Public meeting, Nafferton Hall, Marlborough on July 28, 1993
Summary by Paul Fuller
Below is a summary, taken from Paul Fuller's report on the meeting. We have not published Fuller's report in its entirety, but below are extracted the main points of interest.
Ken Brown welcomed everyone to the meeting, which began promptly at 7.30. Brown began by warning everyone present that this was an opportunity for Doug Bower and himself to present their evidence. Brown explained that he was Doug Bower's "amanuensis" - his "taker of notes".
Ken Brown then made an astonishing statement about the absence of Dave Chorley, stating that Chorley had deliberately not been asked to attend the meeting. Doug Bower explained "During the past 22 months it has become obvious that David's memory is not as clear and accurate as it could be - and there are those who would use this to their own advantage. This type of meeting relies upon answers being as accurate as possible, so we thought it best not to give anyone an opportunity to confuse the issue. That's the real reason why Dave is not here tonight... "
Brown then asked what he believed to be the most important question - has there ever been a genuine crop circle or did these two men invent the phenomenon in the mid 1970s? Brown stated that if all crop circles are hoaxes then ALL attendant phenomena can also be dismissed. He then introduced the display of Doug Bower's own photographs taken during every year since 1980. According to Brown this was primary evidence which proved their case. These photographs were debated repeatedly as the evening progressed.
Ken Brown took the opportunity to explain why Doug and Dave had not - as had been their original plan - written a book about their circle-making. Apparently they had been advised by a solicitor that a written confession that they had made a specific circle at a specific site in a stated year would be interpreted by the courts as a clear admission of trespass and whilst the final proof that financial loss had been incurred would be the responsibility of an individual landowner it was quite possible that a judge would seek to make an example of Doug and Dave, perhaps with a fine of £10,000 or a 3 month prison sentence. Despite this in early 1993 Ken Brown had given Jurgen Kronig a full written account of Doug and Daves' story [which was printed in his German book].
Bower: "I've had the biggest insight into the human being ever in the last few years... We've been insulted, my wife's been insulted. What a defence these people have put up! Government agents! We've not called anyone any names at all! All we've said is the truth - in the [news]paper. But we've been insulted left, right and centre, we're [accused of being] frauds, we're [accused of being] liars, government agents! They're trying to hold on to something that's been gathered in. I tell you right now that its finished! Because had the crop circle hoaxers in Wiltshire stopped making their circles when we put our story over in 1991 there'd be no more circles for them to research... It had to finish sometime, it can't go on forever. I don't see why we should do it for 14 years and not publicise it that we were the culprits. Lots of people have had a good laugh but it was us - lots of people don't believe us..."
Taking each year in turn Ken Brown prompted Doug Bower to recount his story. One particular story concerned the creation of a circle at Micheldever next to the main Southampton-Waterloo railway line. The following day Doug and Dave travelled from Winchester to Micheldever on a train to view their creation. Unfortunately the train was travelling so fast they hardly caught a glimpse of their creation, much to the amusement of a child and her mother travelling in the same compartment, so the following day they returned to the site and made the circle that much bigger! This incident became known as "Von Ryan's Express" after the film
Bower described how he and Chorley began their crop circle career in 1975, not the 1981 previously referred to in the TODAY newspaper. Here are some of these revelations:-
One of the strongest pieces of evidence revealed were the photographs Doug Bower had taken every year since 1980. There was a previously unknown photograph of a single circle in the Cheesefoot Head punchbowl in 1980 along with Doug Bower's own photograph of the 1982 single at Litchfield. Also there were (apparently) photos of Doug and Dave half way through making the infamous Sevenoaks circles - the ones which led to TODAY's exclusive expose of their circle-making claims. Ken Brown has obtained copies of the TODAY photographs which (apparently) show Doug and Dave half way through this hoax. In addition there were two photographs of the 1982 Cley Hill circles which had subsequently been identified by Meaden plus a previously unpublished photograph of a single in the punchbowl in 1987. (Ken Brown has subsequently circulated photocopies of some of these photographs).
