{17}
1. A contour analysis along the ley reveals (Fig. 6) that it is possible that neighbouring sites on the ley proper (i.e. sites 1, 2, 5, and 6 in Table 1 plus the crosstrack) were originally visible from each other, with the exception of Trottiscliffe and Coldrum, for which see paragraph 2. We emphasize the word “possible” since the sites are not now intervisible on account of modern buildings and trees. Furthermore, quarrying has caused considerable alteration of the landscape in and around Snodland over the last 100 years or so, so that here, at least, modern contours may be very different from ancient ones. Also, the distance between the Coldrum barrow and the crosstrack, plus the fact that, by its nature, the latter is only visible when one is close to it, may mean that the crosstrack and Coldrum were never intervisible. In our analysis we have made no attempt to take intervisibility into account.
2. Though Trottiscliffe church and Coldrum barrow can never have been visible each from the other, there is a legend that a tunnel leads from the church and emerges at the barrow. Devereux argues that this may be “a folk way of noting a linear relationship between the sites”. The legend also says there is a treasure hidden somewhere along the tunnel, and Devereux argues that this could be a folk memory of a now missing site between Trottiscliffe and Coldrum and which was visible from both. We regard these claims as highly speculative.
3. Two of the pre-reformation churches on the ley (Trottiscliffe and Durham Court) orient approximately {18} along the ley. The accuracy of this orientation along the ley was not investigated by us, or considered in our analysis, nor is it known by Devereux, who initially pointed it out. Though ley hunters are happy to note such orientation where it occurs (e.g. ley SE1 in [6]) they do not insist on it, and many churches on leys are not so oriented.
4. Two of the pre-reformation churches on the ley (Trottiscliffe and Snodland) are of Saxon origin, and the third (Burham Court) may be too. If the Textus Roffensis is anything to go by then all three churches are Saxon, which would lend them more weight as ley markers than, say, a church whose earliest date is the 12th or 13th century. We note again, though, that it is not necessary for a church to have established Saxon origins (still less actual pagan-site incorporation) for it to be accepted as a ley marker.
5. Adding to the antiquity of the Trottiscliffe site, there are sarsen stones built into the foundations of the church.
6. Immediately below Snodland church, and on the ley, is a ford which is not shown on any of the OS maps. Since we are concerned with statistically modelling what a ley hunter can expect to find on the map, we omit this ford as “fieldwork evidence”, and we count the ley as having just one confirmatory feature, the crosstrack. Confirmatory features not shown on the map, but discovered by fieldwork, would have to be simulated by fieldworking the simulated alinements when superimposed on the map (as in our section “Confirmatory evidence”, above). We did not attempt this is the present study.
On this ford see Thornhill [7]. He points out that the meander between Snodland and Durham would have been further upstream in Norman times. There is evidence of a track here, submerged by the change in the river’s course. But Thornhill sees the Snodland crossing as post-Roman, which means it could hardly be an original ley-marker. Also Lillee [8] thinks it is not one of the earlier trackway crossings.
7. Devereux claims that at or near Burham Court there are “the remains of an underground Roman Mithraeum” and that this “suggests a solar connection somewhere along the line”. However, the “Temple of Mithras” turns out to be at 714625, i.e. 550 metres from the ley. Jessup [9] states that it was actually a storage cellar for wine and oil transported along the Medway.
8. When the Coldrum ley is continued eastwards it passes over Blue Bell Hill, thus conforming to the ley hunters’ “holy hill” pattern [10]. However, standing at Snodland, and looking over Burham Court towards the hill, the line does not head towards any well-defined peak or feature, and any line heading vaguely east from Snodland would inevitably hit similar high ground.