The circle game crop artists
Father and son Terry (46) and Jack (20) from Salisbury are the Doug Bower and Dave Chorley [ FT69:38] de nos jours: they claim to have spent the last 15 years making crop glyphs overnight. They first draw their designs before briefing a team of enthusiasts and heading out into the fields. They use surveyors’ tape measures, markers and boards, spending up to five hours on each design. The two men (who declined to give their surname) have made more than 20 crop circles across Wiltshire, with designs ranging from 250ft (75m) to 1,600ft (500m) in size. “I have never copied or used computers to construct my ideas as it would not be at all fulfilling or meaningful,” said Terry. “I definitely feel as though there is some kind of channelling which is important.” Jack added: “I do the physical work mostly. Some nights there is a lot of energy that doesn’t feel normal. Usually at the end of a circle there is a definite presence that seems to entangle inside of you. It’s very electric.” They’re evidently both mystics.
Terry had long been interested in crop glyphs, but only started making them himself after suffering a brain hæmorrhage in 2000. He explained: “In the first few months [after the hæmorrhage] a friend at the time turned up at my door and insisted on taking me out to create our first crop circle. That was the beginning of my journey as a circle maker.” Jack was only five when Terry began designing formations but did not actively participate until he was 11. He said the process was exciting but exhausting. “I usually feel done by the time I’ve walked into the field, but once you get a couple of hours in you start to feel the adrenaline pumping,” he said. D.Mail online, 4 Sept 2015. November is actually a diagram warning about a meteor impact, according to Scott C Waring of ufosightingsdaily.com. This “writer, teacher, UFOlogist”, unfettered by evidence (or spelling), comments: “Crop circle [sic] have been around for thousands of years, recorded in ancient literature, paintings and walls. Its [sic] been long believed that the circles are messages sent from the heavens to humans. Today we believe they are messages from the aliens. Not all crop formations are real, only about 10-15% are real. This one looks real and seems to contain a message. To me, it looks like a warning about a meteor impact coming. Its [sic] showing an orbit around Earth, and then it shows the location where it will hit in the north western hemisphere… but no date.” Metro online, 18 Nov 2015. him sitting in a crop glyph at Monument Hill near Devizes in Wiltshire. Williams, 44, claimed he was just recording the crop patterns. King stood up and hurled a wellington boot at the drone – an action caught on the drone’s camera. The wellie missed its target and Williams flew his expensive equipment away from the scene.
The two men later had a violent confrontation in a nearby car park. Williams filmed the altercation on his phone and can be heard telling King: “You throw boots at people’s quadcopters. You are a tantrummy little b––––.” King, a martial arts expert from London now living in Bradford-onAvon, then lost his temper and repeatedly kicked and punched Williams, whom he accused of endangering him and another croppie by flying the drone only five feet (1.5m) above their heads, a claim strongly denied by Williams. “I felt we were being intimidated,” said King. “I kicked him in the nuts and chinned him and chinned him again. I knew exactly what I was doing and was prepared to take the consequences.” The police were called and arrested King for common assault. He received a formal caution. The pair then continued their argument in a series of tit-for-tat video statements on YouTube.
In November 2000, Williams, who lives in Devizes, became the first man in Britain to be convicted of making crop glyphs. He was fined £100 after admitting damaging a farmer’s crops near Marlborough to make a seven-pointed star. He later gave up flattening crops because of his hay fever, but still posts YouTube videos on the subject. King shot to prominence after witnessing and filming what appeared to be the instant formation of a crop glyph in the celebrated East Field in Alton Barnes in July 2007. Croppies held a press conference and presented his evidence to the media. BBC News, 8 Oct 2002; D.Telegraph, 10 Sept; Western Daily Press, 11 Sept 2015.