Reports of Unidentified Flying Object: The First 1988 Circles
On the morning of June 4 the first set of 1988 Circles appeared, overnight as usual, in ·the middle of the great punchbowl below Cheesefoot Head near Winchester.
Clearly visible from the road above, three thirty-foot diameter Circles, all swirled clockwise, had formed in a neat equilateral triangle in the barley crop. This was a formation seen just once before at Bratton, Wiltshire, in 1982. At Cheesefoot Head, Circles had appeared regularly each summer since 1981 in varying formations, with the sole exception of 1984. The landowner, Lieutenant Commander Henry Bruce, and his son Peverill had doggedly believed that the Circles were the work of hoaxers, but although one Circle found here in 1986 was proved to have been a hoax, this belief has become increasingly difficult to sustain. The 1988 triple set was in barley which had no “tram-lines” (the usual parallel paths made by the tractor wheels) that could allow intruders or hoaxers access without trace. The Bruces had zealously excluded all potential trespassers, and no visible tracks through the crop could be seen leading to these Circles.
Four days later an identical triple Circle formation was found six miles away in barley at a remote location near Corhampton, although it is possible that these were formed up to three weeks earlier. These Circles proved even more remarkable. They were not visible from the nearest road, and were accidentally discovered by Mr. Hall, who farms this land, when he walked into them (along a “tramline”) while inspecting his crop. Two of these Circles were located in such a way that they were exactly tangential to adjoining tramlines on both sides, with the third Circle centered exactly on one of the tramlines, as can be seen from Photo. The “locating” of Circle formations like this is frequently found and gives reason to believe that the referencing of the Circles to artificial features, such as “tramlines, ” has been intelligently contrived. Although there are no set rules which govern this aspect of the Circles, it is definitely something that cannot be ignored.
The most remarkable thing about this Circle set only became apparent some days later. The crop, which had originally been swirled flat, grew upward again to almost its previous level; but in doing so, it appeared to undergo some peculiar sort of change which is apparent only in the aerial photograph. Each of the three Circles could be seen to be “imprinted” with markings which divide it into seven concentric rings and forty-eight separate sectors. This was a major new CPR discovery, and at the time the effect seemed totally inexplicable. But it did strongly suggest that whatever force had caused the corn to fall might remain in situ, producing other more subtle effects under certain circumstances. And it seemed quite impossible to explain in terms of ”stationary vortices. “