The design at Uffington

Whether it is little green men or hoaxers, mysterious circles and geometric patterns are cropping up in fields across Oxfordshire.

First a 54-foot-wide crop circle was discovered in a field by a church in Toot Baldon, near Garsington, which baffled locals.

Then, two days later, a larger and more intricate crop circle was created near the Uffington White Horse in a field at Kingston Lisle.

The latest spate comes only weeks after the world's first 3D crop circle was discovered in Ashbury near Uffington.

But these out-of-the-world designs may not be around for much longer as farmers are starting harvesting.

At Toot Baldon, a crop circle enclosed by a hexagon was spotted and photographed on August 4 near St Laurence Church and The Mole pub.

The Rev Sandra Miller said she believed the crop circle had now been cut down by farmers.

She added: "I don't think I've given crop circles much thought but when I've read about them they nearly always point to some form of human involvement.

"There must be a logical explanation. I don't see anything sinister or mysterious going on at Toot Baldon Church - it's a pretty warm and lovely place that people like to go to and there is nothing here to make people feel uneasy."

The pattern is a clockwise spiral of raised and flattened wheat.

The spirals are enclosed by a 54ft long hexagon and an 18ft long letter S is cut into the crops only yards away.

A second larger crop circle was first seen on land near Blowingstone Hill, Kingston Lisle, 10 days ago a few miles from the Uffington White Horse.

The circle surrounds a five pointed star with crops flattened to make a diagonal chequered design inside.

The crop circle is on fields at Little Farm near Wantage which is run by CW Nash Ltd.

Sheila Nash, of Little Farm, said the field was due to be harvested this week.

She added: "No one really knows what they are. But we haven't seen any aliens. The first we knew of it was a group of people on the field and it turned out to be some kind of club. People have come to see it but they haven't caused much damage as long as they keep to the tractor lines. That field should be harvested soon."

Michael Soper, of Wheatley, a spokesman for UFO group Connect International, said: "Some crop circles are so detailed it appears a projected force has been used to make a picture. It's obvious some of them are a hoax yet others are so large you cannot explain it."

In July the world's first three-dimensional crop circle spanning 360 feet was discovered in fields near Ashbury.

8:52am Wednesday 16th August 2006

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