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| Crop Circles
Archive 2001 |
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 Crop Circles news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Community Hoaxing Opinion Forum Gallery 2003 Gallery Calendar Postcards Wallpaper Circle Designs Milk Hill Alton Barnes Barge Inn Signs Movie Links  |
First
published on February 1, 2001 THE National Union of Farmers has become embroiled in a feud between self-confessed crop circle maker Matthew Williams and local researchers of the phenomena. Mr Williams, 29, who lives at Bishops Cannings, was fined £100 with £40 costs by Kennet Magistrates in November after admitting causing damage to crops at West Overton the previous August. That was one incident in a long-running row in which Mr Williams maintains that all the complex patterns created in fields of crops in the county are made by teams of crop circle makers, while researchers insist Mr Williams and his friends are muddying the waters, hampering their efforts to discover the source of genuine circles. The latest round in the battle began when Alton Barnes farmer Tim Carson was sent a fax containing a message purporting to come from Mr Williams. In it, Mr Williams states that his pagan beliefs lead him to the conclusion that no one has the right of ownership over land and he has the right to make crop circles anywhere he chooses. It reads in part: "To think that land was seized by Kings and Queens and then rented back to farmers is still a great injustice to the people of the UK and this is why I do not respect the land ownership and claims of the farmers." Mr Carson was alarmed at receiving the fax and forwarded it to the local office of the NFU asking them to publicise it in the union magazine. But Mr Williams said his words were taken out of context, being just a small part of a long e-mail correspondence with Francine Blake, director of the Wiltshire Crop Circle Studies Group, who was not responsible for sending the message to Mr Carson. Mr Williams said: "They are my views but that doesn't mean I'm going to make any more illegal crop circles. I am surprised Tim has forwarded this fax to the NFU. I think he has been egged on by the researchers." Mr Carson was not prepared to say how he had received the fax but said that crop circles on his land had cost him a lot of money. He said: "I have had circles on my land every year for the past ten years, six or seven of them a year. If you work that out, it comes to a loss of up to £1,500 for each circle. Work it out for yourself." Mr Williams says he has obtained permission from local farmers to create circles in their fields this summer and he and his colleagues intend to give a demonstration of their art for the benefit of press and public. He claims the researchers are alarmed by this and are trying to dissuade farmers from co-operating with him. Back to 2001 index |
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