Sir,—The new facts regarding points of antiquity in the West Midlands disclosed in my booklet on Early EnglishBritish (printer’s error?) Trackways (which recently received a somewhat deprecatory notice in your columns) have caused trials to be made by other observers in other parts of the United Kingdom. For example, Mr. Harold Baker, of Birmingham, writes me that he finds that five churches, namely, Churchill, Clent, Northfield, Solihull, and Berkswell, “are in a dead-straight line.” I have (since the issue of the book) made a few observations on the maps round Stonehenge, which are, I think, of interest to your readers and untainted by my own “views” or “heresies,” being simply physical facts. A straight line on the main axis of Stonehenge (that is, down The Avenue and over the Friar’s Heel on the well-known sighting line of sunrise on Midsummer Day) passes exactly through (to the north-east) the important Sidbury Camp, about seven and a-half miles distant; while to the south-west it exactly falls in succession on a tumulus about 1,000 feet from the central point, Stapleford Church, the southeast edge of the earthwork Castle Ditches, Cerne Abbas Church or Abbey, and down to the coast terminal of the line precisely on Beacon Knapp, a hill near Puncknowle.
A still more striking fact is that a straight line drawn from the centre of Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathedral passes precisely through the centre (a mound I think) of Old Sarum. Northward from Stonehenge it lies on St. Ann’s Hill (958 feet), just south-west of Silbury Hill. Southward from Salisbury it lies for about a mile on the present road for Odstock, passes through the earthwork of Clearbury Ring, and down to the coast at Highcliffe, where I should expect (although not marked on the one-inch map) a terminal earthwork or hill. The direction seems to be indicated from the centre of Stonehenge by the lower one of the two tumuli marked within its circle on the 1-2500 map, as the line bisects it.
I feel certain that if (as hinted in my book) other stone circles are tested to find whether their construction does not
provide indicating pointers for ancient trackways over sighting points much new information will result.—I am,
Sir, &c.,
Hereford.Alfred Watkins.
Source info: Cuttings agency.