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A formation found in a field in West Woodhay earned the wonder of many, but the ire of the landowner

This spectacular formation appeared overnight last Thursday (July 28) in a field at West Woodhay. It immediately attracted hundreds of sightseers and earned the ire of landowner Harry Henderson.

The formation, dubbed the cosmic serpent by enthusiasts, spans 11 tractor tram lines is one of the largest ever seen in the UK. Mr Henderson said: "People think these things are wonderful and appear in their thousands but to the farmer they're just a costly nuisance. Some say it's to do with aliens but it's not - it's a team from Holland. They've been caught at it."

However some formations are not so easily explained away, with stalks being individually bent halfway up, and rent by steam holes as if from a mysterious heat source.

Physics World magazine this month speculated that the high-tech creators of the latter are somehow using microwaves generated by a device called a magnetron, directed by GPS satellite.