"and Pauntley. Theorised as corroborative of certain alleged ley lines is the existence of cursuses, massive parallel ravines dug by people between 3400 and 3000 BCE. Ranging in length from 50 metres to several kilometers, their exact function remains unknown though they are commonly believed to have been used for ceremonial processions. Many encompass Neolithic graves and monuments. However, while some cursuses are relatively straight, others have curves and sharp turns; thus a counterargument runs that, at least in those centuries, the broadly spread group of ancient Britons who engineered such structures had no strong preference for straight lines. Watkins'"
"Alfred Watkins Alfred Watkins (27 January 1855 – 15 April 1935) was an English author, self-taught amateur archaeologist, antiquarian and businessman who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation and noticed on the British landscape the apparent arrangement of straight lines positioned along ancient features, and subsequently coined the term ""ley"", now usually referred to as ley line, because the line passed through places whose names contained the syllable ""ley"". Watkins was born in Hereford to an affluent family which had moved to the town in 1820 to establish several businesses including a flour-mill,"
"footpaths there seemed to connect one hilltop to another in a straight line. He subsequently coined the term ""ley"" at least partly because the lines passed through places whose names contained the syllable ""ley"", stating that philologists defined the word (spelled also as lay, lea, lee, or leigh) differently, but had misinterpreted it. He believed this was the ancient name for the trackways, preserved in the modern names. The ancient surveyors who supposedly made the lines were given the name ""dodmen"". Watkins believed that, in ancient times, when Britain was far more densely forested, the country was criss-crossed by a"
"antiquarian Alfred Watkins in his book 'The Old Straight Track' in 1925. He suggested that the ancient British used high points and hill tops as sighting points to help them navigate in a straight line and that 'ley' or 'leigh' place names actually mean ""a grassy track across country"". He perceived that many later Roman roads followed these straight ancient tracks. Some people also associate leys with the occult. Evidence exists of earlier occupation in the area at Castle Hill (not to be confused with Castle Hill, Huddersfield), a small hilltop above Birdsedge that contains defensive works which might have"
"between settlements but this was unsuitable for the swift movement of troops and equipment. Mastiles Lane was a Roman marching road and later an important route for monks leading sheep from Fountains Abbey to summer pasture on higher ground. Also known as the Old Monks' Road, this is now a Dales walking track. The existence of leylines and their relationship with ancient trackways was first suggested in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books ""Early British Trackways"" and ""The Old Straight Track"". Watkins theorized that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking on ancient trackways"
"In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote: Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today. Ley line Ley lines are apparent alignments of landmarks,"
"of Europe, finding straight lines that ""connect"" sites is trivial and ascribable to coincidence. A statistical analysis of lines concluded: ""the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites."" The book was reprinted as on April 2, 1994 by ""Abacus"". Editions or reprints were published in 1925, 1933, 1945, 1948, 1970, 1974 and 1994. The Abacus edition of 1970 was reprinted up to 1999 at least, and carries a copyright dated 1970 ""Allen Watkins and Marion Watkins"". The Old Straight Track The Old Straight"
"account in September 1870 by William Henry Black given to the British Archaeological Association in Hereford titled ""Boundaries and Landmarks"", in which he speculated that ""Monuments exist marking grand geometrical lines which cover the whole of Western Europe"". He published his book ""Early British Trackways"" the following year, commenting: ""I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no theories"". Alfred Watkins theorised that St. Ann's Well in Worcestershire is the start of a ley line that passes along the ridge of the Malvern Hills through several springs including the Holy Well, Walms Well, and"
"of points on a plane will inevitably create alignments of random points purely by chance. The concept of ""ley lines"" originated with Alfred Watkins in his books ""Early British Trackways"" and ""The Old Straight Track"", though Watkins also drew on earlier ideas about alignments; in particular he cited the work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer, who argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices. On 30 June 1921, Alfred Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire, and had been driving along a road near the village (which has now virtually disappeared). Attracted by the nearby archaeological"
"network of straight-line travel routes, with prominent features of the landscape being used as navigation points. This observation was made public at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford in September 1921. His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Club in 1882, which noted that: ""A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southern most point of Hatterall Hill, Oldcastle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles."" It has also been suggested that Watkins' speculation (he called it 'surmise') stemmed from reading an"
"1910 he was awarded the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS). Over 3,000 photographs, taken from Alfred's original glass negative plates are held by Hereford Library and can be viewed on request. On 30 June 1921, Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire when he had the idea that there was a system of straight lines crossing the landscape dating from Neolithic times. He presented his ideas at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford in September 1921, and published his first books ""Early British Trackways"" in 1922 and ""The Old Straight Track"" in 1925. Thereafter he"
