266_7+ Albury New Church
The parish church was built in 1842 by McIntosh Brooks based upon a romanesque building in Normandy. Although a recent site it is remarkably accurate in alignment and orientation as can be seen in the plan below. Could the builders have known this when choosing the site? Or could it be built upon an earlier structure?
The church from the south east with St Martha’s Church just visible on the hilltop to the left side
An internet search reveals little information on this site. From memory I recall a trial excavation being carried out some years ago which revealed very little of interest.
This site sits in a scrubby meadow just to the north of Chilworth village. Although it is private land it appears to be well used by local dog walkers. It is very difficult to make out the moat and I had to locate it using my hand held GPS. In the photograph the slight depression is visible as a change in the colour of the grass across the picture. Behind the site the Tillingbourne flows from right to left in the line of trees, eventually entering the River Wey behind Shalford Church. Beyond the trees the land rises to the wooded area known as The Chantries.
St Martha’s Church seen from the site one and a half kilometres away.
Newlands Corner is a well known beauty spot sitting on the chalk ridge of the North Downs to the south east of Guildford. it enjoyed a brief moment of international fame when the author Agatha Christie disappeared and her car was found abandoned here in 1926. She later turned up in Harrogate having suffered a mental breakdown. These days it is mainly a large car park with a cafe much favoured by bikers. The ancient drove road runs along the ridge and through the car park, crossing the A25 road between Guildford and Dorking. Near this crossing, in nondescript woodland, sits the barrow. It is indistinct and one could walk over it without realising that it is an Ancient Monument. It does not appear to have been investigated in recent times, the last and possibly only excavation being by General Pitt-Rivers who lived in Merrow from 1873 t0 1877. He excavated some half a dozen Saxon barrows in the area and a round barrow south east of his home on the northern slope dropping away from Newlands Corner. This barrow contained a ‘British urn’ containing bone fragments but it is thought that he found the Newlands Corner Barrow already damaged and assuming that nothing could be gained from further investigation did not spend further time on it. The site of the Merrow Downs Barrow, also excavated by Pitt-Rivers, is now lost and no finds are recorded.
This barrow was instrumental in first determining the value of the Druid Mile (DM). It is six DM from Whitmoor Barrow with Merrow Church being on the four DM point. The two DM point on this alignment is now in the pavement of Marlyn Drive on a housing estate in Burpham. This point is close to a Romano British settlement site.
Approximate location from memory of the buried recumbent stone to left of black bin bag
This circle was mentioned in “The History and Antiquities of Surrey’ by Manning and Bray, 1809 volume 2 page 123 as follows ‘In the field are five stones, three together, the other two a small distance apart. Largest of the three is 10 foot long, 5’8″ wide and four foot four inches out of the ground. One in the next field is 10’10” by 4’9″ and flat to the ground. Also in Weston Wood’. And elsewhere, ‘There do indeed appear to have been stones in the field south of the road opposite the entrance to the Silent Pool but they have been destroyed by successive farmers and various pieces are scattered in the area’.
The fields in question belong to the Duke of Northumberland’s Albury Estate and lie between the large landfill site on the west side and Sherbourne Lane, the main road into Albury, on the east side, with the A25 road from Guildford to Dorking on the north side. They can be seen on Google Earth at 51’13’29″N 0’29’09″W. Until a few years ago these fields were open pasture but heavy tree planting has taken place to screen the landfill from view, and this activity may well have destroyed any evidence of the circle. In these fields was held the Sherborne Palm Sunday fair, which may have pagan origin, until 1811 when it was banned by the Rector William Polhill. Just across the A25 is the Silent Pool, steeped in legend and reputed to be bottomless although in the drought of 1976 the bottom was revealed.
Many years ago, whilst working in my capacity as monitoring surveyor of the adjoining landfill site, I came across a large recumbent rectangular stone lying right on the edge of the landfill workings at the western end of the aforementioned field. Unfortunately I neglected to measure it or record the exact location. A topsoil stock stood to the west side and I believe this has eroded and covered the stone.
Puttenham is a very special place for me with fond childhood memories of weekend visits to my father’s family home in the high street. It is a pretty village, linear with the church at the east end, lying at the foot of the south slope of the Hogs Back, now favoured by commuters enjoying the country life. Puttenham Common is just to the south side of the village on a greensand ridge with extensive views to the chalk ridge of the South Downs.
