[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE.
1. Castle Tomen, Radnor Forest.
2. A Glade on a Ley.
3. Four Stones, New Radnor.]
Early British
Trackways, Moats,
Mounds, Camps,
and Sites.
A Lecture given to the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, at Hereford,
September, 1921, by ALFRED WATKINS, Fellow and Progress Medallist
(for 1910), of the Royal Photographic Society; Past President (1919)
of the Woolhope Club. With illustrations by the Author, and much
added matter.
1922:
HEREFORD: THE WATKINS METER CO.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS 4
FOREWORD 7
INTRODUCTION 9
OUTLINE OF CONCLUSIONS 10
PROOF 11
THE LEY 12
ANTIQUITY OF THE LEY 13
INDIVIDUALITY OF A LEY 13
MOUNDS 14
EARTH-CUTTINGS 15
WATER SIGHTING-POINTS 15
MARK-STONES 16
SIGHTING STONES 17
TREES 19
CAMPS 20
CHURCHES 21
CASTLES 22
TRADERS’ ROADS 22
HEREFORD TRACKWAYS 23
TRADITIONAL WELLS 24
PREVIOUS DATA 25
ROMAN ROADS 26
PLACE NAMES 26
DISCOVERY BY PLACE NAME 30
THE LEY-MEN 30
HINTS TO LEY-HUNTERS 31
A FEW LEYS 33
ENDWORD 34
INDEX 35
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 41
TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE. Top. Castle Tomen, Radnor Forest, 1,250 feet
above the sea, and is supposed to be the Cruger Castle of the
Itinerary of Giraldus. Background. A glade on a ley. Bottom. The
Four Stones, New Radnor, the easterly pair lined up for sighting
over.
PLATE I. PRIMARY PEAK. Titterstone Clee Hill, and Park Hall,
Bitterley.
PLATE II. MOUNDS. 1, Tre-fedw, Pandy. The Skirrid, a primary
peak, in distance. 2, Didley. With homestead alongside.
PLATE III. MOUND and MOAT. 1, Houghton Mound. 2, Lemore Moat.
Note how slight is the dividing line between this type of mound
and a moat.
PLATE IV. THREE-POINT PROOFS. 1 (a telephotograph), Hereford
Cathedral and Pen-y-Beacon. Here the camera stood on a known ley
in gateway near top of Hafod Hill, and the line runs through
pond at foot (marked by sheet of paper), tower of Cathedral, and
the 20 mile distant mountain point or bluff. Another ley is seen
crossing the meadow in a straight line just where “the lowing
herd winds slowly o’er the lea.” 2, Tre-fedw Mound (see Plate
II.), shown at top of sighting line down present road to ancient
Monnow ford (alongside present bridge) at Llanvihangel Mill.
PLATE V. SIGHTING CUTTINGS (all telephotographs). 1, Notch with
earthwork at Trewyn Camp above Pandy (Black Mountains). 2,
Cutting through top of ridge at Marstow, a bridge now spans it,
and the sighting line down to a ford on the Garron is indicated.
The road beyond the cutting is on the ley. 3, Black Darren,
Longtown (Black Mountains). This is taken from the Tan House,
Longtown, and only 100 yards to right or left the notch begins
to lessen and then disappear.
PLATE VI. CAUSEWAYS. 1, Through pond near Ten Houses (now Priory
Terrace), Holmer. Note the unmistakable direction, confirmed on
map. 2, Through the River Monnow, behind Tan House, Longtown. A
piece of fine engineering, the below-stream edge of large stones
embedded in grouting or concrete. This ley is over the notch in
Plate V.
PLATE VII. CAUSEWAYS. 1, Over a ford of Olchon Brook, Longtown.
2, Ingestone, Ross. Through the “fold” and straight to the
centre of the pond against the house. I cannot assign a period
to any of these.
PLATE VIII. LEYS DISPLAYED. 1, Rhiw (mountain track) south of
Llanthony Abbey, Mon. This is sighted for Balmawr on the ridge,
and shows that where possible even mountain side tracks were
kept straight. Taken in evening light and shows (on left) the
triple tracks down which it is surmised the tile stones for
roofing the Abbey to have been slid from the quarry on the top.
2, Stones at base of ancient Wye-side causeway at Bartonsham
(formerly Bassam) Farm, Hereford City. The stones continue in a
“wash-out” in bed of river to right, and the ley is sighted over
tumps at Hoggs Mount and Holmer Lane. Note on bank to right the
mark-stone for the ford (see Plate IX.).
PLATE IX. MARK-STONES. 1, Red Lion, Madley. On a “red line”
ley from the Whitney pottery. Note subsequent boundary stone
alongside. 2, Credenhill. 3, Wye Street, Hereford, marking the
Palace Ford; there are a pair of these stones. Bartonsham Farm,
Hereford (see Plate VIII.).
PLATE X. TRANSITION OF MARK-STONE TO CROSS.
1, Wergin’s Stone, Sutton. With flat face suited for sighting.
A cavity for payments (or offerings) on the flat base. Early
example of “shaft and base.” 2, Pedlars Cross above Llanigon. A
menhir chipped into rude semblance of a cross. 3, In churchyard,
Vowchurch, unworked base. A ley runs through it. Inset, Sighting
hole in shaft of Bitterley Cross. 4, In Capel-y-fin churchyard
(Black Mountains).
PLATE XI. CHURCHYARD CROSS. Bitterley (see Inset Plate X.).
PLATE XII. TREE. Eastwood Oak, Tarrington, on a ley.
PLATE XIII. TREES. 1, A “One Tree Hill” near
Llanvihangel-nant-Melan. 2, Monnington Walks, an avenue of
Scotch Firs (Scots Pines) on a ley sighted on Scar Rock,
Brobury, seen in distance. See Map, Plate XIX.
