Touchstone - No 060 - 2003 01

Magazine Overview

Title: Touchstone
Issue: No. 60
Date: January 2003
Publisher: Surrey Earth Mysteries Group

This issue of Touchstone delves into the world of earth mysteries, focusing on ley lines, ancient sites, and unexplained phenomena. The primary article explores Sunbury Cross as a significant ley centre, detailing its connections to various churches and historical locations. Personal accounts of UFO sightings and discussions of ancient sites visited during a moot in Yorkshire are also featured, alongside information on related publications and events.

Sunbury Cross - Ley Centre

The lead article, "SUNBURY CROSS - LEY CENTRE," by an unnamed author, highlights Sunbury Cross as a crucial junction point for leys, a concept first explored by Alfred Watkins. The author recalls knowing Sunbury Cross as an important ley centre since 1961, noting that his school friend, Philip Heselton (later editor of The Ley Hunter), lived nearby. Initially, Sunbury Cross was a five-road junction with a clock tower erected in 1897 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It is now described as a "latter-day Silbury Hill" due to its role in supporting the terminal junction of the M3 motorway.

The article traces several ley lines passing through Sunbury Cross. One line connects Lyne, Chertsey, and Littleton churches, extending through churches in Twickenham, on Richmond Hill, and a church and road in Fulham. Another line links ancient churches at Walton-on-Thames and Abinger, with Shepperton Church aligning through it to churches at West Drayton and Bedfont.

A particularly spectacular ley mentioned is the Silchester Ley, identified by Alfred Watkins himself. This ley connects the early Christian church site, a Roman temple, and the parish church in Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum). Extended eastwards, this ley runs along stretches of the Nine Mile Ride in Wokingham and passes near Caesar's Camp, South Ascot, and Sunningdale Church before reaching Sunbury Cross. It then continues through Courtlands Avenue in Hampton, a crossroads in Teddington, a crossroads at Richmond, and three more churches.

The Egham Causeway ley, a thirteenth-century structure possibly part of the London-Silchester Roman road, is also discussed. This ley passes over Cooper's Hill, Runnymede, near the RAF memorial, and through a Neolithic site on the Surrey side of Runnymede Bridge. It follows the Causeway, not in a straight line but 'mean-following,' to a roundabout near Staines Bridge, which might be the site of the Negen Stones mentioned in a Chertsey Abbey charter. The ley also passes through Ashford, the Spelthorne Hundred Moot site, and a coincident road to Sunbury Cross, continuing to New Malden.

More on the Negen Lines and Another Great Circle Line

The author recounts a visit to Runnymede Bridge, noting a mound with trees on the Egham side, which was not part of the original ancient site but was rescue-excavated in 1980 due to M25 construction. This site is on the Egham Causeway ley, passing through the Negen Stones site to Sunbury Cross.

A similarity is drawn between the Negen Stones site and Stanwell Cursus (near Heathrow Airport) and Stonehenge and its cursus. Both Stonehenge and the Big Rings henge at Dorchester-on-Thames exhibit a pattern where the henge is set at a distance from the cursus, with a wood henge at the right-hand end. The Negen Stones and Stanwell Cursus show a similar pattern, with a Neolithic ring ditch at Shepperton Green noted as a potential wood henge equivalent.

Email from Gloria Hazell

Gloria Hazell shares her childhood experiences in Chertsey, mentioning her mother's stories about the area's history and her own feeling of something special at the Abbey ground. She also recalls a UFO sighting in 1986/7 near the Chertsey Church golf course. While driving back from a friend's houseboat on the river, she saw a bright light above the trees. Initially mistaking it for a street lamp, she soon realized it was something else. The object ascended rapidly to helicopter height and then moved off towards St. Anne's Hill, occasionally shining a spotlight on the ground. The object was described as bright and white, not cigar-shaped or round, and moved silently. Gloria's friends were scared, but she felt compelled to approach it, wanting to 'welcome them.' She notes that the object was not like a nightclub balloon, as she was later told by an airforce representative when reporting the sighting.

Gloria also describes another experience on Mixnams Lane where lights in her rear-view mirror disappeared without a trace, and a similar event on a highway in Pennsylvania in 1990. She mentions a ley line along Mixnams Lane passing through Sunningdale and Laleham churches and skirting a mound on Richmond Park and Caesar's Camp.

Great Circle Alignments

The author discusses how three mentioned places – Chertsey Abbey, the Negen Stones roundabout, and St. Mary's, Staines – lie on the same ley. Furthermore, when two American sites, Pipestone, Minnesota, and Sedona, Arizona, are aligned on a great circle, this line also passes through West London and the Pyramids in Egypt. The scale of this alignment is vast, with a band width of about 100 miles, making precise identification difficult.