Another highlight of the evening was Doug Bower's three photographs of the 1980 Westbury circles. The first of these three circles probably appeared in May but had been harvested by the time of the Wiltshire Times article of August 15th. Terence Meaden has confirmed that this "first" photograph was in precisely the right place according to his records. The second and third circles were discovered by the farmer, John Scull, on August 13th, and may have appeared on July 21st and 31st. For these reasons neither Ian Mrzyglod or Terence Meaden have ever possessed or even seen photographs of this very "first" of the "first" circles. In question time I pointed out the importance of this evidence (which didn't go down too well with some of Doug Bower's accusers). How could Doug Bower have obtained these photographs unless he was the person who created them? How could he have known that he would have had to drive 60 miles up from Southampton after these circles appeared unless he made them? No one presented an argument to falsify this evidence.
On display were a cross-piece and torch, for positioning the outer satellites of the quintuplets, which Doug demonstrated. In addition Doug demonstrated the use of his extendible pole, which had been used to ensure that annular rings were always equidistant from the outer edge of the circle. This was four feet long - which apparently coincided with the width of standing crop in many of the ringed formations.
One of the highlights of the evening was Ken Brown's impromptu request for a brief statement by Matthew Lawrence, the discoverer of many of the original Cheesefoot Head circles sensationalised in Crop Circles, Conclusive Evidence and Crop Circles, The Latest Evidence. Lawrence made the following statement about the state of the circles he discovered:- "I used to get up to [Cheesefoot Head] at about half past four on numerous occasions, just as the sun came out, and I was quite surprised when I went in because I knew that I was one of the first people in there and they weren't as immaculate as they'd said in Circular Evidence. There was quite a lot of damage on the crop, there was tracks I could see in places, sometimes mud on the actual crop around the edges, which would suggest that someone had been in before... so [perhaps] I wasn't the first one there... "
Another important piece of evidence discussed was the "red dot" maps compiled by Ken Brown. These were Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 maps with the locations of all the circles Doug and Dave can recall having made. According to Brown the maps contain over 40 locations which have never been published anywhere. Brown alleged that Don Tuersley and Richard Andrews had both approached him and confirmed the existence of previously unpublished circles on these maps.
In response to a question from Michael Hesseman Ken Brown admitted that Doug Bower and Dave Chorley had made the 1992 formation at East Meon. Asked whether Doug and Dave had made any more circles after the 1992 East Meon formation Ken Brown responded "no comment, and you can take the correct inference if you wish".
Ken Brown made his only real error of the night when he claimed that there were no photographs of sharply defined pre 1975 circles despite more than a decade of research. This, in his opinion, only proved that "corn circles were Doug Bower's original idea". He repeated this heresy by claiming that the Tully reeds circle was a "dish-shaped" depression in reeds that was not like the circles that Doug and Dave had "invented" in 1976. He then dismissed my historical crop circle photographs by claiming that they showed "slanting edges"! Contradictory Brown claimed that he didn't really care what had caused the Tully circles and that perhaps they had been "blown down by some kind of force"! In the question and answer session I too challenged Ken Brown's claim by presenting my photographs of the Rossburn, Bordertown and Wokurna circles [which all feature in the 2nd edition of Crop Circles, A Mystery Solved]. At last! Here was my opportunity for a well-planned piece of cerealogical espionage. I loudly passed around my photos to disprove Ken Brown's treason and this only enraged the audience all the more.
In my opinion there can be little remaining doubt that Doug Bower really did create those "first" circles at Westbury in 1980. For this reason the very reality of the whole phenomenon must be called into question. It was therefore a pity that Ken Brown chose to ignore evidence which has already been published (eg in The Crop Watcher). By ignoring this evidence - particularly the Wokurna photograph and sketch published on page 9 of issue 4 - Ken Brown risks discrediting Doug Bower's own story as well as condemning the debate to further polarisation. But these criticisms aside it was a splendid evening.