PLATE XIV. CAMPS. 1, Sutton Walls. One of the sighting mounds,
there being four, a pair at eastern end, a pair at this the
western end. 2, Herefordshire Beacon. Winds Point to the left.
PLATE XV. CHURCH. Church Lane, Ledbury. The detached tower of
Ledbury Church is shown on the ley.
PLATE XVI. CASTLE. Wigmore Castle. The keep is on a sighting
mound, the ley passing also through the church, as is almost
invariable where castle and church are near together.
PLATE XVII. CASTLE. Brampton Bryan Castle (on a sighting mound)
with Coxall Knoll, another mound, in the distance on the right.
PLATE XVIII. HOUSE IN MOAT. Gillow.
PLATE XIX. MAP. TWO LEYS. A, Consecutive strips
containing the straight ley from Glascwm Hill to Birley Hill
_via_ four mounds; Turret Tump, The Camp, Batch Twt,
Almeley, Moat, Sarnesfield Coppice; and Weobley Church.
B, Little Mountain to Holy Well Malvern, through Moccas
“Castle” Tump, Preston-on-Wye Church, Byford Ford, Holmer
Church, Palmer’s Court, Moat, Shucknell, Walsopthorne. Portions
of two interesting leys are also shown. C, Scar Rock,
Brobury, through Monnington Walks to Monnington Church (see
Plate XIII.); and D, Little Mountain (Westbrook),
through Arthur’s Stone (dolmen), Cross End, Moccas Church,
Monnington Church, St. Ann’s Well, and Priory Church, Malvern.
PLATE XX. MAP. Portions of eight leys passing through
Capel-y-tair-ywen (Chapel of the three yew trees), a chapel
site, originally a mound, described in Woolhope Transactions,
1898, p. 38, on the high plateau below the great northern
escarpment of the Black Mountains. A, Hay Tump (near
church ford) to Pen-y-Beacon, on to Castle Tump, Rhos-goch.
B, Mouse Castle to Tumpa, passes through Maes-coch
(red field), Priory Wood, and the ancient “red” pottery,
Whitney. C, Merbach to Llanelieu Church. D,
Mynydd-brith Tump to Talgarth Church. E, Castle Tump,
Dorstone, to Moat at Felin-fach. F, Snodhill Castle
to Aberllynfi Gaer; beyond Snodhill it passes to or through
Holy Well, near Blakemere. G, Michaelchurch Escley to
Llanigon Mound. H, Black Hill (Olchon) to Painscastle
Mound.
FOREWORD.
_To the Average Reader._
I judge that you pick up this booklet with much the same ideas on the
subject that I had a few months ago. The antiquarians had not helped
you or me very much, but had left us with vague ideas and many notes of
interrogation.
On early trackways they alternated between a misty appreciation
of hill-tracks and ridgeways, and an implied depreciation of all
track-makers before the Romans came. To learn the meaning of mounds
they did not go beyond the child’s investigation of a drum, cut it
open to see; and, if nothing was there, quite failed to profit by such
valuable negative evidence. In perhaps one moat in five they found a
dwelling, and argued finely on the defensive importance of a ring of
water; but as to the other four, with no dwelling, and in unexplained
positions, they closed their eyes.
I do not know, dear reader, whether you will be as much astonished
in reading the new facts which I disclose, and the deductions I feel
obliged to make, as I have been in the disclosure. Frankly, if another
person told them to me, I should want to verify before acceptance. And
I try to aid you to verify. But do note this--that the important point
in this booklet is the previously undiscovered string of facts, which
make it necessary to revise former conclusions. My deductions may be
faulty. But the facts are physical ones, and anyone can test in their
own district whether moats, mounds and churches do not line up in
straight lines with a hill peak at one end, and with bits of old tracks
and antiquarian objects on the line.
So please do not begin with the false--as being inapplicable--word
“theory.” I had no theory when, out of what appeared to be a tangle,
I got hold of the one right end of this string of facts, and found to
my amazement that it unwound in orderly fashion and complete logical
sequence.
Make your own deductions when you have verified, and I have tried to
help you.
[Illustration:
Plate I. PRIMARY PEAK.
Titterstone Clee Hill and Park Hall, Bitterley.]
[Illustration:
PLATE II. MOUNDS.
1. Tre-Fedw, Pandy. Skirrid in Distance.
2. Didley.]
EARLY BRITISH TRACKWAYS.
MOATS, MOUNDS, CAMPS AND SITES.
INTRODUCTION.
I have read of a lad who, idly probing a hill-side rabbit hole, saw
a gleam of gold, then more, and in short had found a royal treasury.
And he could not show all to those interested, but only samples, and
he made mistakes in describing the dates and workmanship of the coins,
vessels and jewels. But the treasure was there all the same.
I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no
theories. A visit to Blackwardine led me to note on the map a straight
line starting from Croft Ambury, lying on parts of Croft Lane past
the Broad, over hill points, through Blackwardine, over Risbury Camp,
and through the high ground at Stretton Grandison, where I surmise
a Roman station. I followed up the clue of sighting from hill top,
unhampered by other theories, found it yielding astounding results in
all districts, the straight lines to my amazement passing over and over
again through the same class of objects, which I soon found to be (or
to have been) practical sighting points.
For the sake of clearness I will give an outline of the whole method
before furnishing proofs and examples.
It is necessary first to clear the mind of present ideas of roads from
town to town, or with enclosed hedges, also of any assumption that
orderly road planning was introduced by the Romans, and that my paper
is to explain the Roman roads.
