| The Cotswold
Landscape Circle |
The Primary Pattern
Set out over the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire
is a vast landscape circle that mirrors in size the landscape circles of the
Marlborough Downs. This article describes the details of the circle that
includes on its circumference the famous Rollright stone circle. This
article needs to be read in conjunction with the articles on Keys to the
Temple.
The discovery of another
landscape circle was not quite a coincidence. Having found two identical
circles overlaying the Marlborough Downs it was natural to look to see if
others might exist in different areas. This might sound easy but in practice
there are very many complications.
Alignments across a single
map can be readily spotted. The problem occurs when these same alignments
span two maps. As has been mentioned already, the only satisfactory way to
be certain of an alignment is to carry out a mathematical calculation.
Perhaps in some future date
a computer programme will be written that will immediately search for
alignments, triangulations and circular patterns in any given area. A
project of this magnitude is beyond my capacity for the moment although I
would like to propose this concept being taken up as part of the
archaeological departments of universities or the County Councils. In the
meantime I have to make use of much simpler methods and this requires a bit
of luck.
To spot a circle overlaying
one map is difficult enough, to discover one that spanned two or more maps
is far more problematic. At the time of my discovery of the Cotswold pattern
I was still working from the old 1" to the mile maps which covered a
slightly greater area than the present 1:50000 Landranger series. This
slightly increased my chances he chances of finding another circle, of the
same size as those on the Marlborough Downs.
Nevertheless it was still a
lucky discovery. What attracted my attention this time was not a series of
churches, (which had led to my discovery of the first of the Marlborough
Downs circles) but a road. This is a very minor road, known as Buckle
Street. It that runs from Bourton-on-the-Water through to Chipping Campden.
It is quite a long road, as minor roads go running for over 14 kilometres.
Its striking feature is that for about 10 kilometres or 6.25 miles it sweeps
in a broad arc along the ridge of the Cotswolds.
It is not quite a perfect
circumference curve, but very nearly so, and the radius of its arc is 9575
metres. It therefore effectively matches the exact size of the Marlborough
Downs circles.
This road has an
interesting history for it was one of the ancient ‘salt-way’ tracks that
probably date from the Neolithic period. Of course the road on its own
would be hardly sufficient to claim a discovery of another circular pattern
(see Fig. 2). Fortunately this is not the only significant feature.
Church Sites
There are three churches on this landscape circle; Chipping Campden, Wick Rissington and Bledington. The
Chipping Campden church, dedicated to St. James, was entirely rebuilt in
1500 AD when town was a prosperous wool centre. It is an impressive church,
reflecting the wealth of the area. Built on the site of an earlier church,
it stands on rising ground at the edge of the town, with good views to the
south and east. There is no information on the date of the foundation of
the original church. Chipping Campden is still an important town; the
largest in this particular region. The circumference of our circle neatly
bisects the town lying on a broadly northeast- southwest axis.
Diametrically opposite
Chipping Campden lies the parish church of Bledington, Dedicated to St. Leonard it was built between 1150 AD and 1175 AD. Its mellow stone walls and
unusual architecture, with some distinctive gargoyle faces, give it an
attractive appeal. The church notes state that it may have been built on the
site of an earlier Saxon Chapel. Located at the edge of the village It too
stands on rising ground and would originally have had good views to the
north and west. Bledington church to Chipping Campden church is on a
bearing of 331.84° (28.16.° west of true north), the reciprocal bearing is
151.84°. Being positioned diametrically opposite each other on this
landscape circle is, as we shall see, highly significant.
The sites are not
intervisible but an alignment between them could easily have been
established with no more than two intermediate positions. These two sites
set a key datum alignment for the setting out the other circumference
points.
The church of St. Laurence at Wyck Rissington also has some interesting associations. The present
church is 12th century and it too might have been built on an earlier
Christian site. Just after the Second World War the church was in a very bad
state of repair and closure seemed the best option. But in 1947 rector Harry
Cheales took over and applying considerable zeal helped restore the church.
He was something of a Christian mystic and had a vision to build a maze in
the grounds of the rectory, which then became the focus for different
meditation groups.
