Alfred Watkins (1) (1855–1935)

'Fifty years ago the possibility of accurately surveyed alignments set out across the landscape was considered utterly remote, far beyond the capacity of the handful of painted savages who peopled the imaginary prehistoric Britain of orthodox archeology. Today we know that stone and mound alignments were indeed set out over considerable distances, often directed towards mountain peaks, cairns, and notches, just as Watkins described. The expansion in antiquarian thought, now taking place, is due in no small measure to the insight, scholarship and determination of a provincial visionary, a true gnostic in that he preferred the evidence of his own senses and the voice of his own intuition to the unsupported assertions of authority.'-from John Michell's introduction

Contents

List of illsutrations
Preface to the original edition
Alfred Watkins: A note by John Michell
Introduction by Alfred Watkns
I Monds
II Alignments of mounds
III Leys in Radnor Vale
IV Mark stones
V The sighted track
VI Water sight points
VII Sight notches
VIII Initial points
IX Mark trees
X Camps
XI Ley-men
XII Sighting staff
XIII Traders' tracks
XIV Sun alignment
XV Beacons
XVI Churches on mark-points
XVII Orientation
XVIII Castles on mark sites
XIX Assemblies at mark-points
XX Roman era
XXI Place-names
XXII Folk-lore
XXIII Hermes and hermit
XXIV In other lands
XXV Bible record
XXVI Confirmation
XXVII Obscurities and objections
XXVIII Chronology
XXIX Alpha and omega
XXX An outline
Appendix A-Ley hunting
Appendix B-Buckinghamshire Leys
Appendix C-Oxford City Leys
Appendix D-Brecon camps
Index… (más)

Originally published in 1925, this book by Alfred Watkins bought the concept of ley lines to the public. The concept came to him after visiting a Roman excavation and looking at the map to get a perspective on the wider landscape, he saw that a number of features seemed to line up. When he had the opportunity to get to higher ground he had the opportunity to look at the landscape and see that these features had straight paths running between them. He came to believe that the people of this country had made a series of straight paths through the forests with the prominent features being used for guide and navigation.

He first presented this theory of leys at a public meeting in 1921, and went on to develop his theories to present in this book. Controversial at the time, the Antiquity magazine refused to publish even an advert for his book, it captured the imagination of the public. He was an excellent PR man, using pagan rites to demonstrate and promote his work, and it inspired generations of readers and walkers to take a closer look at the country that they walked through. The concept of lines passing over hill and dale were picked up by those seeking to rediscover the the mysticism and ancient ways of the Celts and re-enchant the English landscape.

There was only one flaw though; none of it was really true. It can be proven that given the sheer quantity of ancient and prehistorical sites in the landscape that the chances of them lining up is as much coincidence as it is design. This page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line#/media/File:Ley_lines.svg shows just how a random collection of 137 sites can give 80 or so four point alignments. Richard Atkinson, an archaeologist, has even proved that red telephone boxes could produce their own leys by lining up.

Theories aside, this is still worth reading. Firstly, it is a classic piece of text on the English landscape. Secondly, the eloquent and atmospheric text and the black and white images and maps that are liberally scattered throughout the book giving us a snapshot of the English countryside between the two world wars before big farms and pylons spoilt some of the finest views. At the time the science of excavation was starting to change and improve, Watkins may have prompted people to look at and discover the genuine links between sites in the wider context of the landscape.… (más)

“Ley lines” are a particular variety of woo-woo which, like phrenology, have mostly disappeared after initial popularity. The Old Straight Track is the Bible of ley lines (and, in fact, cites the Bible as evidence). Author Alfred Watkins wandered all over England finding alignments of tumuli, standing stones, hill forts, and miscellaneous other Neolithic to Iron Age monuments, then expanded these to include castles, churches, crossroads, farmsteads (all of which he assumed were built on the sites of ancient predecessors), topographic features, and just about anything else he could find on an Ordnance Survey map that lined up with something else on that or some other Ordnance Survey map. Watkins, of course, was absolutely convinced of the reality of his “tracks”, repeatedly begging the question by asking “What are the chances that {some number} of these would be in an exactly straight line unless people had laid them out that way?” without ever approaching anyone with enough statistics to figure out exactly how good those chances would be in a country so littered with history and prehistory as the British Isles. To his credit, Watkins did not go completely over the top, suggesting that his lines marked trade routes or religious processional ways or something else more or less plausible (explaining why a religious processional way would go through a lake by armwaving, or by triumphantly proclaiming that the lake was part of the alignment). The over the top stuff was reserved for his successors, who decided that “ley lines” were not mundane tracks but lines of “geological energy” (or something) that had been tapped by ancient Britons (who obviously knew about this sort of thing) so they could build Stonehenge (or Avebury, or Callanish, or whatever other pile of rocks and dirt that struck their fancy). There are still a few ley line groups out there busily drawing ruler-straight lines through anything arguably ancient on their maps.


A classic for those interested in the history of woo-woo. Unfortunately this paperback edition doesn’t reproduce Watkins’ original photographs very well, reducing unequivocal proof of ley lines to indistinct blurred halftone blobs. The line drawings are all well depicted though, showing the alignments in various areas where the ancients had performed their geometrical wizardry, only requiring a little nudge now and then or the assumption that a particular stone or other feature had been moved slightly since its original exact placement. The amount of effort and scholarship that went into this is a little saddening.… (más)