A ley passing through Windsor, Queen Anne's Gate, Runnymede memorials, Petters field, Laleham church, Shepperton, Claremont Garden, and near Epsom is also described. The procedure for finding great circles involves using a globe and rubber band, requiring the line to appear straight from above and have symmetrical northern and southern extremes at the same latitude.

A great circle originating from Sedona and Pipestone passes through Canada, Greenland, Ireland, England, West London, France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt (including the Pyramids area), Sudan, Ethiopia, Australia, and New Zealand before returning to Sedona.

From Norman Darwen, Bolton

Norman Darwen writes about the village of Flash in Derbyshire, mentioning a large spring and a trough-like well. He notes the village's pride in the spring and past disputes over its ownership.

Notes and News

This section lists upcoming meetings for TEMS (Surrey Earth Mysteries Group) and the London Earth Mysteries Circle. TEMS meetings include talks on Twin Telepathy, Healing Sick Houses, and Bizarre Human Experiences. The London Earth Mysteries Circle features talks on topics such as The Green Man, Callanish, Ancient Mazes, Witchcraft, and The Goddess of the Witches.

A Flower at Kew

Lionel Beer provides a cutting from the Richmond Informer about a crop circle in Kew Gardens shaped like a five-petal flower. A spokesperson for Kew stated that security staff did not see anyone, and a high wall would have been scaled for an outsider to create it. The report also mentions an unidentified flying object seen at Tolworth.

The Buckingham Palace Ley in 1746

A map of London from 1746 by John Pine and John Tinney is discussed, showing the alignment of Buckingham House with the Mall and Charing Cross. The house, built in 1703, was later purchased by George III for Queen Charlotte, becoming known as the Queen's House. The garden appears hexagonal on the map, with an L-shaped building on the site of St. Peter's Church.

Spring Moot at Barmoor, 11th-19th April 1980

This section details an account written by the author about a moot held at Barmoor House in Yorkshire. The house, a former Quaker retreat, provided a welcoming atmosphere. The moot involved ley hunters with diverse interests, and participants split into small groups for field trips.

Field Trips

One group visited Cropton Forest to find a standing stone. Another site was Mawley Cross, a wayside cross made of local sandstone. The group also visited Blakey Topping, described as awe-inspiring and similar to Silbury Hill and Glastonbury Tor. Unusual standing stones were found near the summit of Blakey Topping.

The author describes a visit to the Fylingdales early warning station, speculating about its potential to monitor emanations from the hill. The church at Lastingham is mentioned for its powerful crypt, and St. John's church in Llanfairtalhaiarn, North Wales, is noted as being similarly powerful.

The 'City of Troy' Maze

A dawn trip to a local 'City of Troy' maze was undertaken. The maze, described as small and unobtrusive, was found to be powerful, especially at sunrise, providing a profound sensation.

Barmoor Long Barrows

A trip to the hill above Barmoor House revealed an unusual pattern of long barrows, seemingly aligned north-south or east-west, with some alignments between barrow centres and ends.

Mazes in Sugar and Salt

Upon returning for dinner, the group found mazes mysteriously appeared in sugar and salt, which were noted for their intricate detail.

My Eighteen Web Sites

The author lists his web sites, including the Buckingham Palace Ley site, the Tony Wedd site, and the Surrey Earth Mysteries Group site. These were transferred to Freeserve after Netscape Online closed down in June 2002. The URL for these sites is provided.

Advertisements

• Advertisements are included for:
• MEYN MAMVRO: Ancient stones & sacred sites in Cornwall, offering a magazine and guides.
• THE HIDDEN UNITY and BEGINNINGS: Booklets by J. Goddard, exploring ley points, subconscious siting, and earth energy detection.
• EARTH PEOPLE, SPACE PEOPLE: A booklet by Tony Wedd detailing extraterrestrial contact claims.
• THE LEGACY OF TONY WEDD: A CD-ROM of Tony Wedd's exhibition on flying saucers, landscape energies, and lost technology.
• TOUCHSTONE Subscription: Information on subscribing to the newsletter of the Surrey Earth Mysteries Group.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this issue are ley lines, ancient sites, and unexplained phenomena, particularly UFO sightings. The magazine adopts a stance of open inquiry into these subjects, presenting personal accounts and research findings without definitive conclusions, encouraging readers to explore these mysteries further. The focus on earth energies, ancient alignments, and anomalous aerial phenomena suggests an interest in alternative perspectives on history and the unexplained.