Reports of Unidentified Flying Object: The English Corn Circles in 1988 – UFOs and Circle Sites
This correlation is very remarkable. During that particular flight in June we flew over and photographed a quintuple set of Circles in a barley field between Upton Scudamore and Cradle Hill, near Warminster. This 170-foot formation appeared on June 14 and was, we mistakenly thought, the first set of 1988 Wiltshire Circles. It was of interest in that the main circle of this quintuple was swirled in an anticlockwise spiral, unlike any in the quintuple Circle sets that have been found before or since. It was also exceptional in having opposite pairs of clockwise and anticlockwise satellites, which had then never been seen be fore. With the sole exception of another quintuple that had appeared in August 1987 in a field just a few hundred yards away from this one, all quintuple Com Circles previously reported displayed .clockwise swirl in all five circles. Once more the Circles had given a clear indication of their evolving nature.
Now consider the following account which Arthur Shuttlewood was given by a prominent local businessman and Justice of the Peace. The J.P. was driving with his wife and son from Warminster toward Westbury when he rounded a sharp bend past the first turning off to Upton Scudamore. It was on a clear bright August night at about eleven o’clock.
He continued:
I saw a huge red ball, fiery and glowing, which rolled slowly over a clump of trees and above a hill on the right . It hung suspended for a time in the air, the rolling motion ceased, and I drew to a halt to watch more closely. It drew me like a magnet, that shining light!
Gradually the large ball commenced to tum on its axis, revolving and changing color as though cooling down from immense heat. It was now a fluorescent egg, flattened out somewhat, a brilliant orange in the sky. A deep crimson band spread along or through the center of the egg, jutting out slightly from either end. We looked on amazed as four small red balls of light shot out of the main scarlet beam and protruded into the air for what we estimated to be twenty feet or so.
At no time were these smaller spheres disconnected from the main object. They seemed to be linked to it by a slender thread of paler red light that swayed like the tentacle of an octopus! They remained in that position dancing vaguely from side to side, for about two or three minutes. Then they quickly shot back into the larger shape and disappeared from sight.
This extraordinary description of a UFO near Upton Scudamore coincides rather remarkably as regards shape with that of the quintuple sets of Corn Circles, which have been found in just that place in 1987 and 1988. And yet the episode described above took place in 1966! Can there possibly be some connection?
A similar object was sighted near Charity Down in Au gust 1985 by Mrs. Joan Simms of Over Wallop, about seven days after a quintuple set of Circles had appeared there. This UFO consisted of five lights positioned like the five spots on a dice, and the outer lights repeatedly entered and left the central light. Mrs. Simms said that the UFO was so bright that it hurt her eyes to watch it for too long. A BUFORA investigator subsequently suggested that what Mrs. Simms had seen was the planet Venus, which surely deserves some sort of prize for silliness. Nevertheless, it does prove difficult to establish a direct connection between particular sightings and the formation of a set of Circles. However, the coincidence of place between UFO sightings and the actual Circles remains in escapable.