Leylines: a history and theory

The following is extracted from an article originally written by Tim Carrington (I believe from the Shropshire area). I have tried to contact him to get permission to copy, but have had no success in tracing him or his family. Therefore the least I can do is credit him.

Towards the end of 1921, Alfred Watkins first made public his theory about Ley Lines. His first major work on the subject was published in 1925 and the book which led to my fascination with the subject, 'The Ley Hunter's Manual', was first published in 1927.

Up until reading that book, my knowledge of Ley Lines was vague. I thought that basically they were lines on which places of importance had been built in ancient times; and my own theory was that they probably followed lines of magnetic strength in the earth's surface.

Whilst researching places in Shropshire, I kept turning up references to Ley Lines. Buildwas Abbey was on a Ley Line. Much Wenlock Priory was on a Ley Line and Bitterley Church had a cross in its churchyard with a hole for a Ley Line. Each of these references were found in different books, although there is the possibility that their respective author's source was common. The intriguing point is that if you place a ruler on a map of Shropshire those three points are on a single line!

Coincidence? Proof? I honestly did not know. But sitting and staring at the map, I wondered which way the hole ran through the shaft of that cross in Bitterley churchyard. Now if that hole lay on the same line or bearing as Much Wenlock and Buildwas which lie some twenty miles away, could it still be passed off as coincidence? I resolved to go to Bitterley and check, but first I wanted to know more about these mysterious lines.