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Mystery marks in fields. Anyone know what they are?


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Hello All,

Ever since I discovered Google Earth several years ago I have become intrigued by what I can see from the air, without leaving my office chair.

Most things are obvious, but there is something that has baffled me for years and I can’t find an answer.

Almost everywhere that there is going to be some building development on green field sites there are strips of land ploughed up in semi random patterns. By “Semi random” I mean that in every situation there seems to be no specific pattern, but all the strips seem to be about the same length and width.

What is more intriguing is that in many cases these strips have been dug on fields where a crop has already begun to grow, thus making the harvesting of the crop impossible (Seems a total waste.)

One of the examples in the photos is of a small housing development in a village not far from Hereford. It just happens that the planning permission was refused for the development, so I guess the digging was done some time before the application went in.

On a much larger scale you can see the same sort of marks on the route of HS2. The second photo shows a portion of that route.

Any groundworkers out there that know the answer?

Charlie.

 

 

Marks2.jpg

Marks1.jpg

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I would guess at something like   BSE cattle ( and other stock) cull about 20 years ago. 
I had some involvement at an EHO.

either burial pits or the funeral pyres 

either can leave their mark for generations also probably wouldn’t be visible at ground level. 
 

my only hesitancy is some of these are quite close to housing.
 

that’s my 2 penny worth. 

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I saw them last year when looking at the ariel view of Stoneleigh prior to attending Race Retro.....seems a long time since now.

If you look at the entrance you will see them to the south east, if you pan north they are continuous in a NW direction across many different terrain types.

Must be something to do with HS2 route or WE1 as I call it (w is for white).

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Hamish,

I don’t think that the marks are very old, although I do remember the burning and burying of cows in fields. If you look at the picture of  Lugg Green below, it was taken just a year or so before the marks appeared and there is no sign of them.

Stuart,

Same as with Hamish. In this village they only appeared around the time of the planning permission application. Although I must admit in this case they do look like something was tipped there, rather than something dug up.

TR4Tune,

Yes, they are the same. HS2 is going along the North edge of Stoneleigh park. You can follow the line past Birmingham and the marks appear in places here and there along the route.

I’ve included another picture. Just to the East of Bury St Edmunds, where a new industrial estate is being built. Same sort of thing.

Charlie.

Marks4.jpg

Marks3.jpg

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Just a guess, archeology test digs ahead of whole scale destruction of anything that may be there.

I have had a look at HS2 locations near here but I fear all evidence of these marks have gone as HS2 is well advanced here. I do know that archeological test digs took place along the HS2 route near us.

Archaeologists to start huge dig in Harefield ahead of HS2 construction 

https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/archaeology/

7C5E1E8A-96DE-4D30-AD1C-6D87488CE1D7.png

Edited by SuzanneH
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4 hours ago, SuzanneH said:

Just a guess, archeology test digs ahead of whole scale destruction of anything that may be there.

I have had a look at HS2 locations near here but I fear all evidence of these marks have gone as HS2 is well advanced here. I do know that archeological test digs took place along the HS2 route near us.

Archaeologists to start huge dig in Harefield ahead of HS2 construction 

https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/archaeology/

7C5E1E8A-96DE-4D30-AD1C-6D87488CE1D7.png

+1

 

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My 2d-worth. Not agricultural activity. Likely to be survey pits for development but it may not be roads or buildings, I recall test pits being dug for a prospective extension to a graveyard to check the depth of bedrock......

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I consulted SWMBO, who tells me that archaeologists scrape off the surface in order to decide whether the ground beneath suggests that it's worth digging deeper. 

This scraping can also assist the geo-physical survey people  (you've all seen Time Team, so know what this is about).

This would account for the large number of straight cuts - quickly and easily done with a machine set to remove just a few inches from the top.

Ian Cornish

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"Archeology test trench"

Yep…
That’s it.

Here is a bit of info about such things with a clear picture of what I’ve been seeing.

https://www.avonarchaeology.co.uk/fieldwork

Thank you to everyone who came up with suggestions.

