Remarkable discoveries, throwing a great flood of light upon the lives of our remote ancestors in these islands, have been made by Mr. Alfred Watkins, of Hereford, well-known in the photographic world as the inventor of the “Watkins’ Exposure Meter.”
These discoveries reveal a race which, beginning with the primitive flint-workers of Neolithic times, developed a methodical genius for track-making and surveying that eventually covered Britain with a vast network of communications.
The astonishing thing is that Mr. Watkins is able to prove that the skeleton of that network exists to-day in almost every locality.
These tracks were called “leys” or “lays.” From this simple root spring all the thousands of place-names ending in “ley,” “ly,” “lea,” “leigh,” “lee,” “lay,” etc.
Thus, there would be a ley running from a particular settlement to the nearest salt mine or “salt wick.” Along this came the man who sold or carried salt.
On the old “salt ley” you will find to-day such place-names as White House, Whitwick, Whitestone, Whitfield, White Cross, Whitewell, White Castle, Whiteway, and Whitcliffe.
It is easy, following this place-name clue to its termination in a salt district, to see what the “white man’s” burden was.
The leys, which averaged from six to nine feet in width, were made by trained surveyors, called “ley-men,” from which the modern word laymen may be derived.
They carried a “sighting” or “siting” staff or pole, which appears to have had some connection with the word “broom” (rooted in such place-names as Bromley). This, coupled their swift flitting about the country, may have originated the tradition of “flying witchcraft,” with its association of a broomstick.
The poles were probably used to “sight” along the ley. The sighting points consisted of huge blocks of undressed stone (called “mark stones”); tumps, or mounds (frequently surrounded by a moat), ponds, wells, isolated trees of great size, groves, wooden poles, earth cuttings (called a “cullis”), and “v”-shaped notches cut on mountain ridges.
The main sighting-points ran from hilltop to hilltop. The neolithic traveller, knowing his general direction, would lay his staff across two rough stones at the cross-roads and bring them into line with the notch cut in the distant hill. Then he would lower his staff to find the mound, pond, tree, cullis, grove, or pole that lay in between.
He thus “leyned” his route. It was necessary to know precisely “how the land lay,” and to “keep straight on.” If he did not he would be “de-leyed,” which sounds like a pun, but is sober etymological truth.
The leys were so straight as to run through the centre of sighting-ponds, artificial constructions made to catch the light for a searcher on the hilltop. There is a causeway at the bottom of many old ponds.
From the “sights” came the “sites.” Practically all castles are built on ancient British sighting-mounds. All mounds became centres for trade, religion, and recreation. Such customs as dancing in a circle with hands linked, and such games of childhood as “King of the castle” originated from the ancient British pastime of dancing round a tump, a custom which survives in such place names as Merry Hill.
The man who boughtRead ‘brought’ ? the coveted gold ornaments along the ley might only come once a year, but his memory survives in such place names as Gold Hill, Gold Post, Golden Cross, and Golden Valley. In Herefordshire, for instance, there are two of each of these names.
The vast majority of old churches are built on sighting-points, generally the mark stones. These stones are found in the churchyards, and also at cross-roads below signposts, in market squares, at street corners, and in middle of fields, the last being a phenomenon of the English landscape which has puzzled many people.
Mr. Watkins’ discovery was recently announced in a lecture given before the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, at Hereford, and has now been amplified and published in a book called “Early British Trackways,” published by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co., Ltd., at 4s. 6d. net.
Source info: Cuttings agency “Daily Express May” (date cropped); checked in library.