Little Down, by Chute Causeway, Nr. Hippenscombe, Wilts. 

(Chute Causeway is an old Roman Road)

Detail & Location: This circle was reported on the 22nd of May. It is in a field of Barley and measures approximately 260ft in diameter. See the Google Maps link for precise location. 

Visiting: As far as we are aware the farmer has not given permission for visitors. Please do not visit this circle without the express permission from the farmer.   

History: The old Roman Road, Chute Causeway was seen a number of crop circles over the years. 

About this crop circle: This crop circle has design connections to (and characteristics of) the South Wonston crop circle of last year (2021).  It has an unusual octagonal frame (not seen before), that contains the entire design. An anti-clockwise spinner-shape in standing crop then contains a quintuplet design at its centre. This is now the second quintuplet of the 2022 season – the other being at Crab Wood in April 2022. 

The crop circles have now moved into Barley, as the oilseed rape (canola), is now shedding its flowers and beginning to dry out ready for harvest later in the summer. The field contains three landscape features, looking at the O.S map, these are not marked as barrows, but as disused pits of some kind, one looks like it could be a small copse of sapling tress. A closer ground inspection might reveal more. 

Photos taken inside the crop circle show a fantastic off-centre feature, containing an array of knotted plants (see gallery below for images). They are a work of art in themselves!

Please see the Geometry Gallery below for information about the geometry of this circle as we have it. 

Visiting the Circles? If you are thinking of visiting any crop circles this summer, please read our Visiting the Crop Circles section. It’s full of useful information and etiquette for visiting the countryside and the crop circles. Please remember that you should not enter any fields without the express permission of the farmer and you will need to be aware of and abide by any restrictions in place in the UK in response to the Covid-19 pandemic – which at the time of writing is none. 

Click here for Copyright Information about the reproduction of images on this website.

Please Help to keep us Flying in 2022: If you have enjoyed looking at our pictures and information please consider making a small donation to keep us flying. There are so few of us left regularly recording the circles it’s really important that we continue. And while some now use drones to record the circles, it is important that there are still images taken from aircraft where the best quality camera equipment can be used and images that include the broad vista of the landscape can be taken. This kind of photography is expensive and it gets harder with each passing year to raise the funds we need to continue our work, but if everyone who regularly looked at this website made a small donation we would meet the funds we need. You can make a donation here.

NOTE: Some of the images below are beautiful landscape scenes. Click on each image to enlarge them and see the whole picture.

IMPORTANT: We would like to thank Hannah Kathleen, The Hampshire Flyer and Ben Sasson for their kind permission to use their great photos of this crop circle on our website. 

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Geometry Gallery

It's on the drawing board! Check back for updates.

Quick Geometry Notes by Karen Alexander

The underlying geometry of the Hippenscombe crop circle by Karen Alexander. See gallery below for larger image.

The Hippenscombe crop circle of 2022 was a strange formation. At first glance the design felt claustrophobic with the outer perimeter octagon, sitting very tight around the inner geometry.

The inner geometry is based on a hexadecagram (16-pointed star) which gives the anti-clockwise saw-blade its teeth. The inner quintuplet is held in place by a octagram - the geometry here is sublime.

That outer octagonal perimeter seems to be set in place by the depth of one tooth on the saw. It’s no doubt, a clever way to draw the perimeter.

The final icing on the cake is the way the golden section places the clump of woven barley in the centre circle. After drawing this circle, I have come to better appreciate its finer points!

See the picture gallery below for some drawings and images.

I will provide a longer write-up when time allows. 

Karen Alexander

An Analysis by Peter van den Burg

I'm curious; Are the Circlemakers saying goodbye? Statistics from previous years show a steady decline in number (cropcirclecentre.com), currently at the same rate as the mid eighties, which too had an abundance of quintuplets. The quintuplet and other octagonal arrangements seem to be very much the theme the last couple of years. We just have to wait and see. I'm very happy to see them still around.

Placed in a field that, at the far end to the west, is the location of the Kenward stone, also known as the Devil's waistcoat. https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/.../kenward_stone.html

The formation combines the properties and thematics from the Crabwood formation one month earlier and last year's formation at Barton Stacey belt from june 8. (Shown in relative size)

The Crabwood quintuplet relied on a 3x3 square. Hippenscombe divides by a Sacred cut. The square surrounding the quintuplet also guides the standing outline of the sawtooth pattern.

Its relation with Barton Stacey belt is the use of a flattened background, standing outline on top of that, with an isolated flattened design inside. Another feature it shares with this formation is that the standing outline is somewhat irregular. Perhaps due to the centerpoints of the dorsal arcs of the sawtooth all being in standing crop (blue circle) and the formation placed where the tramlines curve slightly. In fact, the quintuplet too is not very well centered. Because of this i have some reservations on the size of the satellites. But in an optimalized version, such as this drawing, i immediately fall for the coherence of the overall design. A detail that reassures this reconstruction is that the Crabwood quintuplet has its satellites placed on the inner radius of the ring, and Hippenscombe on the outer radius of the ring. In both cases this is a natural consequence of the design, and in congruence with the photo's

The second drawing shows a square with the combined area of all the standing crop in the formation.

To the right shows a red circle equal in area as the total amount of flattened crop in the formation, with the blue circle equalling the flattened crop of the quintuplet. All in harmony with each other.

Peter van den Burg 2022

You can see more of Peter's fascinating work on his Facebook page Geometry of the Crop Circles.