IncidentCrop Circles & the Bower-Chorley Hoax (1978-1991)

Through the 1980s, flattened circular patterns appeared in the fields of Wiltshire and Hampshire, escalating from simple circles to elaborate ‘pictograms’ by 1990 and driving a research subculture, ‘cereology’ (Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews’ ‘Circular Evidence,’ 1989), plus meteorologist Terence Meaden’s naturalistic ‘plasma vortex’ theory. In September 1991 Doug Bower and Dave Chorley confessed to the newspaper Today that they had made circles since 1978 using a plank, a rope, and a wire-loop sight on a cap; they demonstrated the technique and arranged for cereologist Pat Delgado to declare a freshly made fake genuine before learning it was theirs. Bower said he was inspired by the 1966 Tully ‘saucer nest’ in Australia. The phenomenon continued after the confession via other ‘circlemakers’ (John Lundberg’s Circlemakers), teams making elaborate overnight formations - confirming no anomalous cause is needed. It fills the crop-circle genre and is a clean lineage study from a landing-nest report to a global self-sustaining hoax with its own pseudo-scientific belief movement.