A Life of Ley Hunting

1965

July 1965
Jimmy Goddard and Peter Furness have been looking at some leys in Sussex. Here are some extracts from their reports:

After travelling to Bramber, Sussex, the first thing that we investigated was Bramber Castle. The actual castle is in ruins with very little of the actual structure left, but a mound in the centre, crowned with trees, is still intact and possibly prehistoric. From the top of this mound Chanctonbury Ring can be seen, which is another point on a ley running through the mound. Bramber Church, which dates back to at least 1073, is another point on the same ley. This is situated close to the castle.

After seeing these points we travelled to the church of St. Andrew, Steyning, which is extremely old, dating back to at least 857, when Ethelwulf, father of King Alfred, was buried there. The dedication to St. Andrew is of interest, as important ley churches are often dedicated to this saint or St. Michael. Also, evidence that the church is on the site of a more ancient mark stone, the name Steyning means "dwellers by some prominent stone".

Chanctonbury Ring is a very fine and prominent hill-top clum of trees inside an artificial earthen ring. Outside the Ring there are a mass of tiny tumuli.

Jimmy Goddard and Helen Rodwell also investigated a ley in Essex:

The first point we made for on arriving at Ingatestone was Dodd's Farm, which has the significant "dod" name and is on the ley we intended to follow. We found it to be at least 450 years old (from information given to us) but we were advised to write to the archives in Chelmsford for further details. The next point on the line was Margaretting Church, which is predominately 15th century. On proceeding towards Margaretting Tye from the church we noticed that there was another steeple on the skyline and on aligning the map we found that it was on the ley. However, we were unable to find it on the map. We travelled on from this point as far as we could, but were unable to reach our main objective, Margaretting Tye, because a field of oats had been planted over the trackway and by the time we had reached this barrier it was too late to circle round and find another way.

The ley referred to extends from Somerset to Essex.

Peter Furness, Jimmy Goddard and Philip Heselton investigated an area of Essex on Sunday, July 25th 1965:

We started from North Weald station and travelled along a ley leading to Colliers Hatch, a centre of five leys. We saw a farm called Cold Hall, on another Colliers Hatch ley, then walked along the straight track that the ley followed to the moat. This was mainly through wooded countryside, though much of the tree coverage had been cleared since the map was published. Colliers Hatch we found to be a moated house.

From here we continued along the same ley to Wood Hatch, where there is a pond, quite small and not marked on the map, exactly on the ley next to the road junction there. Whether in fact it was ancient or not we had no way of telling.

Continuing along the ley we soon came to Stapleford Tawney Church, a centre of three leys. Inside the church was a notice saying that histories of the church cost 6d, but on looking around for these we could not find any. However, the fact that a history had been written suggested that the church was quite old.

After we left Stapleford Tawney the road diverged a little from the ley, though we did notice an interesting raised clump of trees on a road junction. We were unable to find any leys going through it, however.

The next mark point was on a different ley. It was Stapleford Abbots Church, a centre of four leys. The list of Rectors goes back to 1330.

Perhaps the most interesting find of the whole ley-hunt was Bishop's Moat, which we found next after walking as far as we could along one of the leys from Stapleford Abbots Church. This is a magnificent moated mound, entirely covered by trees, and the moat is still full of water (if a little stagnant). Luckily there were two earth causeways across to the mound, and we went and investigated, finding several mysterious holes we could not explain, but which looked more due to subsidence than to the work of animals. The moat is marked and named on the map.

Here we followed another ley leading from Bishop's Moat (a centre of four leys) to Lambourne Church. The present building dates from 1218. Very soon after we had left the church it began to pour in torrents with rain, which stopped all ley-hunting and forced us to make a hasty departure for Theydon Bois and home.

Sunday, 31st October - Jimmy Goddard, Stephen Goddard (father) Silchester and Cottington's Hill
We climbed to the top of "The Brow", a hill in Silchester, Hampshire, and noted two things. Firstly, the Imp Stone (a markstone mentioned by Alfred Watkins in The Old Straight Track), The Brow and a field gateway (these are mentioned by Watkins) seemed to be in line; secondly, Cottington's Hill , The Brow and the Roman city of Calleva Atrebatum seemed to align We had no map to corroborate this, but decided to go to Cottington's Hill without delay (approximately eight miles away).