Presume a primitive people, with few or no enclosures, wanting a few
necessities (as salt, flint flakes, and, later on, metals) only to
be had from a distance. The shortest way to such a distant point was
a straight line, the human way of attaining a straight line is by
sighting, and accordingly all these early trackways were straight, and
laid out in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore
sights of his rifle in line with the target.
OUTLINE OF CONCLUSIONS.
During a long period, the limits of which remain to be discovered,
but apparently from the Neolithic (later flint) age on past the Roman
occupation into a period of decay, all trackways were in straight lines
marked out by experts on a sighting system.
Such sighting lines were (in earlier examples) from natural mountain
peak to mountain peak, usually not less than 1,000 ft., in this
district, probably lower heights in flat districts, such points being
terminals.
Such a sighting line (or ley) would be useless unless some further
marking points on the lower ground between were made. Therefore
secondary sighting points were made, easily to be seen by the ordinary
user standing at the preceding sighting point, all being planned on one
straight line. These secondary, and artificial, sighting points still
remain in many cases, either as originally made, or modified to other
uses, and a large number are marked on maps, and are the basis of my
discovery.
They were constructed either of earth, water or stone, trees being also
planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals in the line,
and sometimes included as secondary points.
Between the sighting points the trackway ran straight, except in cases
of physical impossibility, but did not of necessity go as far as the
primary hill tops.
Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the
name of tump, tumulus, mound, twt, castle, bury, cairn, garn, tomen,
low, barrow, knoll, knap, moat and camp. Another form of earth sighting
point was in the form of a notch or cutting in a bank or mountain ridge
which had to be crossed by the sighting line.
Water sighting points seem to have evolved from the excavations made
for the tumps or moats. Almost all are on low ground, to form a point
or ring of reflection from higher ground, and are now known as moats
and ponds.
Stone sighting or marking points were natural (not dressed) blocks.
Sighting lines were (in earliest examples) up to 50 or 60 miles in
length, later on rather shorter, down to a few miles.
Sighting points were used for commerce and for assemblies of the
people.
[Illustration:
PLATE III. MOUND AND MOAT.
1. Houghton Mound.
2. Lemore Moat.]
[Illustration:
PLATE IV. THREE-POINT PROOFS.
1. Sighting Pond, Hereford Cathedral, Pen-y-Beacon.
2. Ford at Llanvihangel Mill, Road, Tre-Fedw Mound. (See Plate II.)]
When troublesome times came and stronger defences wanted, the groups of
two or three sighting tumps which came near together (especially on the
top of a hill) often had defensive earthworks added to make a fortified
enclosed camp.
These trackways of successive ages grew so thick on the ground as to
vie in number with present day roads and by-ways.
All forms of sighting points became objects of interest, superstition,
and genuine veneration, and as such were utilized on the introduction
of Christianity.
Practically all ancient churches are on the site of these sighting
points (tumps or stones), usually at a cross of tracks, and there is
evidence that in some cases the churchyard cross is on the exact spot
of the ancient sighting or marking stone.
In time, homesteads clustered round the sighting points, especially the
ponds.
The moats and tumps were often adopted in after ages as sites for the
defensive houses or castles of wealthy owners.
Hundreds of place names give support to these propositions.
PROOF.
The facts I have discovered, which lead up to the conclusions, can be
verified for the most part on an inch to mile ordnance map with aid of
a straight edge.
Taking all the earthworks mentioned, add to them all ancient churches,
all moats and ponds, all castles (even castle farms), all wayside
crosses, all cross roads or junctions which bear a place name, all
ancient stones bearing a name, all traditional trees (such as gospel
oaks), marked on maps, and all legendary wells. Make a small ring
round each on a map. Stick a steel pin on the site of an undoubted
sighting point, place a straight edge against it, and move it round
until several (not less than four) of the objects named and marked come
exactly in line.
You will then find on that line fragments here and there of ancient
roads and footpaths, also small bits of modern roads conforming to it.
Extend the line into adjoining maps, and you will find new sighting
points on it, and it will usually terminate at both ends in a natural
hill or mountain peak, or sometimes (in the later examples) in a
legendary well or other objective.
If you travel along the actual sighting line you will find fragments of
the road showing as a straight trench in untilled land, although these
are few and far between, as the plough obliterates it all. The line
usually crosses a river at a known ford or ferry. Sighting tumps not
marked on the map are also to be found.
Two specific proofs are illustrated in Plate IV. and explained in the
Table of Illustrations. Also from the highest point of the earthworks
of Dinedor Camp the spire of All Saints’ Church can be seen precisely
between the pinnacles of Hereford Cathedral, thus showing a sighting
tump and two churches on one ley. The Offa Street example (see under
Churches) is another three-point proof.
THE LEY.
The sighting line was called the ley or lay. Numbers of farms and
places on sighting lines bear this first name, viz., the Ley Farms,
Weobley, Grafton, Stoke Edith, and many other places. Wyaston Leys,
Monmouth, Tumpey Ley and Red Lay, near Letton, and Redley in Cusop
parish.
There were cleverly planned high level mountain tracks which, although
on an average sighting line, could not (being on the side of a mountain
ridge) keep straight, but took a serpentine course, in round the cwms,
and out round the headlands. But viewed edgeways they are a straight
line (see Plate VIII.) as keeping a uniform level or slope. Such are
found high on the Malvern ridge, the road (on three leys) through
Oldcastle to Blaen Olchon, the lovely Bicknor Walks near Symonds Yat,
the Precipice Walk near Dolgelly.
There are signs of parallel trackways quite close together, whether one
to take the place of an older one I do not know. And between Malvern
Wells and Hanley Swan are three symmetrical triangular woods (see Map,
Plate XIX.), which I find indicate parallel roads, one-sixth mile
apart, running northwards, and with a collecting road here at right
angles, which comes over the ridge and through Mainstone Court. There
are six of these equidistant parallel roads.
