Devon: AW to replies to Pickard

EARLY BRITISH TRACKWAYS.

Sir,—In reply to the letter of the Rev. Dr. Pickard in your issue of October 4 inquiring for instances in Devon of the system of straight-sighted pre-historic trackways discovered by me.

I have little local knowledge, but happened to spend a week in Paignton in April last, and noted a few examples on the inch to mile ordnance map of the Torquay district. I give them as suggestions for local investigation, and number them to keep the different leys (or tracks) separate.

In most cases there are confirmations on the map in the shape of fragments or lengths of existing roads exactly on the line. These I do not specify.

1. Bowerman’s Nose (1,300ft. height near Manaton), Stover Cross road, island in Stover Lake, Kingsteignton Church, Stokeinteignhead Church.

2. Grimspound, Berry Pound, Great Tor, Teigngrace Church, Kingsteignton Church, Combeinteignhead Church.

3. Berry Head, Lay Well, south edge of camp west of Kingswear, High Noss Point, north edge of Woodbury camp.

4. Scabbacombe Head, Coleton, “Castle” and “Gallants Bower,” Combe Cross.

5. Island in Stover Lake, beacon north of Newton Abbot, Abbotskerswell churchyard, Paignton churchyard, street in Paignton, over Broad Sands, Scabbacombe Head.

The last-named trackway is the only one I personally investigated. I found facts corroborating. The line surprised me by passing through a corner of Paignton churchyard, not the church. I then found in the corner of the churchyard there still existed the undercroft of a church much earlier then the present one.

It seems at first sight absurd that the track should cross the Broad Sands, now covered by the sea. But in the guide books I found a tradition of a parson and a farmer crossing the sands by a used track and being overtaken by the tide. Not only so, but I was told of a causeway still to be found over the sands at low tides. And the term “broad” I have found in other parts of England applied to different spots on an ancient trackway, which was evidently used for wheel traffic, and, therefore, wider than the older ones for packhorse and foot traffic.

The Rev. S. Baring-Gould specially mentions in his “Book of Dartmoor” that practically all the stone rows on the moor (I photographed one many years ago) start from and align with a cairn or barrow. This will give a clue to many pre-historic tracks. The stone rows and avenues were pointers indicating their direction.
ALFRED WATKINS.
  Hereford, October 16.