Trawling through my database of previously written work, I came across one of my first. In a previous guise I was the Co-Editor of Phenomena Magazine, for many years before I was involved in the scientific study and research of all things profound. Because of this I and colleagues were often asked to study many different peculiar events. So in August 2000, I was contacted by a national newspaper to explore, what was my first experience of a crop circle.

For those who don’t know, I will briefly explain a few things regarding crop circles, followed by a return to the Rhosllanerchrugog crop circle:

What are Crop Circles?

Crop Circles are geometric patterns that allegedly appear mysteriously in crop fields. The crop is not cut, but is usually laid flat and most often swirled into an attractive floor pattern. Most patterns appear in cereal crops such as wheat and barley, but circles have been known to occur (in lesser numbers) in oilseed rape, maize, linseed, grass and even borage – to name a few. In the US many circles appear in soya, as it grown prevalently in that part of the world.

When and where do they appear?

Although it might seem obvious, crop circle occur only during the crop growing season. In the UK the first circles can start to occur in April and May, reaching their height in late July and August. Crop circles do in fact occur all over the world in many countries and obviously they similarly follow growing seasons in that particular part of the world. In the UK most circles occur in the county of Wiltshire, although circles do happen (in lesser numbers) countrywide. In the early season (April/May) numbers are few but this gradually builds up as the summer moves on, at the height of the season (Late July/August) several circles can appear on one night. The season ends with the harvest – and the slate is wiped clean for another year. The crop circles makers do seem to have an affinity for ancient sites. Many circles appear close to stone circles, barrows, earthworks and other landmarks. Stonehenge and Avebury have played host to many crop circles over the years. The Crop Circles usually appear overnight, in the few short hours of darkness in the summer months. Most are completely perfect at first-light with no flaws in their designs!

How large are the crop circles?

Crop Circles can range in size from only a few feet across to several hundred feet in diameter. Sometimes larger designs are accompanied by a smattering of tiny circles (some barely a foot in diameter) these are referred to as ‘grapeshot’ or ‘satellite’ circles. One of the largest designs recorded appeared at Milk Hill, in Wiltshire, it measured over 900ft in diameter and the design was made from 409 circles all arranged in a circular spiral. The 409 circles circles in the formation ranged in size from 70ft down to about a foot in diameter! However, all this said, the average size for a crop circle is around 200-300ft in diameter – still no small feat!

How long has this been going on?

There is an ongoing debate between researchers as to the longevity of the phenomenon. Essentially two camps exist within the debate; those who believe that the crop circle phenomenon is a relatively modern occurrence beginning in the mid 1970’s and those who believe that there are reports going back to the beginning of the century and even earlier. The first circle photographed (documented) in the UK was in 1976, however many farmers report circles in their fields going back considerably further than this date. There is a woodcut dating back to the 1600’s known as the ‘Mowing Devil’ which seems to show some kind of circular pattern in a crop field, however opinion is divided as to whether this can be directly linked to the crop circles or not.

What makes the crop circles and what do they mean?

There are many theories about who or what makes the crop circles. Whirl-winds, earth energies, and extraterrestrials to name but a few, However the more likely would be the human factor, with modern technology and GPS making it easier to ascertain direction and plan a design. What makes the crop circle subject so fascinating is that anyone and everyone can take part in the search for answers. There has been some very interesting scientific work carried out on the crop and soils from the circles which should be investigated by all those with an interest in the phenomenon. You can find a link to the specific website carrying the work here: www.bltresearch.com Much the same goes for the ultimate meaning behind the designs, there has been some fascinating research into the geometry and mathematics of the crop circle designs and shapes, which suggest that the designs are not arbitrary or meaningless, but quite the opposite. People have connected the circles to subjects as diverse as star constellations and quantum physics to alchemy and spirituality.

The Rhosllanerchrugog crop circle:

On Sunday August 6th -2000, Mr. Newton Jones (owner of Farmworld, near Wrexham, Wales and a tourist attraction for school children and the general public) reported the sudden appearance of a crop circle formation in one of their nearby fields. Newspaper (The Daily Post) was contacted by either Mr. Newton Jones himself or his son aged approximately 30 Years.