The fact of the ley is embedded in the rural mind. A country man in
directing your path will invariably bring in the now misleading, but
once correct, “keep straight on.” It was once absolutely necessary to
“keep straight on” in the ley, for if you did not you would be de-leyed
on your journey. This is not said as a pun, but as in some succeeding
sentences, to point out the place of the ley in the evolution of our
language.
Where the ley laid in a wood became a glade (see Frontispiece). We
came through one over Worsell Wood in a Club excursion on our way to
Gladestree. Where the ley had lain for a time often became a lane.
This last noun became a verb used in the 18th century enclosure acts,
where ground was “laned out.” Where it was so laned out it became land.
There is a Laynes Farm near Huntley.
It is still a common phrase to go out to see “the lay (or lie) of the
land.”
The trackways are chiefly 6 feet 6 in. to 9 feet wide. I illustrate two
pitched causeways at Longtown, a fine one through the Monnow near the
Tan House, and the other close to a ford over Olchon Brook (Plate VI.).
Another through the farm yard at Ingestone (Ross) going to the centre
of the sighting pond (Plate VII.).
ANTIQUITY OF THE LEY.
The word “ancient” covers a vast period. If--as I have proved--the
tumps or burys are sighting tumps, excavations also prove that they
usually date back to the Neolithic age, which, according to Mr. Ault’s
recent “Early Life in Britain,” cannot be later than 2,000 B.C., and
may be 4,000 B.C. A prehistoric trackway might, therefore, be planned
and made more than three thousand years before the Old Road (which is a
route rather than a road) was devised or evolved--as Mr. Belloc so well
describes--as a Pilgrim’s Way from Winchester to Canterbury.
I have found that the persistent things down the ages are not the
courses of the roads or tracks, but their sighting points, and
that cross roads with a place name are such. Place names are also
persistent, some of them going back to prehistoric times, but others
evidently mediæval. But the real dating of the leys and when the system
fell into decay is for future investigation.
INDIVIDUALITY OF A LEY.
Each ley or track was as separate and distinct from other leys as each
animal or tree is an organism distinct from other animals or trees.
As they crossed each other, no doubt users often transferred from one
to the other at the crossing, and struck out in an altered direction,
hence the place name element “turn.” But the way thus travelled was a
route, not a road. It is an absurdity to speak of a sighted road having
branches, or bending. Each individual track was “a long lane that has
no turning.”
Previous writers, treating, say, of Roman or of mediæval roads, not
knowing of the existence of the ley, assume that they are speaking of
original primary structures, when they are only describing a route
evolved from a number of the leys I describe, retaining the sighted
structure in the case of Roman roads, but losing most of it by mediæval
times.
Many leys acquired in after ages individual names from the use they
were put to, and such names were transferred to the sighting points.
I find in several cases a group of leys with sighting points passing
quite close to, and taking no notice of, quite a distinct group of leys
with other sighting points, the two sets being either of two different
periods, or part of separate systems made by different sets of ley-men
living in different districts.
A most surprising fact is the enormous number of leys.
MOUNDS.
The mounds whose many names I have mentioned are artificial. I do not
question the fact that they were often used as burial mounds, and
perhaps even built with that end in view; but the straight leys on
which I find practically all in this district line up (in connection
with other sighting points) prove their primary purpose to be sighting
tumps. Arthur’s Stone, a dolmen, which was probably the core of a
burial tump, is on two sighting lines.
I find various stages of evolution of the tump. The small tump at a
road junction for the local road construction, examples at Cross in
Hand, Belmont, Hungerstone, Shelwick old Turnpike, near Bowley Town
(called the Stocks). With most of these the pond from which the earth
was dug adjoins. When much larger tumps were wanted the trench of
earth to make them was dug in the form of a ring, and a moated tump
resulted, as at Eardisland (with water), Pont Hendre, Longtown (dry).
The water in these excavations proved to be splendid sighting points
by reflection from higher ground, and the moats with no tump but a
flat plateau within a ring of water evolved. Many tumps on banks, as
at Tre-Fedw, near Pandy, show no excavations. Many tumps were at the
junction of leys, showing the technical skill of the early surveyors,
who must have moved a temporary sighting point on one ley until it fell
in the line of a second ley. A sighting tump always commanded a fine,
clear view in at least two directions, and in after ages was coveted
as a dwelling spot. At Didley is an instance of the simple homestead
against it. Thus sighting produced the sites, this being only one of
many instances where the record of the ley is embedded in the English
tongue. The generic name of Merry Hill applied (as near Hereford) to
many tumps gives a clue to their use as assembly points for recreation,
confirmed by folk lore and surviving customs of dancing in a circle
with hands linked. The folk-mote was held at a tump with a dry moat, so
admirably adapted for seating.
[Illustration:
PLATE V.
SIGHTING CUTTINGS.
1. Trewyn Camp, Black Mountains.
2. Marstow, Road Spanned by Bridge.
3. Black Darren, Longtown.]
[Illustration:
PLATE VI.
CAUSEWAYS.
1. Through Pond, Ten Houses, Holmer.
2. Through River Monnow, Longtown.]
EARTH CUTTINGS.
Where a mountain ridge stood in the path of a ley, the surveyor,
instead of building a tump on the ridge as a sighting point, often cut
a trench at the right angle and in the path of the ley. This shows as
a notch against the sky and makes a most efficient sighting point from
below. I have counted eight such artificial notches in the mountain
ridge when on the road from Llanvihangel Crucorney to Longtown. Each
notch can only be seen on the line of sight, and disappears when a
quarter of a mile right or left. They are sometimes emphasised (as at
Trewyn Camp) by an earth work thrown up on one side. The Wych on the
Malvern ridge is an instance.