PAUL FULLER
Ken Brown welcomed everyone to the meeting, which began promptly at 7.30. Brown began by warning everyone present that this was an opportunity for Doug Bower and himself to present their evidence. Brown explained that he was Doug Bower's "amanuensis" - his "taker of notes".
Ken Brown then made an astonishing statement about the absence of Dave Chorley, stating that Chorley had deliberately not been asked to attend the meeting. Doug Bower explained "During the past 22 months it has become obvious that David's memory is not as clear and accurate as it could be - and there are those who would use this to their own advantage. This type of meeting relies upon answers being as accurate as possible, so we thought it best not to give anyone an opportunity to confuse the issue. That's the real reason why Dave is not here tonight... "
Brown then asked what he believed to be the most important question - has there ever been a genuine crop circle or did these two men invent the phenomenon in the mid 1970s? Brown stated that if all crop circles are hoaxes then ALL attendant phenomena can also be dismissed. He then introduced the display of Doug Bower's own photographs taken during every year since 1980. According to Brown this was primary evidence which proved their case. These photographs were debated repeatedly as the evening progressed.
Ken Brown took the opportunity to explain why Doug and Dave had not - as had been their original plan - written a book about their circle-making. Apparently they had been advised by a solicitor that a written confession that they had made a specific circle at a specific site in a stated year would be interpreted by the courts as a clear admission of trespass and whilst the final proof that financial loss had been incurred would be the responsibility of an individual landowner it was quite possible that a judge would seek to make an example of Doug and Dave, perhaps with a fine of £10,000 or a 3 month prison sentence. Despite this in early 1993 Ken Brown had given Jurgen Kronig a full written account of Doug and Daves' story [which was printed in his German book].
Bower: "I've had the biggest insight into the human being ever in the last few years... We've been insulted, my wife's been insulted. What a defence these people have put up! Government agents! We've not called anyone any names at all! All we've said is the truth - in the [news]paper. But we've been insulted left, right and centre, we're [accused of being] frauds, we're [accused of being] liars, government agents! They're trying to hold on to something that's been gathered in. I tell you right now that its finished! Because had the crop circle hoaxers in Wiltshire stopped making their circles when we put our story over in 1991 there'd be no more circles for them to research... It had to finish sometime, it can't go on forever. I don't see why we should do it for 14 years and not publicise it that we were the culprits. Lots of people have had a good laugh but it was us - lots of people don't believe us..."
Taking each year in turn Ken Brown prompted Doug Bower to recount his story. One particular story concerned the creation of a circle at Micheldever next to the main Southampton-Waterloo railway line. The following day Doug and Dave travelled from Winchester to Micheldever on a train to view their creation. Unfortunately the train was travelling so fast they hardly caught a glimpse of their creation, much to the amusement of a child and her mother travelling in the same compartment, so the following day they returned to the site and made the circle that much bigger! This incident became known as "Von Ryan's Express" after the film
Bower described how he and Chorley began their crop circle career in 1975, not the 1981 previously referred to in the TODAY newspaper. Here are some of these revelations:-
- Doug and Dave used to take food and coffee with them, later even taking a frying pan to cook a meal after making their circles!
- Doug was the catalyst for the circle-making, drawing up the plans before-hand, making all the circle making equipment, even providing Dave Chorley with a pair of Wellington Boots and a waterproof coat!
- Doug initiated every circle by (almost always) constructing the centre first and then working outwards.
- After making the centre the circle was made by a series of concentric rings pushed down.
- They began making circles by using the iron security bar from his shop. They used the bar by kneeling on the corn and pushing the bar half way up the corn. This first method hurt their knees so they changed over to the stick and rag method shown on TV.