Same date - Jimmy Goddard, Stephen Goddard (father), Winifred Goddard (aunt)
As soon as possible after these finds we drove to Cottington's Hill, near Kingsclere, a very high vantage point with a clump of very old beech trees on the top. My father estimated that they were several hundred years old at least, as they were gnarled and stunted by the ever-present wind. This made a roaring sound through the leaves that had to be heard to be believed.

Very soon after arriving at the tree-crowned summit, my father noticed a curious phenomenon. Most of the trees were randomly placed, as in any other clump, but about ten or so were arranged in a dead straight line, found by my compass to be due east and west. This aligned westwards with another hill, which seemed to have a hedge or linear clump (it was difficult to tell which), lining up with the clump of trees. As we had no map of the area, we had no certainty that it was a ley, but it seemed fairly conclusive. Certainly the trees had either been planted there with the special purpose of indicating a ley or had grown naturally along the line (this could be possible if the ley is a force-line; it may well stimulate the growth of trees on its length, whereas other trees around might die off). In any case, it was clearly not just a forestry plantation line for three reasons: 1) the trees were very old, 2) only the one line was evident, going east west and aligning with the hilltop, 3) forestry activities could hardly be carried out in such a small area on top of a hill.

When descending the hill we found what appeared to be some kind of linear earthwork, straight and at right angles to the alignment mentioned above. Photographs were taken of this, and the line of trees.

All in all, the finds were worth the scrambling through mud and electrified fences that was necessary before we could reach the summit. Map research will follow as soon as the map has been obtained.

Later research on Cottington's Hill
It was found to be the centre of at least three leys, though no ley could be found going to the Roman city. The east-west line was a 7-point one, there is one coming down from Inkpen Beacon (famous beauty spot) and also passing through Basing House. The other runs through Linkenholt Church.

A failure and a success!
Prehistoric Airways of Britain - talk to The Atlanteans in Cheltenham, and one to BUFORA

On October 2nd I travelled to Cheltenham to give a talk entitled "The Prehistoric Airways of Britain". It was the first time I had spoken in public on the subject of leys - or rather, I didn't! The Atlanteans were a spiritual group based in Cheltenham, Bristol, London and Croydon, and I travelled to Cheltenham on a Saturday with high hopes and very brief notes! Unfortunately, I found I did not have the flair for public speaking that Tony Wedd had, and "froze" completely when in front of the audience. It was a somewhat terrifying experience, even though the people were kind and a kind of question and answer discussion session did ensue. But this was not all - I knew I was shortly to give a talk to BUFORA in London, and this prospect was somewhat unnerving given my performance in Cheltenham. I was even thinking of tape recording it and simply playing the tape there! Luckily I changed my mind about that, and prepared the talk much more fully, and this went quite well, using the large map of the Triangle and the leys and orthotenies around it. I was much later to find out that it was this talk which first enthused John Michell, the well-known earth mysteries, geomancy and philosophical author, in the subject of leys.

Sunday 14th November 1965 - Jimmy Goddard and Peter Furness, Loughton and Ambersbury Banks
Not a great deal was learnt from this sub-zero temperature ley hunt, though several prehistoric sites were visited and photographed. We travelled to Loughton, Essex on the Underground and made our way to Loughton Camp, the vallum of which is barely visible. Soon we came to a frozen pond, which had two leys going through it, and walked on to a cross-road with an island. One ley passes through this island.

High Beach Church, which we visited next, has two leys, but I feel this must be coincidence, as the present church is only nineteenth century, and we learned from the vicar that it is not on a more ancient site (the older church being quite a way to the south). However, the building was on a definite rise in the ground, so this could have been the mark.

The last place to be visited was Ambersbury Banks, of which the vallum was clearly noticeable on one side but not on the other. The beech trees inside it went straight up instead of spreading out.

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