day 15

Day 15

“The path is clear, though no eyes can see”

genesis

it gets worse during the day

THE ALFRED WATKINS PROJECT

Yesterday I had made contact with Christine Watkins, from the Alfred Watkins Project, based around Herefordshire. I met them in the internet, and I thought it would be worthy contact them, as sometimes I feel a bit lonely on my research. It would be good to have some fellows to share my thoughts, and maybe could be interesting for them too.

With this wishful thinking I arranged a meeting with Christine. She does not live in Hereford, but in Orcup, a little village not far from there. We met in Abergavenny (Y Fenny), and crossed the English border.

Christine despite of the name has no direct relation with Alfred Watkins, but the family probably is the same. She is a performer and writer and founded the Alfred Watkins Project due to her and her friends interest in the work and ideas of Alfred. More than anything is a micro artistic community based in a friendly affinity. Must say that the A.W. Project doesn’t exists formally, and is not active at the moment, but all of them seemed very close in their projects.

Christine is very fond in the study of Ley lines and showed a couple of very interesting books, that I definely must go after: Ley Lines, from Danny Sullivan, Lines on the Landscape from Paul Devereux and a biography from Alfred Watkins from Ron Shoesmith. Of special interest is the path that the studies of Danny Sullivan took, since he shift from studying the Ley lines to focus at the Corpse Roads or Spirit Paths, which are straight lines avenues that the ancient people would construct to carry their dead to bury them. This roads should be precisely straight as it was believe that the dead spirits could only walk in straight lines. Some examples of these roads where found in Germany, but I can’t remember any in England. They must exist for sure. It is quite interesting that the Watkins Leys are not disconnected with the corpse roads, although it is not mentioned in his book. These are developments that could only be brought to the surface of investigation after him.

Christine and her fellows the sculptor David England and the film maker Richard Urbanski created the exhibition called “Just Go Straight On” in 2003 at Hereford Art Gallery and Museum. This Museum holds a big collection of Watkins photographs and personal belongs, and some were used in their installation.

members of Alfred Watkins Project in front of a suspicious ancient stone and trespassed by a no less mysterious green Ley line

It was good to notice that their approach to Watkins ideas are much more artistic than scientific, which is mine too. They do not claim themselves specialists.

In her house I met briefly her husband Richard and she took me to meet David, a very active and enthusiastic sculptor. We chat for a while about places of interest for me to visit and shared impressions of my trips and theirs. They seemed to have similar difficulties and joys to mine. It was a bit refreshing to be with them, and I was right that they would think it interesting to meet me too. We’ve been talking about stones for a while, and David as a sculptor seems to know a lot about it. He told me about Scilly Isles in Cornwall (which I haven’t been), the adorable Green Man, Mermaids and the Fogou, which I still not sure about what is (must go back and check out again). Kate Robertson, which is a collaborator to the group arrived there too.

AROUND HEREFORDSHIRE and KILPECK CHURCH

Me and Christine went for a little walk around and she showed me two sites very interesting. The first was the ruins of a church from the XIII century dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, which was moved a few meters uphill due to the constant floods in the area. The church had no roof anymore and it was reduced basically only to stones although some had very interesting medieval carvings on it.

remains of the old church near Orcup

The most interesting site she took me was the Kilpeck Church, a Romanesque church from the XI century, that shows a very distinctive carvings in the entrance. The church was founded in 1135 by Hugh de Kilpeck, in the village called Kilpeck, but it is older than him. The village is from the VII century and the first settlement in Herefordshire area.

in this aerial photo from Kelpeck shot in 1953 is posible to see parts of the castle and what looks like remains of an iron age settlement

There are remains from a Norman castle, a Roman buttress and what it seems to be a Neolithic site was seem from photographs taken from a plane in 1953. the area has been ploughed some 25 years ago and unfortunately there is no apparent remains of it.

the aspect of the old village

The remains of the castle and the ditch around it has been excavated but nothing significant has been found. Alfred Watkins quotes this church and the mound adjacent in his book, when he talks about the relation about the churches and ancient mounds. According to the information in the church, there are suspicious of a pilgrim path (a Ley line?) that connect this church to Saint Davids in Wales.

exploring the ruins of the old Norman castle

What is really well kept and precious is the church itself. Built upon a VII century temple, it is dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint David (although this double dedication is as modern as the XX century), it retains an impressive number of 87 corbels around it, some of them very intrincate, some satirical, some very modern looking.

the kilpeck church seem by the side
the carved door

details of the entrance

The entrance contains some of the best carving works of the ensemble, combining some Viking and Celtic design with medieval imagery. The very unusual assimetrical design of the columns adds a lot of interest to the carvings. On one side knights and serpents (would them be the Viking worms?) toped by mithological beasts (a dragon and a lion?), and in the other a Green Man on the top and a more abstract vegetal pattern in the columns.

some of the 87 corbets around the building

In the interior despite of the simplicity of the church, the stone carvings are still very vibrant and are the main decorative elements. Again there are the Green Men, combined with the geometrical patterns and columns with saints.

the interior of the church

When we were leaving, we got in doubt as it seems to me that some of the tombs in the cemetery look too much like wood, although that would be completely unusual. Christine told me it could be stone but we could not be sure. I am quite convinced some of them have wood parts.

the strange wood like tombs

After all it was a lovely day and very instructive too. I realize that Hereford is a must for my travel, so I should make a real effort to spend some days there. Maybe next week before going to London.

On the way back to Abergavenny (I still don’t know how could I say this name to the guy at the ticket office), we could see in the distance the Skirrid and the Sugar Loaf, distinctive strange mountains close to each other. The Skirrid strangely has plateaus that resemble the Tor in Glastonbury. No doubt this place contains a lot of mysteries.

the Skirrid