- The "first circles" they created must have predated 1976 by several years because Doug Bower remembers Dave Chorley refusing to go with him on one of their "regular" circle making journeys because Dave Chorley's son wanted him to watch him playing in a school match that year.
- There had to be a layby located close by the circles in the early years. Later, as more and more researchers were visiting circle prone areas, Doug and Dave would leave Doug's car in the lane adjacent to the caravan park by the Percy Hobbs pub and then walk two miles into Cheesefoot Head bottom to avoid being detected.
- D&D made no more radial swirls after the problems they had making the 1987 Chilcomb "cheese wedge"
- D&D admitted making the "WEARENOTALONE" message in the Cheesefoot Head punchbowl in 1987.
- As Dave had to watch his son playing football Doug did the 1987 South Wonston oilseed rape circle on his own.
- The only time Doug and Dave were "caught" was at the Long Man of Wilmington in 1987, when Doug and Dave were preparing to make a circle and were interrupted by a stranger who thought they were about to put up a tent. This was on the same night as Jenny Randles' remote sensing experiment advertised in "The Unknown".
- The first non Doug and Dave circle was beneath the White Horse at Westbury in August 1987 - but the circles were too far from the hillside to be Doug and Daves' efforts. This was the year that they made "COPYCATS" . Ken Brown claimed that he had a list of "over a dozen" circles from 1987 which were not D&D's circles and that - somewhat paradoxically - "maybe they were genuine".
- The triangular triplets at Corhampton and the Cheesefoot Head punchbowl in 1988 were based on the triplet in Billy Meier's book "Light Years" which were publicised in an article in the September 13th 1987 "News of the World" colour magazine. Of course the earlier triplets were all three-in-a-line rather than in formation. D&D used a method similar to that used by the "Dambusters" by using string attached to rods to get these three circles precisely positioned in an equilateral triangle. Because the rods bent as they pulled the string the Corhampton circles were less well positioned than the punchbowl circles.
- Christmas 1988 D&D fell out so Doug had to make all the earlier 1989 circles, including a failed circle in rape at Chilcomb and the infamous contra-rotating circle that appeared out of sight of the cameras during Operation Whitecrow.
- There is some confusion about the "swastika" on the front cover of "The Crop Circle Enigma". Ken Brown believes that D&D made this formation and the earlier "swastika", although Doug Bower can only recall having made the second formation. This was laid down by laying the outer rim first then using the cross- piece to mark out the angles. This was another formation where mistakes were made when laying down the corn. It is for this reason that Ken Brown believes D&D returned to have a second attempt.
- On one occasion, in 1990, D&D were making a circle in the punchbowl when they were fired upon by farmers shooting at rabbits from a Landrover.
- The pictograms were based on a modern art painting.
- It was Ilene who proposed making the flower patterns.
- It was one of Dave Chorley's sons who accidentally let the Doug and Dave story out of the bag to a reporter from the Daily Mirror. D&D owned up on 3rd September 1991 to the Daily Mirror, who were not interested in the story, and then to the TODAY newspaper.
- Ilene discovered Doug Bower's circle-making activities in 1984. Thereafter Doug was able to go out making circles on several nights of the week.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence revealed were the photographs Doug Bower had taken every year since 1980. There was a previously unknown photograph of a single circle in the Cheesefoot Head punchbowl in 1980 along with Doug Bower's own photograph of the 1982 single at Litchfield. Also there were (apparently) photos of Doug and Dave half way through making the infamous Sevenoaks circles - the ones which led to TODAY's exclusive expose of their circle-making claims. Ken Brown has obtained copies of the TODAY photographs which (apparently) show Doug and Dave half way through this hoax. In addition there were two photographs of the 1982 Cley Hill circles which had subsequently been identified by Meaden plus a previously unpublished photograph of a single in the punchbowl in 1987. (Ken Brown has subsequently circulated photocopies of some of these photographs).
