Crop circles: Have aliens left their mark (literally) on British farmland?
There’s a long history of crop circles in the UK, especially Wiltshire. In Sky HISTORY’s Out of This World, Bradley Walsh learns more about the phenomenon.
Image: Bradley Walsh: Out of this World
Crop circles have become iconic in UFO lore. These large, elaborate imprints, created by flattening crops in agricultural fields, feature many eye-catching patterns. The 1980s saw the rapid spread of crop circles in the UK, leading many observers to wonder what caused them.
Initially, they were perceived little differently from graffiti. However, as more and more crop circles popped up, becoming increasingly adventurous in design, there were whispers of something truly extraordinary afoot. Were mere humans really capable of creating crop circles, especially those hundreds of feet in diameter? Could they instead have been left by extraterrestrial spacecraft?
Bradley Walsh revives the long-running debate about crop circles in his new Sky HISTORY series Out of this World. In one episode, he heads to Wiltshire, where these artistic marvels have been particularly prominent. They’ve been appearing around these parts for a surprisingly long time, too, as we at Sky HISTORY discovered…
When did British crop circles first start appearing?
There are records of crop circles forming in various parts of the world, including the notoriously spooky Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. So, what’s the earliest report of a British crop circle? Possibly the woodcut pamphlet The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire, published in 1678. Its pages tell the tale of a farmer who finds his field inexplicably mowed and is convinced that only satanic influences could be responsible.
The Mowing-Devil’s front cover even shows a devil using a scythe to cut an oval shape into the field. Some fringe theorists believe this illustration to foreshadow the later trend of crop circles in the UK. However, as the stalks on the pamphlet are being cut rather than flattened, does the pictured formation meet the modern definition of a crop circle? We’d beg to differ.
The 1980s saw a spate of crop circles in the UK. This run actually began in the late 1970s, with the formations tending to emerge in the dead of night. Farmers would wake up in the morning shocked to see swathes of their prized wheat essentially vandalised, if in somewhat creative fashion. Some saw the opportunity to financially capitalise on the phenomenon. It wasn’t unusual for farmers to charge tourists itching to set foot on private land to see the crop circles up close.
Possible explanations for crop circles in the UK
Even academics initially struggled to come up with rational explanations for the hundreds of crop circles in the UK. The mystery captured worldwide attention, and overhead footage of the circles featured on the popular American TV programme Unsolved Mysteries. Speaking on the show, Glasgow University astronomer Archibald Roy downplayed the idea that the circles were hoaxes.
Roy acknowledged theories that the crop circles were ‘the footpad marks of flying saucers’ or ‘due to the downdrafts of helicopters’. Nonetheless, he added: ‘I don’t think that the hoax theory can be held very strongly, because there are so many of these circles. The amount of time that would have to be spent by a very big team of people making those circles is getting quite enormous.’
Experts also noticed that crop circles would often emerge near megalithic stone monuments, like Stonehenge and Avebury, both popular Wiltshire landmarks. Roy thought this could hint that the true history of crop circles in the UK went all the way back to megalithic times. Farmers of the era may have interpreted these circles as ‘signs from the gods’ and consequently built monuments mimicking the circles, Roy suggested.
Have crop circles always been hoaxes after all?
In 1991, two men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, claimed to have created more than 200 crop circles in the UK. The pranksters said they had used rope and planks of wood to flatten the corn, and even provided a demonstration. The resulting circle fooled the experienced crop circle researcher Pat Delgado, who declared it genuine before learning the truth.
Though most crop circles in the UK are now seen as consistent with human endeavour, others have been harder to explain. Some witnesses have reported seeing UFOs flying above known crop circle locations. There have also been reports of electronic devices malfunctioning in some crop circles, suggesting the presence of electromagnetic interference.
One Hampshire crop circle appearing in 2001 was even interpreted as a possible extraterrestrial response to a radio message sent out into space decades earlier. So, could the truth really, as the saying goes, be ‘out there’?
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