I’ve been wondering how large the old fashioned style Pictogram at West Overton was -- especially in comparison to the historic 1990 Alton Barnes formation. Now that all this summer’s crop circles have been harvested, Russell Stannard and I went there with tape measure and diagram in hand. Although cut, the imprint on the ground is still quite clear, and -- it being a comfortably warm afternoon -- it was good fun doing what surely is the final fieldwork of the summer. We found that the grand total distance between the farthest apart grapeshot at each end was 656 feet (plus or minus a foot). And the total distance between major features to be 519 feet (plus or minus as much as three feet). (This latter size is less certain because I’ve derived it from the total off all the major features, which we measured separately -- whereas we surveyed the entire length in one go, so it’s quite accurate.) From top to bottom, the diameters of the circles are: Top circle: 31 ft. “Gaia Head” circle: 42 ft est. Small Key Ring: 67 ft. Thin ring: 76 ft. Large Key Ring: 118 ft. Large circle: 57 ft. Shaft of the small Key: 24 ft. Shaft of the large Key (or “hand,” not including “fingers”): 33 ft 6 in. The Cereologist Magazine #2 (winter 1990) quotes the size of Alton Barnes 1990 as “about150 yards long overall.” That would make the new pictogram considerably larger, but looking at aerial photographs of both, the two appear about the same size. So I checked other sources as to the original pictogram’s dimensions, and no two agree (!), but the largest given is 550 feet. That report does not state if it includes the grapeshot -- which would make a big difference. The bottom line anyway is that both formations are “in the same ballpark, size-wise,” as us Yanks like to say.
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