English Landscape Curiosities

We recently received a postcard from our English friend Anna depicting Northumberlandia, the Lady of the North. She had visited there and thought we would enjoy the visual. Designed by Charles Jencks, it is said to be the world's largest human landform sculpture. It is located in Northumberland, north of Newcastle.

The English have a long history of using the landscape to create images. From prehistoric times in Oxfordshire, the Uffington Horse.

From the 16th -17th Century-The Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex.

From the 17th Century in Dorset, The Cerne Abbas Giant.

While they are noted in documents dating as early as the 1500's, crop circles began appearing in the modern era in the 1970's. 

Within a few years, the designs became much more complicated and intricate: