Tag Archives: Medieval

St Nicholas Church, Compton

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I now turn my attention to one of the most interesting sites – the church of St Nicholas in the village of Compton.

The church is mainly Norman in construction with a Saxon tower to the West end. This church is unique in having a two-storey sanctuary above the chancel built in the 12th century. The purpose of this arrangement is a puzzle.   The Saxon wall to the north side of the chancel has a small window believed to have belonged to a hermit’s cell.

212_7+ Compton Church212_7-compton-church-rev

217_7-compton-church-rev

Uniquely there are four alignments passing through this site.   Beginning with the FROWSBURY LINE; there are only three sites on this alignment.   Starting at the church the line heads north-west at 293 degrees and passes through Frowsbury Barrow at just over 1.5 Druid Miles.   In just under 1.5 DM it ends at the Ancient Monument sign marking the Hog’s Back Barrow.  This barrow is also on the CROOKSBURY LINE.   The churchyard at Compton is very roughly circular and it can be demonstrated that a circle of the same diameter as Frowsbury can be fitted within this area suggesting the possibility that the church is evolved from a similar site.

The COMPTON LINE passing through the church at 219 degrees mirrors the TYTING LINE, both being 30 degrees east and west of the SOUTH LINE.   It is strange that the site to the north-east on the line is a medieval moat and the site to the south-west is a Victorian church, and yet the alignment of these sites is extraordinarily precise.

The ARTINGTON LINE through the body of the church also has dubious sites which need further research.

The fourth line, the DEERLEAP LINE at 260 degrees, has six points although one is a moat and another is a Victorian church, but once again the precision is exceptional.  Refinement of this line brings it to the north side of the church but well within the churchyard.  The distance  from  Deerleap Barrow to the churchyard  is 16 Druid Miles.

Compton Church from South East

Compton Church from south-east

Compton Church from South West

Compton Church from south-west

In the above picture, three alignments meet inside the door from the porch.

Weston Wood Mound and Settlement

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The NEWLANDS LINE, at 132° is 100 °  from the Crooksbury Line, and again starts from Whitmoor Barrow.  At 4 Druid Miles (DM) it passes through St John’s Church at Merrow and carries on to Newlands Corner Barrow at 6 DM.  These distances are very precise and have been used as the decided criterion of the Druid Mile.  In Weston Wood the line brushes the side of the reported position of a disputed barrow, now completely destroyed by sand extraction, and then passes through the site of a Mesolithic settlement.  At 9 DM passes close by Shere Heath Barrow but not close enough to be taken as an alignment.

268_1+ Weston Wood Mound

268_1+ Weston Wood Mound-page-0

The path at the top of the above plan is the main prehistoric trackway through Surrey, popularly known as the Pilgrims Way, which followed the North Downs from Kent through to Salisbury Plain.

THE MESOLITHIC SETTLEMENT

I have recently unearthed a sketch plan from the Surrey Archaeological Society archives of the excavation in Weston Wood of the Mesolithic settlement carried out c1961-3. The plan covers an area fifty metres square. It shows a trackway running from the south-east towards the north-west; with various post holes and points of interest; and with two areas of ploughed field to the east side. The excavation was carried out by an amateur team and appears rather inadequate by today’s standards and indeed I believe that the notes for this excavation have still not been published after half a century. Unfortunately this site has long been eaten away by sand extraction and is now a landfill site.

Weston Wood Excavation 1964

The Newlands Line is on a bearing of 132 degrees from Grid North. The trackway on the plan is at the bearing of about 152 degrees using the given North point. The excavation plan is a fairly poor sketch, not drawn very carefully by today’s standards, and is located with very approximate Ordnance Survey co-ordinates, and I suspect that the site of excavation was located very approximately in this area of scrubby land near the edge of the encroaching sand extraction with no local detail to tie in to the Ordnance Survey. The excavators set out a five metre grid as shown by the reference marks on the edges of the plan and it is possible that they located north using a compass. The plan is dated 1964 and at this time Magnetic North was some 13 degrees west of Grid North. We have about a 20 degree difference between the path on the plan and the Newlands Line, but if the North point was established using a magnetic compass then we only have a difference between the Newlands Line and the path of some 7 degrees. The Line is some 40 metres to the west of the given OS co-ordinates for the site but these are only to ten metres accuracy indicating a lack of precision.

