SINCE reading a book by Alfred Watkins on “Early British Trackways,” my interest in the countryside has considerably increased. When I take my rambles abroad I shall find a new objective, for the author not only reveals for the first time a systematic planning of pre-historic trackways, but throws a flood of light on the evolution of defensive camps, of the sites of castles and churches, and on the meaning of place names. For the benefit of field-ramblers who may be numbered amongst the readers of these notes, I propose to give a brief outline of Mr. Watkins’ discovery.
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In his introduction, he asks us first to clear our minds 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. Instead of that, presume a primitive people with few or no enclosures, wanting a few necessities such as salt, flint flakes, and, later on metals, which could only be obtained from a distance. The shortest way to such a distant point was a straight line, and as the human way of attaining a straight line is by sighting, all these trackways were straight, and laid out in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore sights of his rifle in the line with the target.
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It is argued that for a long period, the limits of which remain to be discovered, all trackways were in straight lines marked out by experts on a sighting system. In earlier examples these sighting lines were from natural mountain peak to mountain peak in some districts, and probably lower heights in flat districts, such points being used as terminals. These sighting lines, or leys, would be useless unless some further marking points were made, which could easily be seen by the ordinary user standing at the preceding sighting point. These secondary, and artificial, sighting points still remain in many cases, either as originally made or modified to other uses. They were constructed either of earth, water or stone, while trees were also planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals in the line, and sometimes included as secondary points.
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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 hilltops. “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 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.”
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Now if we accept the conclusions of Mr. Watkins, sighting points were used for commerce and for assemblies of the people. When troublesome times came and stronger defences were 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 utilised on the introduction of Christianity.
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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.”
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Now how can the facts discovered by Mr. Watkins and which led up to the conclusions, be verified? Well, he says it can be done for the most part by means of an inch to the mile ordnance map and 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 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.”
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It appears that the sighting line was called the ley or lay, and the fact of the ley is embedded in the rural mind. “A countryman 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 ley in the evolution of our language. It is still a common phrase to go out and see ‘the lay (or lie) of the land.’ ”
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Dealing with the antiquity of the ley, Mr. Watkins says he has 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, while others are evidently mediæval. 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.” The way thus, travelled was a route, not a road. Each individual track was “a long lane that has no turning.”
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I have not sufficient space at my disposal to quote what Mr. Watkins has to say about mounds, earth cuttings, mark stones, water sighting points, trees, camps, churches, castles, and traders’ roads, but I think I have gleaned enough from this little book which, by the way, is published by the Watkins Meter Co., of Hereford, to make ley hunting an interesting and instructive part of field rambling. There are doubtless many leys in Leicestershire that will enable the eager observer to find bits of old tracks which have been preserved through the long ages. Mr. Watkins tells us candidly that his book is a mere framework for a new knowledge. Still, it opens up an inviting field for observation and research.
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Source info: Text suggests Leics; MS note at end not yet deciphered.