Another highlight of the evening was Doug Bower's three photographs of the 1980 Westbury circles. The first of these three circles probably appeared in May but had been harvested by the time of the Wiltshire Times article of August 15th. Terence Meaden has confirmed that this "first" photograph was in precisely the right place according to his records. The second and third circles were discovered by the farmer, John Scull, on August 13th, and may have appeared on July 21st and 31st. For these reasons neither Ian Mrzyglod or Terence Meaden have ever possessed or even seen photographs of this very "first" of the "first" circles. In question time I pointed out the importance of this evidence (which didn't go down too well with some of Doug Bower's accusers). How could Doug Bower have obtained these photographs unless he was the person who created them? How could he have known that he would have had to drive 60 miles up from Southampton after these circles appeared unless he made them? No one presented an argument to falsify this evidence.
On display were a cross-piece and torch, for positioning the outer satellites of the quintuplets, which Doug demonstrated. In addition Doug demonstrated the use of his extendible pole, which had been used to ensure that annular rings were always equidistant from the outer edge of the circle. This was four feet long - which apparently coincided with the width of standing crop in many of the ringed formations.
One of the highlights of the evening was Ken Brown's impromptu request for a brief statement by Matthew Lawrence, the discoverer of many of the original Cheesefoot Head circles sensationalised in Crop Circles, Conclusive Evidence and Crop Circles, The Latest Evidence. Lawrence made the following statement about the state of the circles he discovered:- "I used to get up to [Cheesefoot Head] at about half past four on numerous occasions, just as the sun came out, and I was quite surprised when I went in because I knew that I was one of the first people in there and they weren't as immaculate as they'd said in Circular Evidence. There was quite a lot of damage on the crop, there was tracks I could see in places, sometimes mud on the actual crop around the edges, which would suggest that someone had been in before... so [perhaps] I wasn't the first one there... "
Another important piece of evidence discussed was the "red dot" maps compiled by Ken Brown. These were Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 maps with the locations of all the circles Doug and Dave can recall having made. According to Brown the maps contain over 40 locations which have never been published anywhere. Brown alleged that Don Tuersley and Richard Andrews had both approached him and confirmed the existence of previously unpublished circles on these maps.
In response to a question from Michael Hesseman Ken Brown admitted that Doug Bower and Dave Chorley had made the 1992 formation at East Meon. Asked whether Doug and Dave had made any more circles after the 1992 East Meon formation Ken Brown responded "no comment, and you can take the correct inference if you wish".
Ken Brown made his only real error of the night when he claimed that there were no photographs of sharply defined pre 1975 circles despite more than a decade of research. This, in his opinion, only proved that "corn circles were Doug Bower's original idea". He repeated this heresy by claiming that the Tully reeds circle was a "dish-shaped" depression in reeds that was not like the circles that Doug and Dave had "invented" in 1976. He then dismissed my historical crop circle photographs by claiming that they showed "slanting edges"! Contradictory Brown claimed that he didn't really care what had caused the Tully circles and that perhaps they had been "blown down by some kind of force"! In the question and answer session I too challenged Ken Brown's claim by presenting my photographs of the Rossburn, Bordertown and Wokurna circles [which all feature in the 2nd edition of Crop Circles, A Mystery Solved]. At last! Here was my opportunity for a well-planned piece of cerealogical espionage. I loudly passed around my photos to disprove Ken Brown's treason and this only enraged the audience all the more.
In my opinion there can be little remaining doubt that Doug Bower really did create those "first" circles at Westbury in 1980. For this reason the very reality of the whole phenomenon must be called into question. It was therefore a pity that Ken Brown chose to ignore evidence which has already been published (eg in The Crop Watcher). By ignoring this evidence - particularly the Wokurna photograph and sketch published on page 9 of issue 4 - Ken Brown risks discrediting Doug Bower's own story as well as condemning the debate to further polarisation. But these criticisms aside it was a splendid evening.
PAUL FULLER