This is certainly all very speculative and I would like to emphasize that I include this site, not because I have much faith in the validity of my findings, but because I have tried to include as much information as I can to help any possible future research.   There are obvious problems, such as the time period involved.   The Mesolithic period ended some five thousand years ago, so any relationship to the alignments would appear to be coincidental.   The most likely factor for the positioning of a settlement here would be the proximity of the natural spring at the Silent Pool.

White area is plastic covering on landfill site. The mound would have been just beyond this.

White area is plastic covering on landfill site. The mound would have been just beyond this.

THE MOUND

Weston Wood Mound was recorded as being about 135 feet in diameter and some five feet high.  The top was flat.  It had been thought that it may have been a landscape feature associated with the parkland of Weston House in Albury but no evidence as to its origins had ever been established.  It was destroyed by sand extraction in the late 1990s.

The medieval road from the village of Albury to the south ran over the ridge past the mound towards Newlands Corner in the North West.  The age of the mound had always been a matter of controversy.  In SAS Vol 60 of 1963 W Crawford Knox theorized that the medieval road went around the mound in a manner which suggested that the mound predated the road.  An excavation in 1965 revealed little, but notably, a coin of c1750 was found beneath the clay capping, suggesting the possibility that the ancient structure may have been modified as a landscape feature.

Albury New Church

The site of the mound in the landfill looking over Albury New Church

The most popular website used by enthusiasts of prehistoric monuments is ‘The Megalithic Portal’.  A search for Weston Wood brings up two photographs submitted by Eileen Roche purporting to be the mound shortly before it was destroyed.  In 1999 I began a twice-yearly monitoring of the volumes of sand extraction in the pit and have great familiarity with the site.  Looking at the photographs I feel that the mound shown would have been a soil stock and that the ancient mound would have been further north.  But now we shall never know.

Top of Albury Landfill in the area of the mound

Top of Albury Landfill in the area of the mound

 

Littleworth Cross and Clump

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Littleworth Cross Plan

Originally the Crooksbury Line passed through the centre of this crossroad, but later refinement moved the crossing of the line some 22 metres east.   I mention this cross-road for two reasons; firstly it is fairly unusual for a crossing of roads to be labelled as a cross, the possible implication being that it may have been the site of a medieval stone cross evolved from a much older site of significance. The location is remote and not near a village, all the nearby properties dating from the last hundred years or so. Secondly, it is perfectly aligned with two barrows, known as Littleworth Clump, with a stretch of straight road curving around the barrows as it reaches them. Although now covered with vegetation the mounds would have been visible from the crossroad along the original trackway.  This can be seen in the screenshot with the crossroad by the red location arrow and the barrows 400 metres to the north-west. The two barrows, very nearly touching each other, are both aligned with the road.

littleworth-cross

This Ordnance Survey extract clearly shows the alignment of the road and barrows.

Littleworth Clump W looking E  The only clear view.  This is the west barrow seen from the west.

Although these mounds are listed as ancient monuments there has been some discussion in the past as to the likelihood of them being landscape features. They are not in an old estate or parkland and this would seem unlikely to me. But it does appear that they may have been altered as the bank surrounding them on the north side does look more modern and may have enclosed them before the road was widened in modern times.

Bank on north side Littleworth  The enclosing bank. Barrows are to the right.

Littleworth Road

From the crossroad looking north-west.  The barrows are in the trees at the limit of visibility with the road disappearing to the left.  The Line runs through the trees on the right edge of the view.

I can find no record of any excavation of the barrows and there is no obvious damage in the centres as can be seen on other sites such as Culverswell Hill.

Shere Church added to SHERE LINE

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Shere Church, dedicated to St James, is lucky to be a rare example of a medieval structure relatively unspoilt by Victorian restoration.   It is thought that the earliest parts date from the late 11th century. It almost certainly has Saxon origins, as has Albury Old Church 1DM west.

Site plan Shere Church

Shere Church

Shere Church from the south

Shere graveyard

From the west end of the church looking down Church Lane in line with Albury Old Church.

Early conclusions

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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.