The Crabwood Face
2002 · Crabwood, near Winchester · Hampshire · England
WHAT IT IS
A grey alien's face, shaded like a newspaper photograph, holding out a disc whose spiral of binary spells a warning in English. Perhaps the most famous crop formation ever made.
THE ALIEN READING
Computer consultant Paul Vigay decoded the disc as 8-bit ASCII: 'Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES… There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. COnduIT CLOSING.' Proponents report a loud droning noise and lights in the night it appeared, and it is still the formation most shared as a message from visitors.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
No one has ever claimed it. The message is English ASCII in a pseudo-biblical register with an X-Files ring to it, an odd choice for visitors (Benjamin Radford, Live Science). A month later the Circlemakers made a 250 ft halftone portrait in about six hours, and Rod Dickinson told the Daily Record that 'all the big crop circles' of recent years were made by people like them.
WHERE IT STANDS
Disputed. No maker has claimed it. Sceptics say people made it; proponents point to what they say people could not do.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 5 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- 2002
- PLACE
- Crabwood, near Winchester · Hampshire · England
- MADE BY
- Unclaimed
- TYPE
- Faces & figures
- TECHNICAL
- Wheat · halftone face beside a binary disc · found 15 August 2002 near a radio mast at Sparsholt