"corpse roads also may have informed certain prehistoric features. In Britain, for instance, Neolithic earthen avenues called cursuses link burial mounds: these features can run for considerable distances, even miles, and are largely straight, or straight in segments, connecting funerary sites. The purpose of these avenues is imperfectly understood, but some kind of spirit-way function may be one reasonable explanation. Similarly, some Neolithic and Bronze Age graves, especially in France and Britain, are associated with stone rows, like those at Merrivale on Dartmoor, with intriguing blocking stones at their ends. Homer Sykes in ""Mysterious Britain"" says that the 'holed' Cornish"
"west and the Chilterns to the east. In the east they are divided from the Chilterns by Goring Gap on the River Thames. In the west their boundary is generally taken to be the border between Berkshire and Wiltshire, although the downs in Wiltshire between the Berkshire border and the valley of the River Og are sometimes considered to be part of the Berkshire Downs. English downland has attracted human habitation since prehistoric times. The ancient track known as the Ridgeway runs along the Berkshire Downs. Prehistoric sites in the Downs include Wayland's Smithy (Neolithic), numerous tumuli (Neolithic or Bronze"
"year. Blackwardine Blackwardine, Herefordshire, England is at , and in the parish of Ford and Stoke Prior. It is the site of a Romano-British settlement known as Black Caer Dun. A golden bracelet and ring have been found there as well as many human remains. An 1885 account notes ""broken pieces of pottery were thickly scattered about and in one part of the railway cutting near the surface some 40 or of charred material 18 inches thick were observed"". It is where Alfred Watkins first developed his theory of Ley lines on 30 June 1921. The place was excavated the"
"Blackwardine Blackwardine, Herefordshire, England is at , and in the parish of Ford and Stoke Prior. It is the site of a Romano-British settlement known as Black Caer Dun. A golden bracelet and ring have been found there as well as many human remains. An 1885 account notes ""broken pieces of pottery were thickly scattered about and in one part of the railway cutting near the surface some 40 or of charred material 18 inches thick were observed"". It is where Alfred Watkins first developed his theory of Ley lines on 30 June 1921. The place was excavated the same"
"Alfred Watkins theorised that a ley line passed along the Malvern Hills through several wells including St Ann's Well, Holy Well, Walms Well and St. Pewtress Well. Interest in Watkin's theories subsided in the 1930s but saw a revival in the late 1960s. In ""The Ley Hunter's Companion"" (1979) Paul Devereux theorised that a 10-mile alignment he called the ""Malvern Ley"" passed through St Ann's Well, the Wyche Cutting, a section of the Shire Ditch, Midsummer Hill, Whiteleaved Oak, Redmarley D'Abitot and Pauntley. In ""City of Revelation"" (1973) British author John Michell theorised that Whiteleaved Oak is the centre of"
"are centres of earth energy and lie along ley lines in the landscape. These are ideas that have been adopted from Earth mysteries writers like John Michell. In the popular imagination, Druids are closely linked with Stonehenge—a Neolithic and Bronze Age site in Wiltshire, southern England. Although Stonehenge predates the Iron Age and there is no evidence that it was ever used by Iron Age druids, many modern Druids believe that their ancient namesakes did indeed use it for their ceremonies. Druids also use many other prehistoric sites as spaces for their rituals, including stone circles like that at Avebury"
"Watford Gap Watford Gap is a low-lying area between two hills, close to the village of Watford, Northamptonshire, England. Engineers from Roman times onwards have found it to be an ideal route for connecting the Midlands with South East England. The A5 road, the West Coast Main Line railway, the M1 motorway and a branch of the Grand Union Canal traverse in parallel a space about wide. It has been written and spoken of as marking the divide between Northern England and Southern England. An easy route between the London and Birmingham areas passes near the small village centre of"
"through submissions that he was unsure about. As well as seeking to shape and define the discipline, ""Antiquity"" sought to spread news of archaeological discoveries to a wider public, thereby being more accessible than pre-existing scholarly journals. This resulted in Crawford receiving letters from proponents of various pseudo-archaeological ideas, such as the ley line theory of Alfred Watkins; he filed these letters under a section of his archive titled ""Crankeries"" and was annoyed that educated people believed such ideas when they were demonstrably incorrect. He refused to publish an advert in ""Antiquity"" for ""The Old Straight Track"" by Watkins, who"
"average. Archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone boxes and pointing out the existence of ""telephone box leys"". This, he argued, showed that the mere existence of such lines in a set of points does not prove that the lines are deliberate artefacts, especially since it is known that telephone boxes were ""not"" laid out in any such manner or with any such intention. In 1969, the British author John Michell, who had previously written on the subject of UFOs, published ""The View Over Atlantis"", in which he revived Watkins' ley line theories and linked"
"Watling Street (book) Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past is the fifth book by the British journalist, novelist and cultural historian John Higgs. The book charts Higgs's journey along Watling Street, one of the oldest roads in Britain, from Dover to Anglesey, during which journey he records the so-called hidden history of this ancient path from its first creation up to the present day. As well as recording the historical figures and their stories surrounding the road, Higgs also meets up with and interviews contemporary figures along the way such as Alan Moore and Alistair Fruish. The"
"spent a major part of his life developing his theory. He published a further book on leys and participated in the Old Straight Track Club from 1927 to 1935 (the papers from this organisation are also in the Hereford City Museum). Watkins was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an authority on beekeeping and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He was also involved in the preservation of Pembridge, Herefordshire Market Hall. Archaeologists in general do not accept Watkins' ideas on leys. At first they regarded the ancient Britons as too primitive to have"