The two fine gaps near Flansford (Goodrich) and Marstow (Plate V.),
both with bridges over them, are also ancient sighting cuttings.
The sighting cuttings were also used in passing over banks in lower
ground. Cullis is one of the names for such an earth cutting, as
Portcullis between Withington and Preston Wynne, and High Cullis above
Gatley Park, recently visited by the Club.
There is a very neat example of such a cutting at Hungerstone, near
Allensmore, where the cutting in the bank allows the ley to be sighted
on to a pond on its way to the next tump, the one close to the church
at Thruxton.
The word hunger (a common place-name element) indicates, I think, a
cutting through a bank, not the bank itself, as now surmised. There are
cuttings at most fords, which permit the water to be seen from above
and serve as sighting points. The cutting near Charing Cross, which
gives the name to the present Hungerford foot-bridge, probably came
down through Inigo Jones’ beautiful Water Gate.
Mr. Codrington in his book on Roman Roads describes the method used
by Roman engineers “well known to surveyors for laying out a straight
line between extreme points not visible from each other, from two or
more intermediate points from which the extreme points are visible. By
shifting the intermediate points alternately all are brought to lie in
a straight line.” This method was evidently used for all the leys.
WATER SIGHTING POINTS.
I have suggested how these might have developed from the tump, and
shown where pond and tump were used together. Moats are a similar
arrangement on a larger scale. The trackways go straight for the island
part of the moat. It is not the least amazing part of this revelation
that I find practically all the small horse or cattle ponds in field
or homestead which are marked on a 6in. ordnance map have leys running
through them, and that examination in dry seasons shows signs of the
road passing through them. “And when we cleaned the pond out we found
it cobbled at the bottom” is a frequent report made by a farmer. I show
a photograph of one of these at Bridge Sollars, with the trench of the
road beyond.
A beautifully constructed causeway of even pitched stones is to be seen
at the foot of Holmer Hill (Plate VI.). It has well defined edges, and
lies at the bottom of a small sighting pond. In the crevices of its
stones I found fragments of crude red pottery, with a bit of early
(Anglo-Saxon) ornament, a bit of iron slag, and a bit of iron. This ley
is sighted on the North Hill, Malvern.
I cannot say that passengers walked through the bottom of these ponds
(most of them have one shelving edge, with the opposite bank steep),
but to this day an ancient road (at Harley Court, Hereford) does go
through the bottom of a small pond, being sighted through the Cathedral.
When there is a large central island on a moat I surmise early dwelling
houses--a subject for spade research. There evidently came a wish for
roads not running through the water, and a pair of ponds or lakes with
a causeway between, such as we find at Holmer fish ponds, is frequently
found on the map, and is the sure indication of an ancient trackway.
Probably the square moats are later than the circular ones. I saw in
the grass the track of a 15-foot road (probably Roman construction)
making straight for the centre of Yarkhill Moat.
Many ponds (as at Belmont, The Burcot, and adjoining Ledbury
Churchyard) not known as moats are really such, their islands being
sighting points.
The causeway to the centre of the moat evidently suggested their use
(many ages after they were made) as a defensive ring of the house of a
rich owner, as at Brinsop, Badesley Clinton, Gillow, etc.
I think that the word lake, now used for large sheets of water, was
originally applied to small reflecting sighting ponds as well. The
place names of Sutton Lakes, Withington Lakes, Letton Lakes, and Tumpy
Lakes are explained by this theory.
MARK STONES.
These (Plate IX.) were used to mark the way. They were of all sizes,
from the Whetstone on Hargest Ridge to a small stone not much larger
than a football. Some were long stones or menhirs, but few remain
upright in this district. I know of three lying fallen on leys, namely
on the wall at the south gate of Madley Churchyard, near the inn at
Bush Bank (cross road from Weobley), and used as a bridge over a ditch
near the Field Farm on the Litley-Carrots path.
I show photographs of a fine stone at Red Lion, Madley, having a flat
top, and of the type which developed into market stones. The market
stone at Grosmont Town Hall (on which the first market basket placed
on market day paid no toll) is the successor of such a mark stone. Two
marking stones (with ancient brick houses built partly on them) stand
unnoticed in the short Wye Street, just over Wye Bridge at Hereford.
They mark the Palace Ford, and a ley from Castle Hill to Hunderton.
They are of the same peculiar stone (not “old red”) as at Madley,
Colwall, etc.
Wergin’s Stone (Plate X.) is a late type of mark stone which was the
prototype of the churchyard and wayside crosses, all of which I think
are on the sites of original mark stones, as I find leys passing
through them.
In studying such crosses, I was puzzled to find several (as at
Vowchurch, Hentland, Capel-y-fin) with ancient rough unworked stones
as a base. I am now certain that these bases are the original stones
marking a ley. The Pedlar’s Cross near Pen-y-lan Farm above Llanigon
(mentioned in Miss Jacob’s fine story, “The Sheep Stealers”) has been
chipped into a rude suggestion of a cross without taking down, and a
flat mark stone on which Archbishop Baldwin is said (by tradition) to
have preached when on his tour with Giraldus in 1188, has had a cross
inscribed on it. It stands close to St. Ishaw’s Well at Partricio.
There is a striking marking stone on the Rhiw Wen route in the Black
Mountains.
Other stones on leys are:--White Stone, Withington (with original
stone at the base of an inverted fragment of its successor--a wayside
cross); Queen Stone, Huntsham, at Credenhill cross-roads, at the foot
of Froom’s Hill, on the road near Turnaston Church, marking a ford at
Bartonsham Farm, Hereford, and Crossways, Bollingham. The stone that
all the Kings of England are crowned on is certainly a mark stone.