On Thursday August 10th 2000, I received a telephone call from Mr. Cart Butler, a newspaper reporter from the Daily Post informing him of the apparent strange appearance of the crop circle. I then contacted Steve Mera of Manchester and told him of what had gone on. Steve contacted Mr. Vic Cleavley, a photographer for the Daily Post who had apparently visited the location and taken several photographs using a digital camera. Mr. Cleavley told Steve how he felt the presence of an electrostatic atmosphere at the he was taking the photos. All the photographs apparently turn out fine.

The next telephone call Steve made was to the farm owner Mr. Newton Jones to arrange a visit to the location that very evening. Mr. Newton said that he had felt light footed and even weak at the nee’s whilst walking through the crop formation (indicating some type of strange physiological reaction). I had arranged to first meet with Steve and later to visit Mr. Jones at the location at around 19.00 hours.

On the evening of August 10th. 2000, We arrived at the location and asked for Mr. Jones. A younger man came out and addressed himself as Mr. Jones, (obviously, Mr. Newton Jones son). This gentleman did not want to participate in our questions and almost immediately sent for his father, who accompanied us (myself, Steve Mera and Karen Day) to the crop formation. Mr. Newton Jones also gave mention to their advertising balloon moving strangely back and forwards in the sky. I believe that Mr. Jones was in fact indicating that this so called strange movement was associated with the crop formation in some way. Finally, he mentioned of a helicopter that had flew over and hovered for a while. This helicopter was described as just a normal civilian aircraft.

Author testing crop circle

Author with equipment at circle

No Abnormal Nodes were found on crop

Authors colleague Steve Mera at site

Circle from ground

Measurements were taken along with photographs, a visual plan, ground resistance readings and plant and soil samples for further analysis.

It wasn’t long until I realised I was standing in a crop circle that had been hoaxed by circle makers. No unusual readings of magnetic fields, the crop was identical to others I had seen that showed that it had been forcefully pressed to the ground. I confirmed normal ground resistance readings. We had asked Mr. Newton if he knew of anyone who would make such a circle in his crop field. His answer was ‘No’. The circle also, looked to have been first started then stopped and moved towards the centre of the field. After carefully measuring the formation and taking several photographs, we told Mr. Newton that we thought the formation to have been hoaxed.

At this Mr. Newton said that when walking towards the centre of the formation he could feel some strange force making his legs feel light. This triggered suspicion in our minds. May be Mr. Newton was in fact aware that the formation was a hoax and even possibly knew the perpetrators. Clearly Mr. Newton Jones did not want to take our pre-conclusion seriously. Something else that was suspicious was that there were two gentleman in a white car watching us for quite sometime. These gentlemen circled several times. I made the comment, ‘I bet that’s the “hoaxers’. We never really did find out who these men were.
Over the years I have read many articles regarding this mysterious phenomena and I have come to some comfortable conclusions.

1. That about 99.% of crop circles are in fact hoaxes.
2. That the remaining 1% sometimes show similar characteristics, such as high iron particle concentration, and the crops seem to have fallen to the ground rather than forcefully pressed.
3. That the crop circle phenomena may very well be an extremely old phenomena, dating back to the early 1100s if not before and that the devil was said to have been responsible for such formings at that time, of course, many things that were not understood very well was often thought to be associated with witchcraft or the devil himself.
4. That such forming have apparently been found on ice and in mud.
5. That there seems to be an unusual plasma or light phenomena seen sometimes travelling through the crop by those who visit the formations.
6. Finally, that there does not seem to be any evidence to suggest that crop circles are manufactured by UFO’s or Extra-terrestrials.

One of my favourite researchers of the crop circle phenomena is a woman called Nancy Talbot, who is very well respected by our organisation. Her lectures are well known and her research is of a scientific nature, and some of her findings are simply fascinating. She claims that some circles have this high concentration of iron particles, which may suggest that the more authentic formings have possibly been constructed by some strange force being applied from above. A natural concentration of iron particles congregate in the ionosphere. The high iron particles in the crop circle could very well indicate that the strange force from above attracts the iron particles before affecting the crop and leaving a residue of the ion on the ground.

