1963 - Charlton
This case is one of the most important historical examples on record, as it contains:
Background: The Charlton Crater
In July, 1963, a crater measuring 8 feet in diameter (2.4 metres) and a foot deep (0.3 metres) was discovered at Manor Farm in Charlton, Wiltshire. The farmer was Roy Blanchard, and it was he who found the hole in the ground. The crater was reported to the media, and soon thereafter a veritable storm of interest arose, which went as far as the House of Commons. The crater was supposed by some to be evidence of UFO activity.
The army attended the site with bomb disposal equipment, and the BBC sent down a camera crew, with a young Patrick Moore in attendance. The cause was never discovered however, and no explosives were found at the scene. Speculation over what had caused the crater gradually subsided, the case being unresolved to this day. However we are not interested primarily in the crater itself - but in the discovery of crop circles at the scene.
Note: It has proved difficult to find the precise location of the crater. It is believed to have appeared at Manor Farm, Charlton. However Charlton is extremely small and not marked on all maps. It lies across fields to the south west of Ludwell, a village on the A30.
- Report by a well-known scientist
- Publication of an account in a scientific journal (the first such publication) in 1963
- Detailed description of the anatomy of the circles
- Two independent pieces of documentation by different witnesses
Background: The Charlton Crater
In July, 1963, a crater measuring 8 feet in diameter (2.4 metres) and a foot deep (0.3 metres) was discovered at Manor Farm in Charlton, Wiltshire. The farmer was Roy Blanchard, and it was he who found the hole in the ground. The crater was reported to the media, and soon thereafter a veritable storm of interest arose, which went as far as the House of Commons. The crater was supposed by some to be evidence of UFO activity.
The army attended the site with bomb disposal equipment, and the BBC sent down a camera crew, with a young Patrick Moore in attendance. The cause was never discovered however, and no explosives were found at the scene. Speculation over what had caused the crater gradually subsided, the case being unresolved to this day. However we are not interested primarily in the crater itself - but in the discovery of crop circles at the scene.
Note: It has proved difficult to find the precise location of the crater. It is believed to have appeared at Manor Farm, Charlton. However Charlton is extremely small and not marked on all maps. It lies across fields to the south west of Ludwell, a village on the A30.
The crop circles
Patrick Moore wrote a letter to New Scientist magazine, describing observations and opinions on what he observed at Charlton. This was soon after the site visit and so has good reliability. Moore had clearly taken careful note of what he found.
Fortunately, his account does not just focus on the crater itself, but also on the adjacent crop formations. His letter was published in the journal on August 8, 1963. This letter is reproduced in full below. Fortunately, Moore elected to go into some detail about the crop circles, which had hitherto been absent from the record. His site description is superb: "Circular or elliptical areas in which the wheat had been flattened... One, very will defined, was an oval, 15 yards long by 4.5 broad. There was evidence of 'spiral flattening', and in one case there was a circular area in the centre in which the wheat had not been flattened." |
This
is entirely comparable with site descriptions made by witnesses to crop
circles elsewhere, both before and since. Moore even makes mention of standing centres in some circles.
It is curious to note the dimensions of the oval given in the letter. Although ovals have been noted before, this one is especially elongated. A scale drawing is given below, to emphasise how exaggerated the shape was: |
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Moore was clearly puzzled by these circles. Besides describing what he saw, he also attempted to rationalise them. By supposing them to be a co-product of whatever caused the crater (not an unreasonable assumption, given the situation), he suggested that something had fallen to ground, and caused air currents which had swirled down the crop. (It is not clear however what he means when he says the circles "led" to the crater.) 
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Another witness
Amazingly, a second witness to these crop circles is known, and in his account no mention is made of Patrick Moore. It seems probable that the second witness, Wallace Binns, was not aware of Moore's letter when he submitted his own observations.
Mr Binns contacted the crop circle journal The Circular in 1990 with an account of his findings in 1963. It seems that he was only aware of the existence of one circle, whereas Moore had spotted several. The magazine published his letter in volume 2. Wallace Binns saw the circle himself, but also seems to have kept a copy of a report written by a third party (see extract of his letter, right). Independently of Patrick Moore, the same kind of details are present, with the added information that in this particular circle, there was an anti-clockwise swirl. The circle was 30 feet in diameter (approximately 9 metres). Binns also drew a diagram from memory (below). |
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Earlier circles
Further accounts are known of a circle on the same farm, belonging to Roy Blanchard, in 1951 or 1952. This was detailed in a letter to The Dorset Evening Echo printed on February 7, 1992. Paul Fuller contacted the letter writer, Graham Brunt, to clarify whether he was in fact referring to the 1963 circles noted above. His reply (part of which is reproduced right) confirms that this was a separate event, more than a decade earlier.
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historic old crop circles - UK circles