SIGHTING STONES.
Mark stones may be on one side of the track, as are the whitewashed
stones which mark a coastguard’s cliff walk to-day. But there also
appear to have been sighting points of stone exactly on the ley, so
constructed as to indicate its direction.
The Four Stones near Harpton, New Radnor, are four upright boulders
(see Frontispiece) in an irregular quadrangle, and no one has explained
their purpose.
I took sighting lines over successive pairs of stones, five lines being
possible, and although the work on the map is not yet completed, I can
definitely say that the “Four Stones” are directing posts which point
out at least two leys, proved by passing through other good points. The
first goes to the highest point in Deerfold Forest (The Camp, 940ft.)
in one direction, and in the other through The Folly and on the main
road at Llanvihangel-nant-Melan, over Bryn-y-Maen Hill, here appearing
to strike another “four stones,” and through Llansaintfraed in Elvel
Church to some peak beyond.
The second ley starts from Bach Hill (one of the highest parts of the
Radnor Forest); through the Four Stones, dead on main road through
Walton village, dead on main road past Eccles Green, through Upperton
Farm and Kenchester Church, and dead on the present road which is the
S.W. boundary of the Roman station of Magna; then going over the Wye
through Breinton Church.
Bitterley Churchyard Cross has a circular hole through its shaft at a
convenient height for sighting. Mr. J. C. Mackay kindly had the exact
direction of this taken for me by sighting compass. It is 28½° E. of
Magnetic N., and this on the map exactly strikes Abdon Burf (or Barf),
the high point (1,790ft.) of the Brown Clee. Southwards the line runs
through Stoke Prior and Hope-under-Dinmore Churches, is confirmed in
other ways, and goes over the Wye at Belmont House.
Bitterley Cross is of 14th century date; it must be the successor of a
sighting stone which in some way pointed the direction of the ley, and
it suggests that sighting along a ley had not quite died out by the
14th century.
These two proved instances of sighting stones, together with the cases
of stone rows on Dartmoor, and sighting columns on Sutton Walls, will
give the clue to the hitherto unknown purpose of many important ancient
stone monuments.
It is probable that the flat face of a mark stone, as in Wergin’s Stone
(Plate X.), pointed out a ley. There is a Dial Post near Tewkesbury
which, with the Dial Carreg near Cwm-yoy, seems to denote the above
purpose, and the last stone is an upright shaft of rectilinear shape
like the supposed cross at Capel-y-fin (Plate X.).
[Illustration:
PLATE VII.
CAUSEWAYS.
1. Over Olchon Brook, Longtown.
2. To Centre of Pond, Ingestow, Ross.]
[Illustration:
PLATE VIII.
LEYS DISPLAYED.
1. Track Climbing Ridge, Llanthony Abbey.
2. Straight Wye-side Causeway, Bartonsham, Hereford.]
TREES.
I find that practically all the named historic trees (including Gospel
Oaks) stand on leys. Such as King’s Acre Elm, Eastwood Oak, Great Oak
at Eardisley, Oak near Moreton-on-Lugg Bridge, etc. Place names (which
in my previous articles on Crosses I too hastily held to signify the
site of a cross) also indicate trees as marks. Such are Lyde Cross
Tree, Cross of the Tree at Deerfold, Cross Oak, Cross Ash, Cross Colloe
(hazel tree cross), and two leys cross at these points. Actual trees
are shown at the cross roads in two of the above in Taylor’s fine
county map of 1757.
The Oak in the horse-shoe meadow at Ross is on the ley passing over
Over Ross (the place name indicates it) and Wilton Castle. The steep
little street coming down to the river from the Swan Hotel is dead on
this ley.
Where a natural hill came under a ley it was often made a sighting
point by the planting of a single tree, hence the numerous “one tree”
hills, as at Backbury and on the Holmer Golf Links. All places called
“The Grove” seem to be on a ley, and a small group of trees (as at
Ladylift) was also used to mark a sighting point. Existing trees are
probably successors of original ones.
I see evidence that at one time such trees were called the “stock.” The
site of the wayside cross at Winforton is known as the Stocks, and a
marking tump in the lane for Bowley Town (or Court) has an ash on it,
and is called by the same name, as are farms at Wellington, Almeley
Woonton, etc. The highest point (a hill near the Three Elms on the
“Roman” road from Kenchester to Lugg Bridge) is marked on the map as
Bobblestock Hill. I have known it as Bubblestock, but have no doubt
it was Baublestock, the tree or stock (we still buy apple stocks in
the market) where men who peddled necklaces and other baubles met the
buyers. To-day, if you ask in a shop whether they keep such goods, you
will, perhaps, be told that they have a good stock of them.
I think that the pole (Layster’s Pole, Yarpole, Lyepole, etc.) was a
form of sighting point, lingering on to recent times as the May pole.
Every considerable avenue of trees (as in parks of country seats) which
I have tested has a ley down its centre.
