The Kennedy Memorial

We first visited the John F. Kennedy memorial, on ground given by the Queen to the United States after the assassination. The grounds of the memorial are designed to be philosophically symbolic of aspects ofhuman life, and a winding path of stones leads upwards through trees to the Kennedy memorial itself, a large block of sandstone inscribed with the dedication. Eileen found strong dowsing reactions here, and noted a twisted hawthorn nearby, and a clump of pines on the hill above. It was certainly an evocative spot chosen for the memorial.

 

The Magna Carta Memorial

From here we went to the nearby memorial to Magna Carta itself, a small shrine to the principles of freedom under law set up by the American Bar Association. The shrine was designed by Edward Maufe, who also designed the Air Force Memorial on the hill above, as well as Guildford Cathedral. It has a granite pillar on a stepped plinth, with columns supporting the roof on the underside of which are depicted stars which seem to show the Plough and the pointers to the Pole Star. The roof seems to bear some resemblance to the flying saucer in "Forbidden Planet"!

 

Scots Pine clump near the Kennedy Memorial - such clumps noted on leys from the time of Alfred Watkins through Tony Wedd to the present day.

There does seem to be a ley joining the two memorial sites; starting at a church in Windsor, running parallel to about half a mile of track and passing through Queen Anne's Gate, where I found a woodland "sanctuary" on a previous trip, of the kind and atmosphere we have found several times in various places. It then goes through the site of a Bronze Age enclosure in Egham where a hoard of bronzes was found, Laleham Church, the war memorial multi-junction at Shepperton, the Prospect Tower at Claremont Landscape Garden (18th century), and a Roman villa site at Ashtead on the edge of an earthwork.

This could be the great circle line found through the two American towns of Sedona and Pipestone, which a friend had found particularly powerful. Sedona is a town something akin to an American Glastonbury, with energy vortices in the surrounding hills and sacredness to the Native Americans. Pipestone is also sacred to them, being the place where the red rock from which their peace pipes are made comes from. Although it is impossible to be precise at this scale, this line when extended does come through this area of Britain, and is at the correct angle. Continued it goes through the area of the Pyramids in Egypt.

 

The Royal Air Force Memorial

We continued from here to the Air Force memorial on Cooper's Hill above Runnymede, also designed by Maufe and strangely with a very similar "flying saucer" on the roof! This commemorates the airmen in World War II who lost their lives and have no known grave. In beautifully manicured gardens, this has a courtyard with an altar-like memorial stone and a shrine building beyond it, which contains the names of the dead on book-like stones and a poem engraved on the window, which looks out on the view over Runnymede and the river. An even more breathtaking one is obtained from the room above. This building seems extremely powerful, even though the site is so modern.

The RAF Memorial from the path to Ankerwycke. The ley centre is a little way in front of the building, to the left of the central tower

A ley which runs along Egham Causeway to the Negen Stones site near Staines Bridge goes along the hillside just beneath it; there was nothing discernible, except that it seems to run along the edge of a wood. The Negen Stones (Nine Stones) were mentioned in a charter of Chersey Abbey, on a site now occupied by a roundabout on the Egham side of the present Staines Bridge, and Staines (which means Stones) is thought to have been named after them. This ley was later found to be part of a ley centre just below the Memorial, where there is a group of old oaks, with leys going to the Ankerwyke Priory, Windsor Castle and Wraysbury Church, which seems to be built within a circular bank..

There also seems to be a ley passing through the Memorial going through Ankerwycke Priory , coming from a tumulus on Chobham Colnmon, the Memorial, the priory ruins, a church in South Ruislip and one in North Harrow, as well as several aligned roads and crossroads.

From here we went to have a very pleasant lunch in Walnut Tree Gardens in Egham, site of Walnut Tree House, once occupied by Henry Strode, who in the early eighteenth century founded the school and almshouses near'by which are now Strode's Sixth Form College. The site is now an arboretum planted on the Queen's Silver Jubilee, with a majestic cedar and containing a water pump from the Glanty near Runnymede Bridge.

 

The Neolithic causewayed camp, now Junction 13 on the M25

After this we traveled over Runnymede Bridge, which now carries the motorway as well as the original road, and saw in passing the roundabouts at each end, which are each on prehistoric sites on leys leading to the site of the Negen Stones site near Staines Bridge. One was a Bronze Age enclosure and the other a Neolithic causewayed camp discovered from cropmarks, the aerial picture of which was shown to the group. The two are also on another ley with two other prehistoric sites found from the Surrey Sites and Monuments Record.

 

The Ankerwycke Yew

The other contender for the Magna Carta sealing was the venerable Ankerwyke Yew Tree, reputed to be over 2,000 years old and 31 feet in girth - we were to visit this next, walking across the fields from Magna Carta Lane, Wraysbury. Those favouring this site for the sealing mention that it would have been neutral territory, and had wide views at the time to guard against ambush; also it was in the grounds of a priory where carrying weapons was forbidden. In June 1992, 777 years after Magna Carta, David Bellamy and others signed the Green Magna Carta under the Ankerwyke Yew, invoking the intention to work for a sustainable future.

Question-dowsing at the Ankerwycke Yew

Diana question-dowsed the site asking if King John had been here - the answer was no, but when this was further qualified by several more place-specifying questions, it seemed that he had been within 150 yards of the tree (this could have been in the priory). Lionel asked if there was any undiscovered treasure under it; the answer was no, but when Bob asked if there was any arcane knowledge in the site, the answer was yes. Eileen then found a dragon simulacrum in the branches as at the yew on the Sussex trip.

 

Ankerwycke Priory ruins

Proceeding on to the priory ruins, Lionel noted that they are made of chalk, an unusual choice for building material. Eileen pointed out a Bishop's Broom bush nearby, a plant covered in thorns which was used for tenderising meat.

We travelled on to the recreation ground at Staines (with the band in the bandstand playing "Singing in the Rain" on this lovely fine day) and through it to the riverside where the replica of the London Stone stands. This once marked the boundary of the jurisdiction of the City of London over the river; the top part, which was inscribed "God Preserve ye Citty of London", is thought to have been a Roman altar. Staines was a Roman town and bridging point on the Thames and Colne, called "Ad Pontes" ("by the bridges"). It was midway between the cities at London and Silchester (Calleva) being a day's march from each. The stone had, however, been moved in the seventeenth century from a spot near the old town hall, which would have placed it on the ley running along the stretch of Roman road from London which aligns with Staines High Street and the Negen Stones site. It had been visited a number of times by Lord Mayors of London.

 

The London Stone, Staines

After seeing this stone, we visited St. Mary's Church nearby, the parish church of Staines, which was unfortunately not open. Although built in 1828, this church is on the site of a stone church built in 675 AD by St. Erminildis, and it is on the ley through the Negen Stones site which also passes through St. Peter's Church, Chertsey. From here we drove over Staines Bridge and passed the Negen Stones roundabout, noting the alignments of the roads. This is an unusual ley centre in that the lines do not all meet at a single point but rather seem to describe a small area, which may indicate the size of the group of stones which were there. In fact, the lines seem to make a small pentacle round the area.

The day was concluded with tea which my wife Doris had made in the church hall of Egham Hythe Church. The church has a massive pyramid-Iike spire, and is grazed by one of the leys through the Negen Stones site, in spite of only dating from the beginning of the twentieth century. We were then shown round the church by William Newey, the churchwarden and Reader.