The UFO report: The English Corn Circles in 1988 – Footprints in the Corn
Then came new indications of visitors to the Circles which proved even more puzzling. After the appearance of the double-ringer Circle at Cheesefoot Head, all further Circle activity in Hampshire ceased. All new Circles were to appear in Wiltshire during July, and again this strange phenomenon moved into a new phase. After the first six Circles below the Westbury White Horse were found, we naturally expected many more just there, as had occurred in 1987. But this was not the case. The next group was formed during the night of July 7/8 in a field beside the Warminster to Westbury road just beyond the turning to Upton Scudamore, exactly next to where the J.P. had stopped to observe that bizarre UFO many years before.
The farmer, whose land it was, saw the Circles in his field from his farmhouse at an early hour. There was a ‘ ‘loose’ ‘ group of three similar to one of the earlier triples at Westbury. He telephoned Colin Andrews, who drove over at once from Andover. The farmer had inspected the crop in his wheat field late on the previous night, when there had certainly been no Circles. Since they were not visible from the nearby A350 road, he assumed that he alone was aware of them, and was therefore very surprised when a white helicopter appeared in the sky and hovered low above the Circles, presumably photographing them.
Possibly this was the military from Warminster, though a white helicopter is unusual. When Colin Andrews arrived he went straight to the field with the farmer, and they both felt certain that they were the first to reach this set of Circles. But in the standing corn between the Circles he could see small tracks, mostly along the seed-line, which seemed to have been surreptitiously made. In places, what appeared to be a small shoeprint could be detected, such as one might expect to belong to a woman or a child. These prints were even found under the flattened wheat on one or two places, which seemed to indicate that they either preceded or were contemporary with the formation of the Circle.
These tracks and the occasional “shoeprint” were to be found again and again in all of the Circles which appeared in the vicinity of Silbury Hill within the next month. Everyone who was aware of them suspected initially that some sort of hoax was being perpetrated . But the later conclusion was that, otherwise, these Circles gave every indication of being genuine.
So what possible interpretation can be put on these tracks? Possibly we were mistaken, and persons unknown had entered the Circles before the investigators, on each occasion. But it did not seem that way. Possibly these particular Circles were formed using some kind of human involvement of a sort at which we can only speculate. Possibly the tracks and the “shoeprints” were not of hu man origin at all .
Alas, one cannot be served up with Circles in the way we might like to have them. Each new feature we discover brings with it more doubt and more bewilderment. Each aspect seems capable of different interpretations. One wonders what the meteorologists will make of Circles which come with built-in footprints, though no doubt they will have an explanation. The only lesson which can really be learned from this odd development is that a rather less dogmatic approach to the whole phenomenon is advisable.