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Bob Brown gave us yet another insight into the mysteries of Sussex at the TEMS field trip on June 23rd 2003, and it was also a reacquaintance for me with a number of leys and the area around the University of Sussex visited in 1983 and described in Campus Lines. There were two main ley centres which seemed to have come out of it - the powerful hilltop church at Ditchling, and (strangely) the Meeting House on the University of Sussex campus, a very modern but striking building and prominent example of subconscious siting. A number of campus churches in modern universities have been found to be ley points. The Meeting House is a cylindrical building made up of meeting rooms on the lower floor and a chapel above. The windows of the chapel are rectangular blocks of glass, all colours of the rainbow, with sometimes one colour predominating and sometimes another. The atmosphere was stunning and there was considerable head-hum felt when I visited it in 1983. I found two leys going through it then, one through nearby Falmer Church and the other through Ditchling Church and Beacon. On this trip the latter was found also to go through the Hangman's Rock at Rottingdean.
We met at ASDA in Hollingbury, with a an impressive view of Hollingbury Castle, found to be on an alignment with the Meeting House and the Goldstone at Hove, which we were to visit. Leaving the car park, we passed Falmer church, an ancient one near the University, and on one of the original two leys found in the earlier study. This goes through Males Burgh tumulus near West Firle, Iford Church, Falmer Church, the Meeting House, a cross-tracks, the Devil's Dyke and a cross-roads/tracks at Small Dole. Continuing on to Stanmer (Stone Pond) we visited the church (although it was not open) and the pond, surrounded by sarsen stones. Bob spoke on the geology of the area. The Downs were originally a chalk dome and the layers of sandstone and clays eroded. Above there was a layer of stones - these were the sarsens of the Sussex downs. Most have been removed from farmland, and some have become modern stones with folklore. They are mainly in the valleys - how they got there no-one knows. Some were used for ritual - others were just a nuisance to farmers. Many were put round ponds - were these more sacred?
There are traditions of dew ponds in the county. There is a ley from Stanmer Church to the Meeting House - going through East Blatchington Church, Piddinghoe Church, a clump at Whiteway Bottom, the Meeting House, Stanmer Church, Rocky Clump, Pyecombe Church, Partridge Green Church and West Grinstead Church. There is a yew tree in Stanmer churchyard which has a striking dragon-like simulacrum in its lower branches. We travelled from here to Rottingdean, a coastal town with a church dedicated to St. Margaret, a dragon-killing saint, with windows by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. Rudyard Kipling also lived here, but moved to Burwash as he was bothered by day trippers looking over his wall. Mrs. Burne-Jones was Kipling's aunt. The town was a haunt of smugglers and Kipling's poem about "four and twenty ponies trotting through the dark" was written here. Parishioners taking refuge from French pirates in the church tower were burnt here when the pirates set fire to the building.
The Wishing Stone is a small stone face set into a wall in the village. There is apparently a ritual which must be followed to the letter if a wish is required - or something more unpleasant could happen! Needless to say we all tried it! The stone had to be traversed clockwise three times with the finger, then the person must rotate three times, after which the wish is made, which must not be for money, nor must the stone be visited too often, and the ritual must not be carried out in a flippant manner. Unpleasant things like sprained ankles have apparently been the result of not abiding by the rules!
Out on the clifflop we were introduced to the Hangman's Rock, a slab of conglomerate apparently named after a sheep stealer who was strangled when putting the sheep onto it, or while tethering it. There are apparently many similar legends of the demise of sheep stealers attached to more than a dozen stones all over the country. I was very interested to find later that this stone is on the ley I found on my previous trip, that links Ditchling Church and the Meeting House. It goes through a church at Burgess Hill, a cross-roads, Ditchling Church, Ditchling Beacon, the Meeting House, the straight edge of a wood just south of the university, a cross-roads at Upper Bevendean, a church at Woodingdean, about one and a half miles of close mean-following road at Rottingdean, a cross-roads and Hangman's Rock.
