A
Life of Ley Hunting
1989
NOSTALGIC JOURNEY
Over the weekend of May 27th-28th I had an enjoyable time visiting a number
of interesting places, mainly tree clumps, with Philip Heselton and his family.
Saturday May 27th had to be a visit to Chiddingstone, Kent, for it was on the
same day in 1961 that the first STAR Fellowship Rally was held. This was not
only the birth of the Fellowship but of the earth mysteries movement too, as
the booklet "Skyways and Landmarks", which triggered off a renewed interest
in leys (in connection with flying saucers), was first displayed at this rally.
We travelled first to the village, with its lovely Tudor buildings owned by the National Trust, and then walked to the cave in the hillside mentioned in Skyways and Landmarks, passing Tys Cross, Tony Wedd's former home. Unlike last time, we had a torch with us and could clearly see the effort undergone to make the cave into a well-formed cruoiform chamber with the roof rising to a point in the centre.
After a pleasant meal at the Castle Inn, we travelled to the Lyewood Common cluinp. We were very sad to see that it had been quite extensively damaged in the hurricane of October 1967. Some pines remained, however, and we hope the clump will renew itself, From here we went on to Gills Lap, the very striking clump that was the inspiration for "Galleon's Lap" in "The House at Pooh Corner". This too had been damaged a little, though not as much, and we were pleased to see young pines growing there.
On the way home we visited Pitch Hill near Shere, where there was a great number of Scots pines crowning the hill - too many to be really called a clump, but still very spectacular. There was a UFO sighting there last year, near the Hurt Wood Track described in an earlier Touchstone, so I am reprinting that article in this issue.
The following day we visited some of the clumps in my home area of Addlestone, and the map shows that they are linked in am interesting pattern, even though some of the alignments are not very convincing as leys mapwise. But there are other things to meek too of course in validating lines; for instance, the line from St. Anne's Hill to Woburn Hill is a powerful one even though I doubt if Watkins would have accepted it. The Catholic church is a fairly modern building and the only other point worthy of note seems a coincident (but also modern) stretch of road within the factory where I used to work. Yet standing on this road facing the tree-crowned Woburn Hill, I could always feel the power of the alignment, and I went there as often as I could.
The first clump we visited was the Samaritan Centre clump, which is a group of several pines at the bottom of someone's garden, visible from the new Samaritan Centre in Ledger Drive. This is on an alignment joining Ottershaw and Addlestone parish churches (both Victorian, but both with Scots pines and Ottershaw in a particularly commanding position). A better line mapwise, however, is the one linking the other two clumps and a tumulus on Chobham Common (see the map).
The Spratts Lane clump, which we visited next, is a mixed pine and deciduous one, with a huge depression in the centre. Stan Eaves, Addlestone's historian, tells me the depression was due to use as a clay pit for brick or drainpipe making, but this went out of use in the middle of the nineteenth century and some large pines now grow from the bottom of the pit, showing the continuation of clumps clearly.
Ether Hill, Ottershaw is, however, by far the most impressive of the clumps. It is visible in line with St. Peter's Way, a new motorway link road (can this be subconsciously sited?), and is a huge group of pines surrounded by a wood of other trees. It is adjoining Ottershaw Memorial Fields public park and is a very pleasant spot. On the summit there seem to be definite traces of an oval-shaped earthwork, as at Gills Lap.
Our final destination was St. Anne's Hill, Chertsey, a completely tree-covered summit visible from Woburn Hill and for many miles around. It does have a group of conifers on its summit, but these are for the most part hidden by the other trees. It is, however, a very pleasant place with a very relaxing and powerful atmosphere - it is the site of a hillfort and the earthworks are still clearly visible. It is a public open space; I am very glad it did not suffer the fate of the other local hillfort, St. George's Hill, which has become an exclusive housing estate for the rich.
The pattern of clump alignments round Addlestone, then, show a very interesting arrangement despite being fairly heavily dependent on subconscious siting and having almost certainly been seriously damaged by the hand of time. We will clearly be missing a lot if we ignore such situations.
LETHERINGHAM AND BURGH-LE-MARSH
Our two holidays this year produced some interesting ley information. The first
was at Letheringham. near Framlingham in Suffolk. It was at a cottage adjoining
Letheringham Mill. This mill, dating to about the eighteenth century. is the
latest of a succession of mills on the site dating "at least to Domesday, probably
much further back". In the garden wos once a small Saxon church and remains
from the graveyard have been dug up all over the area, It was a very pleasant
riverside spot. but we both had a feeling of brooding sadness about it - we
did not discover the existence of the graveyard till quite late in the holiday.
However, as the map shows, there were a number of interesting leys. One runs along the straight stretch of the D-shaped moat surrounding Letheringham Hall (where Wolsey once entertained Mary Rose, Henry VIII's sister). It goes across the island formed by the mill's waterworkings, to the Abbey and Hoo church. (The Abbey is Letheringham's parish church, once the nave of an Augustinian abbey). There seemed to be a definite rise in the ground at the point marked "mound?" Another interesting line was of two clumps and a coincident track lining up with Easton church, thirteenth century but with a Saxon church mentioned in Domesday almost certainly on the same site. Its octagonal tower is in a commanding position, visible from the road is at Hoo.
The second week was at Burgh-le-marsh, near Skegness in Lincolnshire. We were in a mill cottage here too - but this time a windmill. A huge mound almost next door to the house promised more ley discoveries, but in fact I did not find as much during this week, though the atmosphere of the house was much more pleasant. This information about the mound was given in the local walk leaflet:
"The mound... is 'an ancient tumulus called Cock Hill. This was excavated in 1933 and was found to contain a Saxon pagan burial of about 600 A.D. It is thought the mound was subsequently heightened, leaving a shallow depression in the top, which was probably used as a cockpit, as some pieces of clay pipes and slate pencil were found".
One line, which I followed with Philip Heselton, who visited us, looked better on the map than on the ground. It goes through the tumulus, then across the Lincolnshire Wolds to a large cross-roads, a long barrow, a high road-track junction, a cross-roads, another mound, and the church and vanished village of Biscathorpe. The second mound turned out to be modern, in connection with some kind of transmitting station. I wondered if the builders of the site knew about the ley and sited it purposely - many such stations are found on leys.
Another line, not very spectacular, but going through some cross-roads and coincident tracks, goes through the tumulus and church.