A little background about myself…..I was born in Guildford, the county town of Surrey in 1943 and lived there until I was married. In 1976 we moved to Ewhurst in Surrey, not far from the Sussex border. Our two children are now in their forties, and we have three grandchildren. After leaving Guildford School of Art, my first job was as a cartographic draughtsman with the Central Electricity Generating Board. But hankering after the outdoor life, I trained as a land surveyor, a job which took me all over the British Isles. In 1970 I became self-employed, eventually retiring in September 2012 as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building. I now do part-time consultancy and manage some land survey work from my garden office. I aim to spend at least one day a week making site visits, researching and writing.
As you will see, I am not an academic and not gifted in the art of writing. (Getting my excuses in early). My purpose is to set out my findings for others, more educated and more specialised than myself, to take this data and to maybe suggest some meaning to it all, if indeed there is any.
The location plan below shows the alignments in relation to the settlements in the area. This plan will not mean a lot until it is viewed in conjunction with the alignment pages.
The photographic illustrations are in JPG format – clicking on them will bring them into your photo viewer. Site plans and alignment illustration plans are attached to the relevant pages as PDF links. This allows plans to be viewed and, if required, printed to scale by clicking on the accompanying title text. To view a PDF (Portable Document File) it may be necessary to download a suitable program. The best free reader is Adobe Acrobat, but most modern computers will have a PDF reader installed.
The header photograph is St Martha’s Hill photographed from Newlands Corner Barrow.
All plans and photographs are by the author unless otherwise credited and are copyright. Ordnance Survey extracts are reproduced with permission. Licence number 100022432. Crown copyright. All rights reserved.
DOUBLE CLICK ON ANY PLAN OR PHOTOGRAPH TO ENLARGE.
Hi
I live in Fairlands, in Worplesdon parish. I have always suspected that the promontory at the southern end of Jordan Hill, which is surrouonded by apparently medieval banks, and is the site of several modern dwellings, alongside the church, by the junction of Holly Lane and Perry Hill, must be the site of an ancient settlement. Local archaeologists say they have found no evidence to suggest this. I was just browsing your site and it occurred to me to look at the relationship between this site, the bronze age ditch at 51.272 -0.5864 on Whitmoor Common, and the Mount Pleasant Barrow. I have only looked at this visually on Google satellite view, but was very surprised to see that they appear to align. A more accurate measurement might disprove this, but I would be interested in your thoughts.
Regards
Adrian Hall
Hi Adrian, I was very interested to receive your comment and apologise for the long delay in replying. I have been overwhelmed with work and my research has been sadly neglected. I have looked at this area on Google Earth and I will email you a capture of the area with my nearest reference marked on it for further discussion.
Just a thought after a quick read. I’ve probably missed a lot of the detail. But I was wondering could it be that all these barrows and such like in prominent positions are ancient trig points?
We know that Orkney had connections with Stonehenge from items found there so we know that people weren’t tied to particular corners but were capable of moving about. And long distances. If they were doing this it would make sense to know what directions to take.
First thing colonists do in a new country is to map it. And after the ice age I imgaine Britain was a new country.
Perhaps a look at what surrounds Ordnance Survey trig pillars might be useful?
A fascinating site by the way.
Hi Dave,
Firstly sincere apologies for the delay in replying – life seems to get more and more hectic, even though I am supposed to be semi-retired.
The point you make is an interesting one in that trig points are positioned at high points to enable long distances to be viewed. My key point at Whitmoor Barrow is close to a trig point looking south over Guildford and it has always been frustrating to me that the barrow is over the brow of a hill and does not see the same view but only the possible mid-winter sunset line described in my text as ‘Crooksbury Line’.
My primary purpose in this work has always been to discover and describe alignments and I have hoped that others (such as yourself) will come up with ideas and theories as to the validity of this research and the purpose of the lines.
The Ordnance Survey publish listings of trig points and it might be an idea for me to overlay all the points in my database of the area of interest.
My problem is time – there is so much research that needs doing.
Your interest in this is much appreciated Dave.
Thanks for the reply, It’s all a bit technical for me.
I’ve found a couple of sites that may be useful regarding trig pillars. One has detailed descriptions and photos from all round the country.
http://trigpointing.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-36036561
That’s couple of great links Dave – Thanks. I am still trying to find time to further my research and haven’t yet overlaid any trig points. Any results and I will let you know.
Hello,
I’ve come across a video by a scientist who has been investigating sounds produced by the earth and how they radiate across the planet’s surface. He believes ancient people followed the lines these sounds produced and at intersections between several lines built various things such as Stonehenge etc.
He’s called it ‘Holy Grail Found’ mainly because it also involves the Templars who seem to have been following the same line of reasoning.
It’s a very interesting concept and video and I think may tie in with some aspects of your work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZOzuZy8-E
all the best
Dave