Most everyone has heard of the term ‘ley line’. Coined by the English inventor and businessman Alfred Watkins in 1921, it refers to alignments of ancient landscape features which, Watkins theorised, originally served as markers for straight Neolithic trading routes, laid out by line-of-sight across Britain.
Alfred’s son and biographer Allen Watkins describes the occasion of his father’s initial revelation:
[quote]“The actual discovery was made on 30 June 1921, and it all came about in this way. A chance visit to Blackwardine caused him to look at the map for features of interest; he had no particular object in mind, but was just having a look around. He noticed that on the map a straight line that passed over hilltops through various points of interest and these points were all ancient. Then without any warning it all happened suddenly. His mind was filled with a rush of images forming one coherent plan. The scales fell from his eyes and he saw that over many long years of prehistory, all track-ways were in straight lines marked out by experts in a sighting system. The whole plan of the Old Straight Track stood suddenly revealed.”[/quote]
The concept enjoyed a revival in the 1960s, taking on a layer of mystical interpretation as a conduit of spiritual energy in the hands of John Michell, who pretty much launched the Earth Mysteries movement with his book The View Over Atlantis.
While the ley line concept (in either form) has been rejected by the scientific community, it remains firmly entrenched in popular culture, and the Society of Ley Hunters, the inheritors of Watkins’ Straight Track Club, maintains an active interest in the subject.
To this end, the Society intends to erect a memorial-cum-mark-stone at the site of Watkins’ ‘Eureka’ moment, adjacent to the crossroads at Blackwardine. By coincidence the corner of land on which the stone is to be sited is a Natural Burial Ground – The Humber Woodland of Remembrance, whose owners, sharing the Society’s respect for Alfred Watkins, have enthusiastically donated plots for the plan.
The stone, approximately six feet high and of natural local stone, will include a sighting hole, visually aligned upon the sites of the Blackwardine Ley, and will be accompanied by an inscribed tablet as well as two previously-planted, aligned, Scots Pines.
The Society needs only £1400 to complete the memorial and is currently seeking donations on their website. Donors names will be listed, if they so wish, in a special book commemorating the memorial.
