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Much of the 1980s were dominated by the appearance of crop circles and more complex configurations. It was claimed that they had been caused by landed UFOs or some sort of planetary poltergeist.
Some researchers suggested that they were coded messages from a planetary consciousness trying to warn us of the coming ecological disaster. In September 1991 two elderly amateur artists, Doug Bower and Dave Charley, claimed they were responsible for hoaxing the crop circles in the south of England.
Circles were first reported at Westbury in August 1980. When physicist Dr Terence Meaden postulated that they were caused by 'fair-weather stationary whirlwinds' the men decided to put a spanner in the works by faking more complex designs.
In September 1991 the hoaxers came forward and claimed to have faked around 10% of the configurations - and demonstrated on television and in Today newspaper how it had been done. Using basic implements Doug and Dave were able to create quite complicated pictograms.
Just prior to the public announcement, however, the men created a design that was used to trap researcher Pat Delgado into pronouncing it as genuine. After the exposure more hoaxers emerged, giving the impression that all the configurations were fakes.
The feeling now amongst some researchers is that, while all of the complex pictograms were faked, the simple circles that started off the mystery still require explanation.
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