Nancy also believes that some of the more authentic crop circles are created by some force of microwave energy from above and it is this microwave energy that causes the sudden heating of the crop. Most of the water content in the crops stands about four inches above the ground inside the stem of the plant and when heated can become floppy and fall to the ground, thus hardening when cooled and becoming rigid once again. A very interesting theory indeed. Some of the crop was taken up and transported to a university for testing. The crop was placed in a huge microwave oven and it was apparently confirmed that such microwave energy could cause a crop to fall to the ground. This method also affects parts of the crop known as nodes. These nodes often look like a small bulge similar to the shape of a knee cap. These nodes hold water and moisture and when affected by microwave energy, seem to explode or , buckle. There have been many crop formations that have been affected in this same manner, however, on Mr. Newton Jones farm, the crop nodes did not seem to be affected. I quickly realised that, from the centre of the formation that North and South indicators were clearly visible, i.e. The North indicator pointed directly to a near by pylon and the South indicator pointed directly to an old mining factory. Such indicators can sometimes be used as reference points when creating crop circle formations.

On a few occasions it has been reported that flies have been found fused to the crop in the formation. These flies are found dead in their hundreds and also on a couple of occasions, feathers have been found scattered all over the formation along with parts of a bird. At first it was thought the bird had been shot, however, when further study took place regarding microwave energy, researchers realised that sudden and intense microwave energy applied to an area where a bird is, could in fact cause the bird to explode. I don’t personally know if this is exactly the case, but one cannot help thinking that it is a certainly good attempt at explaining this unusual phenomena.

Microwave energy would also heat the ground in a given area, thus ground resistance readings could vary significantly from the centre of the crop formation to an area outside the crop formation. Mr. Newton Jones also gave mention to the local advertising balloon unusually moving backwards and forwards at the time a helicopter was flying over the crop formation and very possibly viewing it from above. We do not think this unusual as the balloon could have easily been propelled through the sky by the wind generated from the helicopter blades. This was suggested to Mr. Jones, to which he said ‘Oh Yes‘.

Whilst leaving the field Mr. Newton Jones continued in the attempt to get us to believe that the crop circle was strange and mysterious in some manner, and went on to mention an incident that took place a few years back when a cow in a near by field was struck by lightning near a metal fence. As to why this may be associated to the crop circle is beyond me. I feel that it was a desperate attempt to alter our pre-conclusion. We told Mr. Newton Jones that we would be in touch with our results and left.

The following day Mr. Carl Butler, reporter from the Daily Post was contacted and told of our findings. Steve Mera mentioned that the crop had been obviously pressed to the ground physically and that no anomalies were found. Our conclusion was definitely pointing towards the hoax theory, taking into account that the farm where the crop circle is located is in fact a tourist attraction and is well advertised. In fact, Farmworld even has its own web page.

After measuring the crop circle it was determined that the formation had a diameter of approximately 218 feet. The formation can be described as Twin Circles closely inter-linked with two obvious centres. Plant inspection found no abnormal nodes and the plants were consistent with being forcefully pressed to the, ground. There were no unusual Ground Resistance Readings and no unusual Magnetic Readings. As for that, there was nothing much more we could do. It was now just a matter of having some plant analysis conducted on the samples we had taken. But by an unusual turn of events it was not required….

On Saturday August 12th 2000, Steve Mera talked with an associate (Mr. Nick Nicolson) who informed him that the crop circle ‘was’ in fact a hoax, constructed by two gentlemen, Mr. John Lundberg and Mr. William Russell, who had apparently posted details of their crop formation to a web site known as ‘Crop Circle Connector’.

This web page showed a couple of photographs and a plan of the formation, along with some interesting details that said the copyright of the crop circle design was to J. Lundberg 2000. It turns out that this man-made crop circle was commissioned by Channel 4 (a television company based in the UK). It will, more than likely be featured sometime soon on the Channel 4. If this is the case I find it almost impossible to believe that Mr. Newton Jones was unaware of this, in fact, he may have even been paid by Channel 4, who knows ? It won’t be the first time something like this has happened. MAPIT did send Mr. Jones a letter asking him to explain how he knew nothing of the hoax nor Channel 4’s involvement. We are still awaiting a reply. A reply that we will probably never get.

Finally, a few days later I managed to obtain the article in the Daily Post newspaper that Mr. Carl Butler had wrote. Of course, as usual it was corny and did not portray our investigation correctly, nor did they give any mention to our conclusion. Once again, the media have tried to make something out of nothing. Below is the article in question.