Hillbury Fort sits on the west end of the central ridge across the common abutting a steep natural escarpment created by the small river flowing north to south through a series of millponds below. It relates to three alignments; Crooksbury, Waverley and Deerleap. The alignment point on the Crooksbury line is near the foot of the pine-covered escarpment near the edge of the water in dense rhododendron scrub, making site inspection extremely difficult. The atmosphere of this spot prompts images of sacred groves and it would surely have been the source of water for the fort above. This point is 10 DM along the alignment, as is the fort itself (see plan).
The Waverley line appears to pass through two distinct gaps in the east and south ramparts. The 10 DM point on this line tucks neatly into the high point of the northeast corner of the fort. This area is rough ground covered in bracken and nothing out of the ordinary can be seen.
This is a couple of paragraphs added to the page of WHITMOOR BARROW on the CROOKSBURY LINE.
Barrows were often constructed so that from the valley below they stood out on the skyline, but when one approaches it becomes apparent that the mound is not on the highest point, it is fairly unusual to find a barrow on the actual summit of a hill. Maybe the original occupation site of barrow builders can be deduced by a study of sightlines. It is probable that the Newlands Corner Barrow was visible from the Weston Wood settlement. There are very few other viewpoints where the mound would have stood out on the skyline. Other barrows such as Whitmoor cannot be ‘skylined’ from any position due to their low-lying location. It would have made far more sense for the builders to have positioned the barrow some two hundred metres further south with views down over the Wey valley to Farley Hill and vistas to the East and West. Why then was this seen as a favourable spot?
The barrow is ten and a half kilometres north of the latitude of Stonehenge (51º10’44”). The latitude at the barrow is 51º16’26” leading to the idea that the solstice sightings would be similar. Also, the Stonehenge average moonrise and moonset on the 18.61 year cycle is about 133 degrees and 231 degrees, almost exactly the same as the CROOKSBURY and NEWLANDS LINES. This is an area where much more research awaits.
On my last visit to Wanborough Church I noticed these strange carvings in the stonework of the north west corner. The recumbent stone can be seen on the ground beyond. They did not look modern and closer examination reveals other straight scratch marks to the left of the holes. Maybe of no significance but intriguing – I could not find any other marks elsewhere.
Wanborough hit the headlines in the 1980s with the discovery of a romano-celtic temple built over the site of an iron age temple. It is estimated that metal detectorists plundered up to 20,000 coins from the site and it was this crisis which instigated the changes in the law of Treasure Trove. The location of this site at E 492013 N 149598 is just on the south edge of a trackway called Green Lane and is some 120 metres from the eight Druid Mile point on bearing 242 degrees . Further research needed.
It is too soon to come to solid conclusions, there is still so much research remaining to be carried out, but I feel that something should be put down to sum up my current thoughts. Briefly, there are too many examples of alignment; angular significance; occurrences of a defined measure of distance; and the predicted discovery of an unrecorded prehistoric site, to be entirely coincidental – especially as I cannot yet replicate this extraordinary pattern in another area. The most obvious area to look at is to the north of the current area of research but at this time I have not been able to find even one alignment in a comparable number of square miles although more time needs allocating to extend the area of interest.
There must be some issue of coincidences occurring. My biggest worry is the thorny issue of site relevance. Moated sites are invariably medieval and yet there are three on my alignments. Also at least one church is wholly Victorian. It is this one issue which most damns this field of research in the eyes of archaeologists and it cannot be ignored. I am addressing the problem – as far as I can – in the chapter titled “The elephant in the corner’ but it is early days and much needs discussing. At this time I honestly don’t know what to make of all this. Once I have all my collected data into the blog I will be asking for help and comment from others.
5/11/2014
The SEALE LINE at 270.5 degrees begins near Shere Church and passes close to Chilworth Priory. The true alignment begins at Shalford Church, which is on two other alignments, and passes through Puttenham Church and on to Seale Church. The line terminates at Badshot Lea Long Barrow which is marked on the Ordnance Survey as the site of an Ancient Monument. I have used the coordinates of the barrow as given in Surrey Archaeological Society archives. The distance between Shalford Church and Puttenham Church is precisely 6 Druid Miles. An interesting coincidence on this line is that the distance between Puttenham Church and Seale Church and between Seale Church and Badshot Lea Long Barrow are identical at 11,840 feet.