Monnington Walks, a Scotch Fir avenue a mile long (Plate XIII.), is
sighted through Monnington Church and the Scar Rock, Brobury, which
last can be seen central in the picture. I found the ancient track
still on the ley at the Scar, and alongside appeared to be an enclosed
camp with defences of a mild type, such as seem to be alongside many
other sighting points, as Longtown and Bridge Sollars Churches. Other
avenues on leys are at Trewyn (two), where the house, central with
the Scotch Fir avenue, has been proved to be on a burial mound, at
Llanvihangel Court, where tradition also asserts the house (central
again) to be on a burial mound; at Oakley Park, Ludlow (The Duchess
Walk); and at Longworth. A feature in most of these avenues is that,
as far as present roads or tracks go, they “lead to nowhere,” and the
discovery of the ley solves this puzzle. A striking instance can be
seen from the Castle Mound at New Radnor, from which Harpton Court and
Old Radnor Church are in line, and the eye looks up the centre of an
avenue of trees climbing to the church. That beautiful avenue (half its
beauty gone since two recent gales) with the ancient name Green Crise,
which lines a public road out of Hereford, is on a ley which comes down
the County College Road, over Putson Ford, and passes through Aconbury
Church.
One sure sign of a ley is a long straight strip of wood marked on the
map, as from Franchise-stone to Litley, and towards Breinton Church.
The word “park” had a meaning different to its present usage, but was
probably connected with woodland, and certainly with leys, which pass
through each of the innumerable Park Woods and Park Farms.
The Scotch Fir or Pine is the tree which seems most characteristic of
a ley, for a group of them are almost always (I notice) signs of a
sighting point, as at Constable’s Firs, Hampstead Heath.
At the present time it is impracticable to sight from point to point
(especially on water points) on account of intervening trees. It is
certain that for many centuries the sighting points were used, and
that trees did not then intervene. This throws a doubt on the usual
glib statement that ancient Britain was one dense forest. Perhaps the
increase of trees was a cause of the decay of the system.
CAMPS.
I find that every camp seems to have several leys over it, and that
these usually come over the earthworks, not the camp centre, as with
moats. Also that camps almost always show signs of part of their
earthworks being tumps. At Sutton Walls are four unmistakable tumps,
in one of which an interment was found, and in another (Plate XIV.)
the Club at its visit saw the bases of two masonry columns of Roman
construction, the use of which seemed a mystery. I feel certain they
were columns built by Roman surveyors for exact sighting.
Standing on the highest part of Dinedor Camp earthworks, the towers of
Hereford Cathedral and All Saints’ Church can be seen exactly in a line
to the stand point.
The camp plans in past Transactions show signs of tumps in most camps.
It is impossible to assume that leys (sighted between two mountains)
should in the scores of instances exactly fall upon the earthworks of
camps previously built on sites selected solely for defence. The leys
came first, and the present camp was then merely the site of two or
more tumps. There came a period of organised raids and war, and where
a group of tumps gave the first elements of defensive works, they were
joined by earthworks into a complete enclosure for defence. Here again
sighting settled the sites of camps. Hereford Castle Green with Hogg’s
Mount the only remaining sighting tump, others (as at the Russian
gun) being now levelled, is an example. Many groups of tumps, never
developed into camps but sufficiently near to be so, are to be found on
the map.
I found Caplar Camp to have so many leys over it as to seem the Clapham
Junction of ancient trackways in that district. It may be that in a few
cases of lofty camps (as Croft Ambury and Herefordshire Beacon) they
form terminals of sighting lines, but in almost all cases the leys pass
over them.
CHURCHES.
These--if ancient--seem to be invariably on (not merely alongside)
a ley, and in many cases are at the crossing of two leys, thus
appropriating the sighting point to a new use. A ley often passes
through a tump adjacent to the church, and a cross ley through both
church and tump. In other cases a mark stone site became the churchyard
cross, and a cross ley comes through both church and cross. In many
cases one of the leys went through the tower only, and it is possible
that tower and steeple were built to be used as sighting points,
although on the other hand a large church did in fact block the road. I
will make no surmises on these interesting points. The sighting system
may have been in decay or the tracks abandoned when the churches were
first built on the sighting points. I do not think it probable that
leys were made to provide sites for churches. In almost every old town
or village will be found examples of a church built on and blocking an
ancient road although new roads (as at Weobley) are often made on one
or both sides. I show examples of a number. Broad Street blocked by All
Saints, Offa Street (a striking example) with St. Peter’s Tower dead on
one end, and the Cathedral Tower dead on the other end. Other examples:
Ledbury, Wigmore, Shrewsbury (Fish Street), Kington, and Madley, where
tower, churchyard cross and village cross are on one ley, and tower,
nave, chancel, and a mark stone in the village on a lengthwise ley.
At Warwick a chapel is over a town gateway, and in Exeter an ancient
lane is also allowed to continue as a tunnel under the altar of a small
church, two curious instances of the right of way being continued and
the desire of the clergy to use the site also attained. Kenderchurch
is a striking instance of a church perched on the apex of a sighting
mound, and in other districts I can think of Bren Tor (Dartmoor),
Harrow, Churchdown (Gloucester), and the two St. Michael’s Mounts,
these last obviously terminals of leys, as is St. Tecla’s Chapel out
in the channel below Chepstow, the termination of the beach ley which
gives its name to Beachley Village.
In London St. Paul’s blocks the Watling Street and Ludgate Hill leys,
and St. Clement Danes, St. Mary le Strand, and St. Martin’s in the
Fields are all on another ley with subsidiary roads evolved on each
side of the churches.
CASTLES.
Every castle in this district has a ley passing over it, and originated
in a sighting tump, upon which the keep was afterwards built when some
lord selected this as a desirable site for a defensive home. If a large
tump, there were usually some excavations which were developed and
extended into real defensive works.
The word castle is applied to many tumps (as in Moccas Park), where no
building has ever existed, and to farms (as Castle Farm, Madley), where
there are signs of a tump, but merely a homestead round it.
Where the word castle is part of a genuine place name, there was a
sighting mound.
TRADERS’ ROADS.
