25 July 2023 , 19:38
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Cover versions might never quite be as good as the original – but this remaster of a rock classic looks just like the real thing. The Eastfield Pictogram, first spotted in 1990, was the most famous example of the
phenomenon.
It was used by rock legends Led Zeppelin for their Remasters album, released in October that year. Now a copy of the 600ft pictogram has appeared in a field in Rushock, Worcs, 90 miles from the original. The site is close to the grave of the band’s drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980 after a drinking binge.
A post on the Croppie website, for crop circle enthusiasts, described it as a “reproduction, remaster, even, of the most iconic crop circle of all time.”
Copy of the Eastfield Pictogram had appeared in a field (Kris Malford / SWNS)Photographer Kris Malford, who snapped the new circle, said: “I find them magical – the happiness they bring to people. They make people think about what’s going on in the world around you.”
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Crop circles went ‘viral’ long before the creation of social media, thanks to their mysterious origins. They first appeared in southern England in the late 1970s, concentrated in Wiltshire and Hampshire.
The original Eastfield Pictogram in 1990 (Sunday Mirror)
Weird shapes in crop fields became a phenomenon in the 1980s and '90s (Sunday Mirror)Many enthusiasts believed they were caused by UFO landings, while some said magnetic shifts were behind the phenomenon. Others believe their origins come from ley lines – seams of spiritual energy that intersect sacred sites including Stonehenge. But the mystery appeared to have finally been solved in 1991, when two landscape painters came forward to claim responsibility.
David Chorley, 67, and Douglas Bower, 62, said they came up with the idea in 1978 while drinking in a Hampshire pub. The pair spent 13 years sneaking around southern England under the cover of darkness, creating crop circles. At the height of their prank, the men said they were creating up to 30 each summer, using a plank and piece of rope.
Led Zeppelin paid tribute on album coverThey said they stomped down the crop without breaking the wheat shafts and used ropes tied to a central stake to make the circles. They were aided by a piece of wire hanging down from a baseball cap like a gun sight, to make sure their lines were straight. Their story made the front of the Today newspaper under the headline: “Men who conned the world.”
David and Douglas said they watched in amusement as their antics gripped the country and began being copied around the world. But their confession was not enough to rule out an extra-terrestrial link in the eyes of many people.
A geometric patterns in Wiltshire (Heritage Images/Getty Images)Some scientists accepted hoaxers had created intricate circles, but said other simpler versions were formed by magnetic shifts. They claimed magnetic fields gave rise to a current which electrocuted the crops, forcing them to lie flat on the ground. Some UFO obsessives even argued that ‘fakers’ had been instructed to create the crop circles subconsciously by aliens.
In the late 1990s, US billionaire Laurance Rockefeller funded a huge UK survey of crop circles. Scientists carried out aerial research over Wiltshire in the hope of finding out their origins. US companies even advertised week-long tours of UK crop circles for an eye-watering £2,000 per-person.
In the 80s and 90s heyday of the phenomenon, there were five main groups in the UK creating crop circles almost every night during summer.
Dave Chorley shows how he creates crop circles (REX/Shutterstock)Some even branched out into lucrative private work, creating logos in fields for companies such as Nike, Pepsi and Greenpeace.
Public interest peaked with the Eastfield Pictogram, which appeared in a field in Alton Barnes, Wilts. Farmer Tim Carson turned a tidy profit by charging people £1 for a look. But while crop circles have long since vanished from news bulletins and front pages, they remain a familiar sight during UK summers.
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Data released last week showed Wiltshire remains the county with the most crop circles in England. There have been 380 recorded since 2005, according to the Crop Circle Visitor Centre and Exhibition in Honey Street, near Pewsey, Wilts. Monique Klinkenbergh, researcher and founder of the Crop Circle Visitor Centre & Exhibition who helped with the research, said: “There are obviously man-made ones out there.
Another crop circle in Wiltshire (Getty Images)“But if you listen to eyewitness accounts, the unexplained circles have one thing in common. They were formed in minutes, or seconds. There is definitely a mystery going on, but it’s very hard to label the source, whether it is extra-terrestrial, paranormal or just nature. Wiltshire is so famous for its sites of heritage, and I believe the crop circles are attracted to those places.”
Nowadays, ‘croppies’ use drones to capture instant images and footage of their latest designs and post them on social media. Crop circle season begins at the end of May, when barley first ripens, and ends with the harvest in September. Last month, two new crop circles appeared in Winterbourne Bassett, near Swindon, and Potterne Hill, near Devizes, within three days of each other – both in Wiltshire.
So it seems to the annoyance of many farmers, crop circles will not be disappearing from the UK countryside any time soon. And each time one appears, the same question will be on everyone’s lips: “How on earth was that made?”