The only long barrow known to exist between the Kent and Wessex tombs and now completely destroyed. It was first discovered and excavated by the archaeologist William Rankine in 1936 not long before the surviving remains were removed by quarrying. It was thought that the barrow was originally some 140 feet long and orientated slightly north of east.
Looking north. The site is behind container with bund beyond. Access track is to right of Electricity poles.
The site is accessed by parking in Hurlands Place (Sat Nav Farnham not Badshot) just beyond the entrance to Sainsbury’s superstore, and parking near the entrance to Hurlands Business Centre. A public footpath can now be seen at the end of the road heading east. Once the railway bridge is crossed the path comes out into the open and a container in a fenced compound can be seen on the left. The site is just the other side of this container. Although this is private land the chap running a dog-minding business in the compound proved very amicable although the mention of the long barrow left him looking rather blank.
Site co-ordinates are halfway to container. Hogs Back on horizon. Bund on left and behind camera shielding quarry.
The ground here has a slight slope to the south. The site is on high ground with views in all directions apart from a segment to the east where the ground rises even higher. To the south the Hogs Back is visible with the South Downs just being visible beyond. To the south east Crooksbury Hill is prominent, and to the west and north the horizon is some miles distant. Without the current tree cover this would have been a pleasant spot but now it is in an area of rough scrub and small fields overshadowed by power lines and a radio mast.
Site co-ordinates are on green patch in centre of view. Railway boundary hedge behind.
The site of the barrow is now a patch of scraped rubble and soils with a soil bund a few yards on the north edge beyond which is a disused quarry. There is a railway embankment to the western edge, heavily overgrown. Immediately to the south edge of the barrow site is a fenced compound housing the container. A rough metalled track provides access from the north east.
The site is so damaged by industrial activity that it is difficult to make out the original ground levels. My impression was that so much scraping of the ground in association with earth moving and storing activities had taken place that the current levels are below the original landform and that consequently no evidence of the barrow would be found by excavation. This assumption is backed up by the proximity of a small cliff some 25m to the south east. The face of the cliff, which is some two to three metres high, is virgin chalk showing that cutting into the landscape has occurred in the past.
Chalk cliff showing how much the landform has been lowered.
Whilst looking at the work of ley researcher Michael Behrend I noted a reference to a long distance ley. Although I am not a fan of such alignments, having found them to be inaccurate at best, but this one mentioned passing through my area of interest taking in Hillbury Hillfort, Compton Church and Deerleap Barrow towards Dorking. This barrow had not been included in my researches as it is outside the area I had originally decided upon.
I had never seen Deerleap Barrow as it is in private woodland about half a mile north of the Wotton Hatch pub on the A25 east of Abinger Hammer, and as I did not know the identity of the land owner decided on a bit of non-intrusive trespassing. The barrow was easy to find, standing out on an area of cleared land in the deciduous woodland. GPS readings were taken at around five metre intervals around the perimeter ditch and photographs taken. The barrow was planted with saplings – incredible that this is allowed on a Scheduled Ancient Monument! Upon leaving the land a notice was seen stating that the private woodland was part of the Wotton Estate.
Deerleap Barrow from the north
View to the North Downs from just below Deerleap Barrow
In the office the downloaded and adjusted GPS readings were compared with the downloaded Ordnance Survey extract and found to be an extremely good fit.
The barrow was then included in my database and revealed a fresh alignment hitherto undetected. Starting at Deerleap Barrow the alignment, at a bearing of 266 degrees, passes through the east wall of Shere churchyard at four Druid Miles (DM); through the 1842 parish church in Albury (site relevance problem); passes through Chilworth moated site at around 10.5 DMs (more site relevance problems); Compton Church is at precisely 16 DMs, this is the fourth alignment to pass this church; the point at 20 DMs is just on the inside edge of the south ramparts of Hillbury Hillfort. Further points to the west await research.
October 2014