneath some power lines
at Beachy Head near Eastbourne. Once again the UFO-power line
association is promoted. A huge pictogram appeared at East Dean
in Sussex in late July. According to an item on Meridian TV
News (July 27th) people at a local pub saw the hoaxers
emerging from the field with planks and pieces of string. The
farmer was furious and claimed that he had lost
"thousands" of pounds. Meanwhile a circle even formed
near John Macnish's home in Ludlow (c July 20th). Apparently
local Young Farmers were to blame ! Readers will be interested to
learn that a full page article appeared in the Daily Mirror
on June 20th. Titled "I miss my daily diet of corn
fakes" reporter Anton Antonowicz reports on Doug Bower's
increasing bitterness with the crop circle community's failure to
accept his story. Some of Doug's quotes make interesting reading
:
"I wasn't put on this earth to stop potty people acting daft".
"We'd watch the experts measuring our designs and try to keep straight faces as people lay down in our circles to 'absorb the cosmic energy' ".
"People needed something to believe in and we gave it to them. When we told them the truth it was like attacking a religion. I only wish there were aliens from another planet - rather than some of the cerealogists who just act like they are from another planet".
As the hoaxers run rings around the researchers we must ask
ourselves how much longer the farming community is going to
tolerate this madness. How much money are the farmers prepared to
lose before they decide to stop the hoaxing via prosecutions and
direct action ? The Crop Watcher appeals to the hoaxers to
cease their actions and to leave the farmers alone.
Regular readers of Fortean Times will have seen the
excellent summary of ice ring cases by Bob Rickard in FT74
(April/May 1994). This article takes a close look at nine ice
ring cases dating back to 1930. The photographs show a variety of
highly regular patterns which Rickard rightly compares with the
crop circle phenomenon, observing how both phenomena attract the
same kinds of theories - meteorological, hydrological, hoax or
alien intelligence, depending on your point of view. Whilst FT
was putting this article together Jenny Randles sent me a letter
from someone in Scotland who has requested complete anonymity.
The writer states that "On two days here I had two quite
different and most regular circles on thin snow-covered ice"
(letter dated 12th August 1993).
After some coaxing "JHD" kindly sent me photocopies
of his photographs of the ice rings that have appeared close to
his home. One photograph shows what appears to be a double set of
rings about 10 metres out into a wide river. There also appears
to be two inner rings only a few centimeters wide very close to
the centre of the circle but it is difficult to tell due to the
poor quality of the photocopy. In the foreground there is what
may well be the second outer ring, but it is not possible to
determine if this ring continues to the far side of the river.
The second photocopy shows what in crop circle terms would be
described as a ringed single. There is a central circular hole
2-3 metres across surrounded by a ring of ice 1-2 metres across
followed by the outer ring 1-2 metres across. Of course these
dimensions are mere guesses as it seems likely that no proper
measurements exist.
In both photographs the river must be about 30 metres wide. It
is not clear if both rings formed at precisely the same spot.
There is snow on the banks of the river and the handful of trees
look decidedly bare. Presumably like the formations listed in the FT
article both these rings formed during the depths of winter. The
first photograph closely resembles the double rings that appeared
on the Charles River at Waltham, Massachusettes, in January 1991
(photo on page 25 of FT article) whilst the second
photograph more closely resembles the ring reproduced on the back
cover of CW8 (with the addition of the central hole). In
both cases running water can be seen in the foreground.
It is not known whether these rings were rotating or not. I
have kept "JHD" informed of recent articles about the
phenomenon and he has promised to send me the negatives of these
ice rings as soon as they can be located.
The importance of the ice ring debate is that it seems that
(like crop circles) another natural phenomenon has been
discovered where historical documentation is remarkably thin on
the ground. According to Bob Rickard's article it wasn't until
1987 that UFO Sweden first published an account of the ice rings
they investigated at Pitealven and Kalixalven. Only one truly
historical photograph has so far been discovered (from 1930), so
if ice rings are a natural phenomenon why did UFOlogists fail to
promote earlier accounts. Like crop circles several ice ring
cases involve multiple rings. In at least one case unidentified
flying objects have been linked with the phenomenon. It all
sounds remarkably familiar doesn't it !
If ice rings are an example of a hitherto rarely documented
natural phenomenon then why can't crop circles be the same ? In
this reviewer's opinion it would take just one well authenticated
photograph of a crop circle from the pre Second World War era to
elevate the crop circle debate back to a scientific platform.
Just one. And don't forget there have been several near misses in
our search for an unambiguous historical crop circle photograph
(we have, for example, not publicised the pre war photograph that
surfaced a couple of years ago of a Whiskey Distillery near
Dundee which appeared to show four small regular shaped markings
in the bottom right-hand corner).
As this issue goes to press your Editor has been sent 16
computer listings from the National Monuments Record at the Royal
Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, based in
Swindon. I intend visiting the centre on August 16th to see if I
can locate photographic proof of the numerous anecdotal crop
circle reports we have been collecting since the mid 1980s. Of
course, as the Wessex Skeptics have pointed out, a historic
photograph of a crop circle is no proof that historic crop
circles are not man-made too. Nevertheless it would be a major
step forward. Perhaps a month or so from now the crop circle
pendulum will have swung back the other way ?
