1904 - Tilshead
The report of this event is a little tentative, but worthy of inclusion because of the formation described. The event consisted of six adjacent circles, in a line, with four large ones almost touching one another.
The account came to light after a letter from Constance Wheeler was submitted to The Reading Evening Post in August 1994. The bulk of the letter concerned another historical account (in Great Cheverell, in 1924 - see separate page). In the letter, Mrs Wheeler spoke of her uncle Teddy Lawes having seen circles before, "He explained that he had seen a spate of them 20 years previously and his family had tried to make the corn stand up again but could not." Intrigued by this, researcher Paul Fuller contacted Mrs Wheeler about both cases, and more details of the current event were subsequently published. Constance was eight when the 1924 circles appeared, and so this formation appeared before she was born. However she was sufficiently curious about the earlier circles her uncle had mentioned, and quizzed her relatives for information. Given the phrase "20 years previously", we can date the event to circa 1904. The circles apparently manifested on the family's land at Cornbury Farm (see below). |
The formation was said to consist of six "rings" which were nearly touching. (There is no indication that the term "rings" is being used for hoop-shaped rings rather than normal circles.)
Constance's aunt described to her a straight line formation of "perfect rings" which looked as if drawn by "a compass". Four of the circles were larger than the other two, and these four were adjacent at one end of the array. The aunt also recounted to Constance how the family had attempted to lift up the flattened wheat with implements such as sticks, but that the crop would always fall back to the ground. In terms of size, Constance remembered them being described as "as big as a room", which would give an extremely approximate diameter of about 3 or 4 metres, with two of the six circles being of lesser size. |
Cornbury Farm
Cornbury Farm is a listed building which lies at the end of a lane running from the west side of the A360.
To the south is the village of Tilshead, and to the north, West Lavington.
The circles detailed above appeared on the land around this farm, so we can be reasonably accurate in pinpointing the site.
The location of Cornbury Farm is shown ringed, left.
historic old crop circles - UK circles