A Life of Ley Hunting

PITCH HILL LEY PROJECT
by Eileen Grimshaw and Gordon Millington
On Sunday 7th October 1990, Gordon Millington and Eileen Grimshaw were making a reconnaisance of the Pitch Hill area, where a UFO had been reported on 5th November 1988 and considering whether a night visit there on the second anniversary of the sighting might be worth while. This project was not carried out, for an investigation of the ley energies around this area seemed likely to prove more rewarding. They climbed to the triangulation point, to which the Ranger had driven in his car, at the top of Pitch Hill, and both dowsed a very wide band of energy there, readily distinguishable from the many weaker lines crossing the hillside between the trig point and the car park above the Windmill Inn. In an area noted for UFOs, the Surrey Puma and the Winterfold Horror, it is perhaps not surprising to find so much loose energy. The weather was dry, cold and windy.

On 11th October Gordon and Eileen reported this to Jimmy Goddard at the SEMG meeting and a ley was found seemingly coincident with the dowsed band, passing through a number of points including about a mile of coincident track to the east.

Jimmy Goddard, Gordon Millington and Eileen Grimshaw set out on Saturday 17th November to test the theoretical line drawn on the map from the energy line dowsed on 7th October at Pitch Hill. They chose the straight track at TQ204458, and parked the car on the bridleway opposite the entrance to Shellwood Manor, noting that there was a mound of earth in each of the two fields at opposite sides of the road. The bridlepath had a dowseable energy line running along it (detected by all three present) but was not in line with the original ley found. The Scots pines alongside the houses on the other side of the road from the bridlepath were noted.

The energy line continued from the bridlepath across the road and past the houses to the left in the drive to Shellwood Manor. Each house, besides having Scots pine clumps, also had two oaks each facing the track. There was dowseable energy running between each pair of oaks. Holding a crystal here gave a tingle reaction in the fingers to Eileen and Jimmy. The energy line continued through the farm, until at the big barn on the right the straight track coincident with the original ley was met.

Energy was dowsed by all three for quite some way along the track. A line was found at right angles to it running along both sides of the hedge at the triangulation point. It is suspected that the drive to the farm, which is at an angle to the track, may have another energy line, passing through the triangulation point and going on to what seemed to be a brown mark amongst the green vegetation on a distant hill. This may require investigation later by taking an accurate bearing on the horizon point from the farm drive and then dowsing the brown path.

The mounds, clumps and triangulation point are all on an alignment running parallel with the entrance drive - but if, as this work seems to show, these lines have width, then it is coincident with the drive (as the rods seemed to indicate). At the second farm gate on the left from the big barn which straddled the start of the straight track Eileen and Jimmy dowsed the width of the energy line. This was 70 small footsteps wide (Eileen) and extended into the fields on both sides of the track. Facing Pitch Hill, the right side of the energy band extended just into the field at the side of the track, but on the left side it extended a considerable way into the field. At every intersection with field gates Eileen noticed that there were animal paths at right angles to the track. At the triangulation point there was an animal path through the hedge to the next field, in the middle of which was a fresh hole about three inches in circumference (possibly a rat or snake hole). Eileen noticed a grey squirrel running along the track and disappearing between the first and second farm gates. Jimmy took a number of photographs.

All three then proceeded to the church of St. Mary Magdalen, South Holmwood, (TQ172449) at the side of the A24 in direct alignment with the straight track and the original ley. The energy line was picked up at once in the layby to the side of the church lych gate. It was dowsed by Eileen as 70 larger footsteps. It ran in a straight line direedy up to the church and in line with its east-west axis. It felt stronger than on the straight track but not as strong as it was at Pitch Hill. Gordon picked up a line at right angles to the church , between the first and second large windows, counting from the east end. Eileen also found this and found a strong point in the line on the step leading from the aisle to the church tower. Other powerful points she picked out were by the font and at the small altar in a side aisle. Jimmy obtained a small reaction from his sandjar at these points.

The church is not old - it was built in 1838 - but it has the appearance and atmosphere of an older church. It has an interesting subconscious siting story - two local ladies were watching some boys playing cricket on the spot and suddenly felt very strongly that there ought to be a church there. The fact that they were the ones able to bring this about suggests that there is conscious intelligence behind subconscious siting. Inside the church Jimmy had head-hum, and the line was dowsed by Gordon and Eileen. Outside, on the south side ofthe church, were acoupleofunusually shaped Scots pines, noted by Jimmy, shaped like praying hands. The evidence obtained seems to confirm the possibility of an en- ergy line as drawn on the map in a straight line from Pitch Hill.

On Sunday 18th November Eileen continued dowsing at three further points on the Pitch Hill line. On the road near Selhurst Common she found it difficult to dowse at first because of the heavy traffic, but still picked up the line, running along two hedges. At Hascombe it was easier to dowse, as it was a much more peaceful place. On a minor road near Hydons Ball she found it was easy to dowse with one hand while driving, and picked up the line again as the car crossed it.

We hope to continue this project through the year and eventually have sufficient information to produce a booklet. The full report, with all diagrams and photographs, will be published in this.