Salt was an early necessity, and “Doomsday Book” records Herefordshire
Manors owning salt pans at “Wick,” namely Droitwich. The salt ley
for Hereford came from Droitwich through the White House, Suckley,
Whitwick Manor, Whitestone, Withington (site of present chapel), White
House, Tupsley, Hogg’s Mount, Hereford, and on to its terminal on
Mynydd Ferddin Hill through Whitfield mansion. Another salt ley passes
through Henwick and Rushwick (Worcester), over the Storridge pass
through Whitman’s Wood, and ultimately gets to White Castle (Mon.),
passing over the White Rocks at Garway. Similar leys pass through such
places as Saltmarshe Castle, Whitewell House, the two White Crosses,
Whitcliffe, Whiteway Head, the Wych pass over the Malverns. It is plain
what the “white” man carried.
[Illustration:
PLATE IX.
MARK-STONES.
1. Red Lion, Madley.
2. Credenhill.
3. Wye Street, Hereford.
4. Bartonsham (see Plate VIII.).]
[Illustration:
PLATE X.
TRANSITION OF MARK-STONE TO CROSS.
1. Pedlars Cross, Llanigon.
2. Wergins Stone.
3. Churchyard Cross, Vowchurch (Inset, Hole in Shaft, Bitterley).
4. Churchyard Cross, Capel-y-Fin.]
A knowledge of the ancient pottery in the Kiln Ground Wood at Whitney
enables me to show the meaning of the numerous red banks, barns, and
houses. A ley through this pottery is sighted on Newchurch Hill and
passes through Redborough, Red Lay (a cottage on main road this side of
Letton); the ley is then dead on two miles of the present high road as
far as the Portway, and passing through the Home Farm, Garnons (where
the ancient road exists), it ultimately reaches the little Red House,
the old Tannery House at The Friars, Hereford; the ley goes on through
Woolhope Church, but the small local potter had come to his limit and
the reds cease on this road. Another ley from this pottery runs through
the Red Gates and Eardisley Park.
What the “black” man carried is indicated by the name still given to
the smith who works in iron. Whoever carried to or from the local
forges, whether it was ore, charcoal, or iron, would be black.
The earliest trade (before metals were worked) must have been in
flints, and as a man who wanted such would not have gone across
Gloucestershire to the nearest chalk districts to fetch them, the
flint chippers, or knappers, would come on the road to sell them. The
sighting tumps called the Knap are common, and if I wanted to search
for flint flakes, I should go to the base of the Knaps, their earliest
market. Tin Hill, Tinker’s Hill, and Tinker’s Cross have a similar
meaning.
HEREFORD TRACKWAYS.
More than a score come through Hereford. There are sighting tumps at
Hogg’s Mount (Castle Green), Mouse Castle (also marked as Scots Hole),
Gallows Tump (Belmont Road), Holmer Golf Links, Holmer Lane (top of old
brick field), and an important one, Merryhill (in Haywood Forest), now
marked as Beachwood. There also have been (now demolished) sighting
tumps or points at Castle Hill, Palace Courtyard, Overbury (Aylestone
Hill), The Knoll, Tupsley. And remains of one for the Castle ferry is
on the line of earthwork bounding the Bishop’s Meadow.
A riverside track sighted over Hogg’s Mount and Holmer Lane Tump is
illustrated in Plate VIII.
I have found trackways through the sites of each of the ancient
churches. St. John’s Street extended passes exactly through the chancel
of the chapel of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem at Widemarsh.
Barrol Street through the site of St. Guthlac’s. In evening light a
trackway can be seen from the Castle Green terrace, running through
the large elm stump in the Bishop’s Meadow to certain railings on the
river bank, it runs by Vaga House, Quay Street, site of Blackfriars
Church, northwards to Brimfield Church, and southwards through a moat
this side of the rectory at Upper Bullingham. Other straight trackways
are visible through an orchard behind Kilburn (Aylestone Hill), on this
year’s show-ground near the Three Elms, through Litley orchard, and
descending the meadow on the north slope of Aylestone Hill to pass by
the Burcott Pool, and on to Tenbury.
TRADITIONAL WELLS.
The ley brings to mind or discovers many of these, for a straight track
went to or past all of them. There are Holy Wells at Dinedor, between
Blakemere and Preston, and under Herrock Hill. As children, living
close by, we used to call the Coldwell at Holmer the Holywell, and
found our way by stepping stones to the ancient stone built well now
destroyed. It was much like the Chamber well near the mill at Weobley.
The Golden Well near Dorstone is on a ley running through Arthur’s
Stone, the Gold Post (a mountain cot), and terminating in Pen-y-Beacon.
The two “golds” on one track indicate a trader’s way. Leys go straight
to, and not beyond, many wells in the Malvern ridge--St. Ann’s, Holy
Well, Walms (there is a Walmer Street named from a ley in Hereford
and a surname Walmsley), St. Pewtress, and one (whose name I do not
find) near the Chase Inn, above Colwall, which village itself is the
Cole’s--or magic man’s--well.
I have photographed in Cornwall the pointed “beehive” stone structure
covering a Holywell, surmounted by a cross; the whole obviously suited
for a sighting point. Here and there, as at the Flintshire Holywell, a
chapel has been built over the well. Our local example is at Marden,
where the well, in the west end of the church, central with the nave
(and the ley), is connected with the tradition of St. Ethelbert.
There is an ancient well in Goodrich Churchyard, with a trackway
obviously passing over it, but not through the church.
PREVIOUS DATA.
A number of observers have recorded confirmatory facts.
Mr. G. H. Piper (“Woolhope Club Transactions, 1882,” p. 176) says: “A
line drawn from the Skerrid-fawr (mountain) northwards to Arthur’s
Stone would pass over the camp and the southernmost point of the
Hatterill Hill, Old Castle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill
Castles.”