Offa Street ley, Hereford. Mentioned in The Old Straight Track. The picture on the left is sighted on St Peter's Church, the picture on the right is sighted on Hereford Cathedral.
'When on a bank overlooking the city these two churches are brought into alignment, there also lines up in the distance a wooded and mounded hill of circular enclosure, and in the foreground a small sighting-pond also aligns' (A. Watkins, The Ley Hunter's Manual, 1927).

All Watkin's books and the records of the Straight Track Postal Portfolio Club are available for inspection at the Hereford Public Library in Broad Street, Hereford. There is now a blue plaque on the wall of Watkins' old house at 5 Harley Court, near the Cathedral.

The National Grid Reference system was not in use in Watkins day, consequently the sites on many of his rural alignments are difficult to find if you are unfamiliar with the area. His church alignments in Oxford are easy to find and will give you an interesting day out, but whether they date back to Neolithic times or not is a matter of opinion. Watkins believed the churches had been built on pagan sites to 'Christianise' them, and drew the above sketch map 'for all lovers of Oxford'.

As you can see by Alfred's map, a five-church alignment crosses another of four at St. Martins Carfax, the heart of the old Saxon town and the centre of early municipal life.
There has been a church at this busy crossroads since 1032, but the last one was demolished in 1896 and all that remains today is Carfax Tower. It is open to the public so you can climb the 99 steps to the top and gaze over Oxford's dreaming spires to the churches on Alfred's map.
St Mary the Virgin can also be visited as it now houses the Oxford Brass Rubbing Centre.

On to Confessions of a New Age Publisher.

Back to the Introduction.