Mr Alfred Watkins, well-known in the photographic world, has recently produced a little book which advances a very interesting theory with regard to early British trackways. To appreciate his explanation it is necessary to picture the country as it was before the present net work of roads and lanes had any existence. “Presume,” he says, “a primitive people, with few or no enclosures, wanting a few necessities (as salt, flint flakes, and, later on, metals) only to be had from a distance. The shortest way to such a distant point was a straight line, the human way of attaining a straight line is by sighting, and accordingly all these early trackways were straight, and laid out in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore sights of his rifle in line with the target.”
Applying this principle, Mr Watkins has arrived at the conclusion that mountain peaks or other natural features were used as sighting points, but there were also artificial aids in the form of mounds, tumps, blocks of stone, and even ponds. Sighting tumps were sometimes afterwards used for defensive purposes. Ancient churches are usually at a point where tracks cross, 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.” To those who wish to test this discovery of Mr Watkins the following passages from his book will be useful:—
“The facts I have discovered, which lead up to the conclusions, can be verified for the most part on an inch to mile ordnance map with aid of 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 on a map. Stick a steel pin on the site of an undoubted sighting 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. Extend the line into adjoining maps, and you will find new sighting points on it, and it will usually terminate at both ends in a natural hill or mountain peak, or sometimes (in the later examples) in a legendary well or other objective.
“If you travel along the actual sighting line yon will find fragments of the road showing as a straight trench in untilled land, although these are few and far between, as the plough obliterates it all. The line usually crosses a river at a known ford or ferry. Sighting tumps not marked on the map are also to be found.”
The book is freely illustrated with excellent reproductions from photographs.
Source info: Cuttings agency.