Misfortune struck at this point as the car of one of our number failed to start, so we took the opportunity for a very pleasant lunch and chat on Rottingdean beach while waiting for the AA. (Everyone blamed the Wishing Stone of course!) After they arrived and saved the day we continued to the Brighton Marina for a trip on the Victorian Volks Railway with its howling klaxon to the Palace Pier, and then walked on to the Dolphin Fountain, surrounded with sarsens. This is in Old Steine, and is recognised as a centre of energy by the Fountain International group, who do rituals here for place healing. There is a ley from here to Ditchling Beacon, going through the fountain, a church in Brighton, skirting the west edge of Hollingbury Castle, coincident road and cross-roads, Ditchling Beacon, a cross-tracks at Haywards Heath and coincident road at Horsted Keynes.
After passing the Druid's Head pub, with sign saying there is a tradition of a stone circle nearby, we visited St Nicholas' Church, which has an omphalos stone set in a memorial. This may be the site of the circle; there is a ley going to two other churches in the town, a mean-following half mile stretch of road, it skirts Wolstonbury Hillfort, goes through Hurstpierpoint church and a main cross-roads near Bolney.
After the return trip to the Marina on the Volks Railway, we went on to Hove to see the impressive Goldstone in Hove Park. It is nine feet high and thirteen and a half feet long, but it is not in its original position, and neither are the circle of smaller stones surrounding it. Originally buried by a farmer as visitors to it were damaging his crops, it was later dug up and re-erected three hundred yards away. An early reference calls it "The God Stone" which may be because it is said to resemble a face. Strangely,there is a ley going from its original position, through its present position to the Meeting House. It was re-erected on the same ley! This line goes through a church in Brighton, the two sites of the Goldstone, skirts the southern edge of Hollingbury Castle, goes through the Meeting House, then Offham Hill near Lewes and a peak with a triangulation point near Little Norrington.
Another ley goes to the Meeting House from the believed original position of the smaller stones, some way to the north. This goes through a church at Goring-by-Sea, a coincident road with several crossroads at Broadwater, a crossroads at Sompting, the stones' position, the Meeting House, a church in Lewes and a long barrow to the east.
We continued from here to Ditchling Beacon, with its impressive views of the Sussex Weald, and on to Ditchling Church, another powerful spot, also dedicated to St. Margaret, and one of the two main ley centres found. It has a large stone in its churchyard wall, called the Altar Stone though no-one knows its origins. The line from the church through this stone seems to go to the original position of the Goldstone. Coming northwards it passes through that spot, then a cross-roads near Patcham Place, a hill-peak cross-tracks spotmarked 233 on the edge of the downs, which is also passed through by the East Sussex-West Sussex boundary, Ditchling stone and church, a track multijunction south-east of Burgess Hill, a cross-roads in Wesffleld and two churches in Horsted Keynes.
While at the church, in true Alfred Watkins manner, we found another stone, rough and pockmarked, at the entrance to the grounds on the west of the church, and complete with the presence of "Dod", a tiny snail on the top! There is another ley through the church going through this stone - starting at a cross-roads/tracks at Glyndeborne, Hamsey Church, a cross-tracks where the Roman road crosses the county boundary, West Grinstead Church and Knepp Castle. This was a worthy rounding-off to a very pleasant and thought provoking trip.
By this time it was too late to visit the modern stone circle that has in recent times been raised in Ditchling - but this was nevertheless found to be subconsciously sited on another ley leading through the church. This goes through a large track multijunction north-east of Ditchling, the stone circle, the church, Wolstenbury Hillfort, a church north-west of Pyecombe, a cross-tracks north of Edburton, and a large cross-roads at the foot of Bramber Castle.
The system revealed from this field trip had many striking features, the first being the original alignment of Ditchling Church, Beacon and Meeting House, with Hangman's Rock on the same line, as found on this trip. Others were the alignment of the Goldstone original and present sites with the Meeting House, the alignment of Stanmer Church and Rocky Clump with the Meeting House, the alignment of Ditchling Church and the Altar Stone with the original site of the Goldstone, and the fact that the Goldstone-Meeting House alignment and the Dolphin Fountain-Ditchling Beacon one both skirt Hollingbury Castle. Jimmy Goddard
Finding the Ditchling Church leys
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