Editing Ley line (section)

===Alfred Watkins and ''The Old Straight Track''===
[[File:Alfred Watkins - Map of two leys.jpg|thumb|Alfred Watkins' map of two alleged ley lines]]
The idea of "leys" as paths traversing the British landscape was developed by [[Alfred Watkins]], a wealthy businessman and [[antiquarianism|antiquarian]] who lived in [[Hereford]].{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1991|1p=121|2a1=Hutton|2y=2013|2p=134}} According to his account, he was driving across the hills near [[Blackwardine]], [[Herefordshire]], when he looked across the landscape and observed the way that several features lined up together.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|pp=11, 12}} He subsequently began drawing lines across his [[Ordnance Survey]] maps, developing the view that ancient British people had tended to travel in straight lines, using "mark points" along the landscape to guide them.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=12}}

He put forward his idea of ley lines in the 1922 book ''Early British Trackways'' and then again, in greater depth, in the 1925 book ''[[The Old Straight Track]]''.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=13}} He proposed the existence of a network of completely straight roads that cut through a range of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval structures.{{sfn|Hutton|1991|p=121}} In his view, these straight tracks were ancient trade routes.{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1991|1p=121|2a1=Hutton|2y=2013|2p=135}} Watkins had drawn upon earlier research; he cited the work of the English astronomer [[Norman Lockyer]], who had argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at [[solstice]]s.{{sfnm|1a1=Williamson|1a2=Bellamy|1y=1983|1p=15|2a1=Ruggles|2y=2005|2p=224}}

His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the [[Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club]] in 1882, which noted that: "A line drawn from the [[Ysgyryd Fawr|Skirrid-fawr]] mountain northwards to [[Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire|Arthur's Stone]] would pass over the camp and southernmost point of [[Hatterall Hill]], [[Oldcastle, Monmouthshire|Oldcastle]], [[Longtown Castle]], and [[Urishay Castle|Urishay]] and [[Snodhill Castle|Snodhill]] castles."{{sfn|Piper|1888}}

Watkins referred to these lines as "leys" although had reservations about doing so.{{sfn|Hutton|1991|p=128}} The term ''ley'' derived from the [[Old English]] term for a cleared space, with Watkins adopting it for his lines because he found it to be part of the place-names of various settlements that were along the lines he traced.{{sfnm|1a1=Williamson|1a2=Bellamy|1y=1983|1p=12|2a1=Hutton|2y=1991|2p=128}} He also observed the recurrence of "cole" and "dod" in English place-names, thus suggesting that the individuals who established these lines were referred to as a "coleman" or "[[dodman]]".{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=12}} He proposed that the [[Long Man of Wilmington]] chalk [[geoglyph]] in [[Sussex]] was a depiction of such an individual with their measuring equipment.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=13}}

[[File:Long Man of Wilmington (8023873524).jpg|thumb|left|Watkins believed that the [[Long Man of Wilmington]] in Sussex depicted a prehistoric "[[dodman]]" with his equipment for determining a ley line.]]

His ideas were rejected by most experts on British prehistory at the time, including both the small number of recognised archaeological scholars and local enthusiasts.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|p=135}} His critics noted that the straight lines he proposed would have been highly impractical means of crossing hilly or mountainous terrain, and that many of the sites he selected as evidence for the leys were of disparate historical origins.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|p=135}} Some of Watkins' other ideas, such as his belief that widespread forest clearance took place in prehistory rather than later, would nevertheless later be recognised by archaeologists.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=27}} Part of archaeologists' objections was their belief that prehistoric Britons would not have been sophisticated enough to produce such accurate measurements across the landscape. British archaeologists were then overwhelmingly committed to ideas of [[Trans-cultural diffusion|cultural diffusionism]], and thus unwelcoming to ideas about ley lines being an independent British development.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|pp=16–17}}

In 1926, advocates of Watkins' beliefs established the Straight Track Club.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=13}} To assist this growing body of enthusiasts who were looking for their own ley lines in the landscape, in 1927, Watkins published ''The Ley Hunter's Manual''.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=13}}

Proponents of Watkins' ideas sent in letters to the archaeologist [[O. G. S. Crawford]], then editor of the ''[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]]'' journal. Crawford filed these letters under a section of his archive titled "Crankeries" and was annoyed that educated people believed such ideas when they were demonstrably incorrect.{{sfnm|1a1=Hauser|1y=2008|1pp=111–112|2a1=Stout|2y=2008|2pp=183–184}} He refused to publish an advert for ''The Old Straight Track'' in ''Antiquity'', at which Watkins became very bitter towards him.{{sfnm|1a1=Williamson|1a2=Bellamy|1y=1983|1p=13|2a1=Stout|2y=2008|2p=184}}

Watkins' last book, ''Archaic Tracks Around Cambridge'', was published in 1932.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=14}} Watkins died on 7 April 1935.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=14}} The Club survived him, although it became largely inactive at the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in 1939 and formally disbanded in 1948.{{sfn|Williamson|Bellamy|1983|p=14}} The [[Archaeoastronomy|archaeoastronomer]] [[Clive Ruggles]] noted that after the 1920s, "ley lines soon faded into obscurity".{{sfn|Ruggles|2005|p=225}} The historian [[Ronald Hutton]] similarly noted that there had been a "virtual demise" in the idea by the 1950s, in part due to "a natural weariness with a spent enthusiasm".{{sfn|Hutton|1991|p=121}}