WHY SUBCONSCIOUS SITING?
It may seem curious to some that I am a regular church attender despite the fact that I do not believe most of the doctrines of Christianity. The idea that the murder of Jesus Christ is instrumental in "taking away our sins" (whatever that might mean) seems not only illogical but unpleasant, and that of eating his body even more so. The life of Jesus was probably very different from that portrayed in the Gospels - and probably a lot longer! (See my article on the "Jesus in India" trilogy in Amskaya 12).

Despite this, however, I feel that religious worship must be important, or the phenomenon of subconscious siting of churches on leys would not exist. Far too many churches, certainly too many modern ones, exist on leys to be accounted for by Pope Gregory's edict or conscious geomancy, though I am sure both influences existed. And if they were subconsciously sited, it surely cannot be simply to make thejob of ley-hunting easier! There must be deeper reasons, and to detect them we must examine the uses to which the buildings are put.

Sound is, as mentioned in "Skyways and laandmarks Revisited", an integral part of most worship, and it certainly seems likely that this hoosts the energy in the leys - an opposite principle to that of the sandjar ley detector, which produces vibration at powerful places. Yet this cannot be the whole story, for I have found at least one Quaker meeting house aligned on a ley (at Kirkbymoorside in Yorkshire) and it is likely that others are too, for I have experienced head-hum in every one I have visited, including the one at Egham, which is a modern bungalow on a housing estate. Yet the Quakers do not have music at their meetings, which are mostly silent except when a participant feels moved to speak.

So it would seem that the act of worship is in itself important, and I cannot believe this is restricted to Christianity. Woking Mosque, for example, seems to be on two alignments, one of which passes through a standing stone I found on Horsell Common and an earthwork on Chobham Common, among other points. Yet the doctrines of the various religions are different and jealously guarded, usually with each believing their own creed to be the only true one. The only common theme seems to be the worship of the creator, in whatever form he/she/it is envisaged.

I have no doubt that pagan places of worship are also so aligned, however ephemeral - for instance, if a family of pagans worship in their home, I feel it is likely that they will have been drawn to live in a building positioned on a ley.

The conclusion is that worship is what is important, and all worship is equal in status regardless of sects or doctrines. In fact, sectarianism is extremely dangerous, as in Northern Ireland, the Middle Iaast and elsewhere. It is ironic to think that while all this tension and bloodshed is going on, the worship of ordinary people in all these religions could be supporting the life energy of the planet.

SOME SITES IN YORKSHIRE AND LINCOLNSHIRE
A few weeks ago I had a very pleasant weekend staying with Philip Heselton and his family in Hull, and visiting a number of significant sites in the area. The first was St. Helen's Well near Market Weighton, a spot on the Yorkshire Wolds where the water emerges from the side of a hill into a triangular stone basin. It was a very pleasant, peaceful setting to begin the trip.

From here we travelled on to Millington Wood for our lunch. It is on the side of a hill with beautiful woodland waiks full of wild flowers. We were even lucky enough to see a hare dash past.

After this we continued on to the church of St. Michael and All Angels, Garton-on-the-Wolds, an ancient church the walls of which were covered with nineteenth century paintings depicting Biblical scenes. These have had to be recently restored. The church seemed fairly powerful.

The next place was very different (though similar in its flamboyance) - the huge obelisk to a local dignitary, looking like a Russian Vostok rocket about to take off. Taking video on this windswept height was very difficult- it was virtually impossible to hold the camera still. I feel these obelisks must be subconsciously sited - they are usually visible from such great distances.

Mter this we climbed the huge tumulus of Willy Howe, with a clump of trees on its summit and a large depression in the top, probably caused by seekers after treasure. One of the trees was multiple with a small pool of water between the trunks.

We finished the day with a visit to the tallest monolith in England, at Rudston. Dwarfing the gravestones, this immense piece of stone stands by the village church. Cropmarks have revealed that it is at the centre of a number of neolithic cursuses which converge on it. Unfortunately, recently someone has decided (probably from the best of motives) that it ought to be capped with lead. Earth Mysteries have protested that it might affect the energies in the stone and the area, apparently to no avail. This is probably not the first desecration of the monolith - the name of the village comes from "rood stone" which probably means a cross was fixed to the top - it does in fact look damaged as if that were the case.

Next day, we travelled south to Lincolnshire to see Bob Dickinson (editor of Markstone), and his wife Jane. We stopped on the way at Julian's Bower maze, situated on the side of a hill near Alkborough with a good view of the river, and were lucky enough to be present when it was being re-cuL It was clearly in great danger of disappearing. The two gentlemen cutting it were eigthy-one and sixty-two, and told us a lot about the area now and in the past. We were directed to the church where there is a replica of the maze on the floor of the porch, and apparently some of the gravestones carry it too.