"and single alignments have been found together at a number of sites, some of which show alignments that switch between the two forms, so that the form cannot be taken as clear dating evidence. Pit alignments Pit alignments are a little-known type of prehistoric monument found throughout the British Isles, the function of which is at present poorly understood. They consist of a series of evenly spaced and often relatively shallow pits arranged in lines. These monuments are most frequently discovered through aerial photography, being morphologically well suited to identification by this method. Some alignments run for large distances, in"
"King's Lines The King's Lines are a walled rock-cut trench on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. Forming part of the Northern Defences of the fortifications of Gibraltar, they were originally created some time during the periods when Gibraltar was under the control of the Moors or Spanish. They are depicted in a 1627 map by Don Luis Bravo de Acuña, which shows their parapet following a tenaille trace. The lines seem to have been altered subsequently, as maps from the start of the 18th century show a more erratic course leading from the"
"Pit alignments Pit alignments are a little-known type of prehistoric monument found throughout the British Isles, the function of which is at present poorly understood. They consist of a series of evenly spaced and often relatively shallow pits arranged in lines. These monuments are most frequently discovered through aerial photography, being morphologically well suited to identification by this method. Some alignments run for large distances, in straight or curving lines, and clearly represent massive undertakings by large numbers of people or by smaller numbers over long periods of time. Some examples appear to have been left open for some time"
"fort and the Lines mostly untouched. Most of the park is accessible to all at most times. It has many pedestrian and cycle links for residents of the two towns of Gillingham and Chatham. The Lines are known as a 'Bastion trace fortification', a linear defence with projecting bastions allowing covering fire to be directed into the ditches (on the landward side of the fort) flanking them. In England, they were relatively rare, and were principally adopted for dockyard and coastal defences. They stretch from Fort Amherst (overlooking Chatham Dockyard and River Medway), northwards across Brompton towards St Mary's creek"
"for example, the cropmarks at Fetteresso were the first indication of a cursus at that location in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 'Cursus' (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name ""cursus"", meaning ""course"". Cursus Cursus monuments are Neolithic structures which represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the Islands of Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them show that they were built between 3400 and 3000 BC. Superficially resembling ditches"
"Limes Britannicus The Limes Britannicus (""British Limes"") is a relatively modern collective name sometimes used for those fortifications and defensive ramparts that were built to protect the north, the coasts, and major transport routes of Roman Britain. These defences existed from the 1st to the 5th centuries AD and ran through the territory of present-day England, Scotland and Wales. Britain was one of the most troubled regions in the European part of the Roman Empire and could only be secured by the Roman Army at considerable effort. Despite a rapid victory over the tribes in the south, which Claudius' field"
"year, for 8 hours per day, could have completed it in 12.5 years. Some commentators have suggested that the stones may have been the core supporting framework for a larger wooden building with a roof. British author John Michell wrote that Alfred Watkins's ley lines appeared to be in alignment with various traditional sacred sites around the country. Michell wrote that ""There is a curious symmetry about the positioning of the three Perpetual Choirs in Britain. Stonehenge and Llantwit Major are equidistant from Glastonbury, some 38.9 miles away, and two straight lines drawn on the map from Glastonbury to the"
"Around Corners' – Geometry in Stone Age Britain – The Proof. In a survey of over 1500 ancient sites in Britain, Brooks claims that many were constructed by prehistoric man on a connecting grid of isosceles triangles spiraling outwards from Silbury Hill (pictured) with each triangle pointing to the next site. Monuments that comprised the grid included hillforts, standing stones, churches and stone circles such as Stonehenge. Interviewed in the Daily Telegraph, Brooks said that his proposed "" ""...triangle navigation system may have been used for trading routes among the expanding population and also been used by workers to create"
"that separates the north and the south of England. The services are in Northamptonshire, England close to the village of Watford about to the south east of Rugby and about to the north west of London. They are situated between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1 with a single site for each direction on the motorway linked by a footbridge. The name comes from the nearby Watford Gap, the narrowest and lowest point in the limestone ridge that crosses England diagonally from the Cotswolds to Lincoln Edge. In Roman Britain, Iter II, later named Watling Street, crossed the gap;"
"Pilgrims' Way The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way) is the historical route taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name, of comparatively recent coinage, is applied to a pre-existing ancient trackway dated by archaeological finds to 600–450 BC, but probably in existence since the stone age. The prehistoric route followed the ""natural causeway"" east to west on the southern slopes of the North Downs. The course was dictated by the natural geography: it took advantage of the contours, avoided the sticky clay of the land"
"network, across much of England and Wales, of narrow red lines drawn between settlements. With few exceptions, each is marked with a distance (of an unknown unit) in Roman numerals. Richard Gough described these lines as 'roads', and that description held throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Indeed, the document is still often referred to as a 'road map of Britain'. In a change of emphasis, however, recent scholarship sees the lines as routes, or as graphic representations of distance rather than of physical roads. Scholars have struggled to explain the idiosyncratic inclusions and omissions. For example, there are no"