What an education this TR forum is!

We can get legal advice from Judge Bleedniple.
We can learn how hop kiln cowl spindles work from Graham
And Suzanne informs us that you can still find fairies in London.


Something for everyone.

Charlie

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1 hour ago, Charlie D said:

 

"Archeology test trench"

Yep…
That’s it.

Here is a bit of info about such things with a clear picture of what I’ve been seeing.

https://www.avonarchaeology.co.uk/fieldwork

Thank you to everyone who came up with suggestions.

What an education this TR forum is!

We can get legal advice from Judge Bleedniple.
We can learn how hop kiln cowl spindles work from Graham
And Suzanne informs us that you can still find fairies in London.


Something for everyone.

Charlie

Thanks Charlie and just so you also know, two Red Kites have just flown over.

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2 hours ago, RogerH said:

about the marks or the fairies !!!.........................

 

Roger

Both

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6 minutes ago, Peter V W said:

Try again

37464BDB-3F03-4425-8917-6126B31BC9A9.jpeg

 

7 minutes ago, Peter V W said:

Try again

37464BDB-3F03-4425-8917-6126B31BC9A9.jpeg

I can’t see the string end it’s not red

call your self a kite spotter Peter !! :rolleyes:

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47 minutes ago, RogerH said:

Somebody is playing silly beggars ..........and then it ramps up.

 

 

Roger

 

Roger,  Check out 19.7.20   perfect circle viewed form above, but created  on saddle-shaped contour. These formatiions are created at night and in darkness and silence. My interest is in the effects on the plants, which are decidedly anomalous-see Paul's video. Peter

 

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2 hours ago, RogerH said:

Somebody is playing silly beggars ..........and then it ramps up.

 

 

Roger

 

You have hit the nail on the head, Roger!

I have to confess to being one of those silly beggars when I was at agricultural college back in the 1980s.  If you look at where these crop circles appear, most are not very far away from an agricultural college, and in a field where they can be seen easily and appreciated by the general public; on a hill or slope facing a major road is ideal!  There was not a lot for farming students to do after dusk, so piling into the back of a Landrover and driving out to some poor unsuspecting farmer’s cereal field and making pretty patterns was the norm.  The use of ropes and planks aid good geometrical designs, but other than that all you needed was a pair of size 10 wellies.  In the Hampshire area, we had a competition with the students from the Winchester College of Art (they were at it too) to try and get a crop circle reported on the local television news.  We never managed that, although we did find a picture of one of ours published in a book.

Fast forwards a few years, I had grown up and got a job working for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food.  One day I received a call and was summoned to the Cambridge office where I was asked to explain in detail how we made crop circles to a group of American ‘scientists’.   I don’t think it was something I had put on my cv, but somehow, the powers that be had been informed about my naughty pastime and they wanted to know everything about it.  

These ‘scientists’ were firmly of the belief that crop circles were made by aliens and trying to convince them otherwise was nigh on impossible.  Now, I’m not saying I don’t believe in aliens, in fact I am very open to the idea and pretty sure that we are not alone, but aliens are not responsible for crop circles.  When I told the American ‘scientists’ that I had been part of a crop circle making group and our methods, they told me it was because the aliens made me.  When I told them that it wasn’t the aliens that made me, it was the cider, they told me it was the aliens who made me drink the cider…..and so the discussion continued…

Now I found myself in rather a strange position.  I was confessing to something I really shouldn’t have done; after all, I had vandalised some poor farmer’s crop, which would have caused a loss in yield and therefore income, but the Americans wouldn’t believe me.  They were determined to pin all culpability on the aliens.  As I decided that this was a case I could not win (or lose, depending on your viewpoint) and that I was unlikely to ever meet the poor aliens being framed for my misdemeanours, I decided to leave the loony American scientists in the car park at Brooklands Avenue, chanting over piles of flattened wheat which they had collected from crop circles.

Edited by Ben's wife
the aliens made me
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