The Helions Bumpstead circles
In 1990, a year before the Doug & Dave scam, the circles were gaining much attention and tended to be taken seriously by the British press. When the Koestler Foundation announced a £5,000 reward for a solution to the mystery, The Sunday Mirror launched their own campaign in the edition of July 22, offering £10,000 to anyone who could explain how crop circles were made.
Judging the entries was a panel of four crop circle experts which included Terence Meaden and Jenny Randles. The influx of letters which consequently passed through their hands included reports of several older cases, a couple of which feature elsewhere on this site. One other was a long letter penned by Paul Germany, detailing two events at Helions Bumpstead comprising the appearance of a circle and a separate ring in 1935, and - two years later - a three-circle formation.
Helions Bumpstead lies more or less at the point where the counties of Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk meet, the exact location falling just inside Essex. The 1935 and 1937 events were within a few hundred metres of each other. Paul Germany was actually present when most of them formed, and Paul Fuller subsequently wrote to him to secure additional details.
Judging the entries was a panel of four crop circle experts which included Terence Meaden and Jenny Randles. The influx of letters which consequently passed through their hands included reports of several older cases, a couple of which feature elsewhere on this site. One other was a long letter penned by Paul Germany, detailing two events at Helions Bumpstead comprising the appearance of a circle and a separate ring in 1935, and - two years later - a three-circle formation.
Helions Bumpstead lies more or less at the point where the counties of Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk meet, the exact location falling just inside Essex. The 1935 and 1937 events were within a few hundred metres of each other. Paul Germany was actually present when most of them formed, and Paul Fuller subsequently wrote to him to secure additional details.
1935 - Helions Bumpstead
According
to his letter, Paul Germany was 10 when he saw the first circle form.
Like other eye witnesses, he describes what he saw in the context of
summer whirlwinds.
Paul Fuller's follow-up questions revealed that in the circle, "all the straw pointed in the same direction, except for a small tuft of approx. 50 stems which were still vertical in the exact centre." Interestingly, Germany recounts the farm workers dismissing the circles as a well-known phenomenon which they term a "Devil twist" (or "Devil twister" according to a separate statement). He also states, "Three days later a ring formed in standing corn, about 100 metres away. The farmer who was with us swore, as far as he was concerned the crop rings were a damned nuisance." Thus we have two separate events for 1935. |
Extract from Paul Germany's letter to The Sunday Mirror |
1937 - Helions Bumpstead
This account involves the eye-witness sighting of a linear triplet being formed. However the details indicate that the formation was asymmetrical, unlike the 'classic' triplets seen elsewhere. Nonetheless, Germany explicitly states that they were aligned, demonstrating a linear formation.
Again, the older farm labourers failed to react to the circles, suggesting to him that they were familiar with the phenomenon and did not consider it out of the ordinary. Paul Germany is the only person known to have seen circles forming on two occasions. He also says he has spotted similar circles in fields all over the UK, including Wiltshire. |
Extract from Paul Germany's letter to The Sunday Mirror:
Two years later, I saw three circles form. The time interval between 1, 2 and 3 was about 3 seconds. Extract from Paul Germany's subsequent letter to Paul Fuller: About seven o'clock [morning] the wind began to increase and swirl around. I paused and just happened to be looking across a shallow valley to the opposite side. The first crop ring appeared, then another, and a third... the spacing between rings 1 and 2 was 100 metres, [between] 2 and 3, 80 metres - all in a straight line. |
historic old crop circles - UK circles
