Part 1

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.

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.

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.