We continued on to the Scunthorpe area to see the very impressive Dragon Rock at Dragonby, and the Crosby Stone. Both of these are on leys coming from the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple (see article by Bob Dickinson in this issue). The Dragon Rock really looks like a dragon, with a curving, serpentine shape in which at some time a long groove has been cut, and a depression at one end which could have been to hold water. Nearby is a strange, round depression in the ground. The other name for the rock is "The Sunken Church", for there is the unusual tradition that it is a church which sank into the ground, and from which ghostly singing is said to sometimes emerge.

The Crosby Stone is in the usual metal fence, standing at a road junction in the village of Crosby. There are round depressions on two sides of the stone.

We continued from here to Bob's house, situated in a stunningly beautiful and remote spot among acres of cornfields on every side. They have landscaped the garden to include a row of small stones pointing to the midsummer sunrise, and it is a very lovely, tranquil spot with old, twisted apple trees.

We first visited a hillside where a number of stones were in alignment near a spring. Lincoln Cathedral was visible, as it is from most of the sites in this area.

Possibly the high spot of the weekend came next - a visit to the Devil's Pulpit at Tealby. This is in a large, hilly area with anumber of small but striking Scots pine clumps scattered about, and outcrops of rock. At the bottom of the hill runs a stream with a waterfall, and the whole area, though natural, almost has the atmosphere of a place such as the Chalice Well garden at Glastonbury. It was full of a most peaceful, benign power, and we found we wanted to stay longer than we had originally intended. The Devil's Pulpit itsef is a large outcrop of rock in the shape of a pulpit, standing on a narrow neck which looks much too fragile to support it, There is a smaller rock close to it, and from one angle it looks like a human face with a dog looking up at it.

The next site we visited had a much more austere atmosphere - Kingshill tumulus. Rising from the middle of cornfields, this mound has traditions of bad luck attached to it, which we certainly seemed to experience, as when we returned to Bob's house Philip was suddenly quite ill, and also a meal set out in the garden was suddenly terminated by a very violent downpour of rain. It was as if we were being told that the forces of nature were not to be taken for granted - they are to be respected as well as loved.

On the evening of the following day Hilary took me to see a maze designed by Philip in Hull city centre. It was the standard pattern done in a square, picked out in buff coloured brick on a pedestrian concourse of red brick. There is a plaque in the centre describing it, and Hilary said she had seen children walking it on occasion.

Old Sarum and Winchester
Eileen Grimshaw and I represented the group at the London Earth Mysteries Circle field trip to Old Sarum and Winchester on July 27th. Beginning at Old Sarum, which has a very peaceful atmosphere for a fort, we dowsed the famous ley running between the old cathedral site and the new, and found a line running between two wells. A reporter from City Limits also interviewed Rob Stephenson and the rest of the group about the things which interest earth mysteries enthusiasts. After an enjoyable stay at a local hostelry at which the interview was continued, and mazes were discussed as well as questions being put to me on the significance of extraterrestrials in earth mysteries, we continued to Winchester where we first visited the cathedral. A cathedral guide gave us a very interesting talk in the crypt, where there are two wells, one under the high altar and the other under the retrochoir. The latter seemed to give the stronger dowsing reaction.

We then visited the castle with the famous Round Table (just before the building was closed!) and dowsed leys confirming ones that Eileen had found previously by feeling.

After this we visited some crop circles at Cheesefoot Head (meeting a number of very interesting cerealogists). The first was avery interesting "dumb-bell" (though unfortunately with no vantage point to view it); one of the circles gave a spin in one direction on the dowsing rods on the outside and in the other direction on the inside.

The second circle did give a dowsing reaction (at least to me) but appeared to be a hoax, being nowhere near as clear-cut or aesthetically pleasing as the fffst. The reaction could have been due to a ley passing through by chance, possibly the E-line we are studying in the Pitch Hill Project, which passes in the vicinity though we did not have its precise location to hand It was a very enjoyable and interesting day enhanced by good weather, rounded off by a visit to a beautiful lakeside pub at Alresford.

The E-circle
I have recently plotted theE-line we have been following on the Pitch Hill Project as a great circle course going round the Earth, by the simple method of stretching a rubber band round a globe. Although it doesn't sound so, it is reasonably accurate; one must just make sure the southern and northern extremities are at the same latitude and longitude and the line is straight when viewed from immediately above. Three of the points the line apparently passes through are very significant; of course on this scale one cannot be sure of precise location, but the line certainly passes in the immediate areas of the places concerned. They are:

1) MOUNT EVEREST, on the Tibe~Nepal border, is the highest mountain in the world. Its Tibetan name, chomolungma, means "goddess mother of the world".
2) AYERS ROCK, in central Australia, is a huge freestanding rock formation which appears to change colour as sunlight strikes it from different angles. The caves in its base are sacred to the Aborigines and contain traditional cave palntings. I did not know the location when first plotting the line, but have found that it almost certainly falls on it (it is north- west of Alice Springs).
3) LINES OF NAZCA, Peru. Patterns of straight lines and vast pictures created on the desert of this region, seemingly meant to be seen from above.

The line also goes right down the Indonesian Archipelago, so probably goes through some significant sites there, and goes across the southern part of South Island, New Zealand.

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