Early British trackways, moats, mounds, camps, and sitesWatkins, Alfred
History
Early British trackways, moats, mounds, camps, and sites
Watkins, Alfred
Great Britain -- Antiquities; Leys -- Great Britain; Megalithic monuments -- Great Britain; Mounds -- Great Britain
Such a sighting line (or ley) would be useless unless some further
marking points on the lower ground between were made. Therefore
secondary sighting points were made, easily to be seen by the ordinary
user standing at the preceding sighting point, all being planned on one
straight line. These secondary, and artificial, sighting points still
remain in many cases, either as originally made, or modified to other
uses, and a large number are marked on maps, and are the basis of my
discovery.
They were constructed either of earth, water or stone, trees being also
planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals in the line,
and sometimes included as secondary points.
Between the sighting points the trackway ran straight, except in cases
of physical impossibility, but did not of necessity go as far as the
primary hill tops.
Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the
name of tump, tumulus, mound, twt, castle, bury, cairn, garn, tomen,
low, barrow, knoll, knap, moat and camp. Another form of earth sighting
point was in the form of a notch or cutting in a bank or mountain ridge
which had to be crossed by the sighting line.
Water sighting points seem to have evolved from the excavations made
for the tumps or moats. Almost all are on low ground, to form a point
or ring of reflection from higher ground, and are now known as moats
and ponds.
Stone sighting or marking points were natural (not dressed) blocks.
Sighting lines were (in earliest examples) up to 50 or 60 miles in
length, later on rather shorter, down to a few miles.
Sighting points were used for commerce and for assemblies of the
people.
[Illustration:
PLATE III. MOUND AND MOAT.
1. Houghton Mound.
2. Lemore Moat.]
[Illustration:
PLATE IV. THREE-POINT PROOFS.
1. Sighting Pond, Hereford Cathedral, Pen-y-Beacon.
2. Ford at Llanvihangel Mill, Road, Tre-Fedw Mound. (See Plate II.)]
When troublesome times came and stronger defences wanted, the groups of
two or three sighting tumps which came near together (especially on the
top of a hill) often had defensive earthworks added to make a fortified
enclosed camp.
These trackways of successive ages grew so thick on the ground as to
vie in number with present day roads and by-ways.
All forms of sighting points became objects of interest, superstition,
and genuine veneration, and as such were utilized on the introduction
of Christianity.
Practically all ancient churches are on the site of these sighting
points (tumps or stones), usually at a cross of tracks, 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.
The moats and tumps were often adopted in after ages as sites for the
defensive houses or castles of wealthy owners.
Hundreds of place names give support to these propositions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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