Mazes, although not
mentioned here previously, are another of those pre-Christian sites, which
can often be found associated with 'leys'. Several mazes, dating from Celtic
times, exist throughout Britain. As with other pagan symbols Christianity
often incorporated them into the design of their buildings. Perhaps the most
famous of the church mazes can be found set out in the floor of Chartres
Cathedral showing the link between Christian and pre-Christian tradition.
Sadly the Wick Rissington maze no longer exists, being destroyed when the
rectory was sold into private hands.
Rollright Stone Circle
 |
| An antiquarian view of
the Rollright Circle |
The most significant
megalithic point on the Cotswold landscape circle is the Rollright stone
circle, which is located almost due east of its centre point.
The Rollrights, with the
nearby ruins of a portal dolmen called the Whispering Knights and the
solitary King’s Stone form an important group. The stone circle, itself, was
originally composed of seventy-seven Cotswold stones ranging in height from
being almost invisible to 2.1 metres high. Today it is very well weathered.
The stones describe an
almost a perfect circle, with a diameter of 31.6 metres
or 38 Megalithic yards. Legend has it that these were men caught by
the devil in revelry and turned into stone. The dating of this monument is
thought to be contemporary with other circle sites of similar complexity
which would be circa 2500 BC. In addition to the main circle and the dolmen
(Whispering Knights) the Warwickshire County Council SMR (Sites and
Monuments Record) lists a number of barrows
within a hundred metres of so of the King’s Stone indicating the importance
of this area
90 - 60 - 30 triangle
Being on the circumference
of a circle the internal angle between the Rollright stones and the
Bledington to Campden churches (which as we have said form the diameter),
must be 90°. What is much more significant is the other internal angles,
which in this case are 60° and 30°; these three sites then making a
90°-60°-30° triangle .
Diagonally opposite the
Rollrights on the other edge of the circle the Gloucestershire CC SMR
(archaeological records) lists a possible group of round barrows at this
position. These are
not shown on the OS sheet but the site is close to Heaver Wood and I shall
refer to them hence forth as the Heaver barrows. Because they lie on the
diagonal from the Rollrights they too are related to the churches of Campden
and Bledington. These four sites create a neat rectangle, based on two 90° -
60° - 30° triangles. Could these placements be a coincidence? I think not.
The Rollright Enigma
These four sites act as
important surveying marker points for establishing the additional
circumference positions. Once any culture started to work with circles it
would have taken them very little time to realise one of Euclid’s
fundamental propositions. If a triangle is laid out with one side being the
diameter of a circle, then the angle formed by the third point must be 90°.
This is one of the very
simple ways of creating right-angled triangles.
All they would then need to
know is which ratios would be required to produce the necessary internal
angles. In this particular case they could use either the diagonal from
Chipping Campden to Bledington or the diagonal from the Rollright stones to
the Heaver barrows. For example, let us suppose that they wished to
establish another circumference point which had internal angles of 40° and
50° they would simply need to project alignments based on the angles from
the two diameter sites where these two lines crossed would mark a third
point on the circle.
Architects and surveyors
require plans from which to work. What would have been very helpful to our
Neolithic surveyors would have been a ground plan from which to make their
calculations. Such a plan would need to be set out as a circle, of a
reasonable size to accurately check the ratios. The points could then be
marked on the circumference in the positions of the intended landscape
sites. Realistically it would also need to be durable against the extremes
of the British weather and what better material than stone. Once the plan
had been established it would act as a working scale model for the landscape
surveyors. And where might such a place be?
Rollright Template
The Rollright stone circle
ideally fits these conditions, being set up, as we have said, as a perfect
circle with diameter of 38 Megalithic yards.
The Megalithic yard is a measure of 0.829 metres (2.72 ft) discovered by
Professor Thom from a statistical analysis of over 300 stone circle sites.
The number 38 is twice 19 which is the ideal measurement for setting out angles of:
3° (19:1),
6° (19:2),
9° (19:3) and
30° (19:11) or
multiples thereof .
The ratios are shown in
brackets. These ratios are very accurate in producing the required angles.
For example the 19:11 ratio is correct to within 4.2 minutes of arc.
 |
|
In the above diagram based on the
Rollright Stone circle
ABC = an equilateral triangle.
AD and DF = 19 megalithic yards making the diameter of the circle 38 meg. yards.
DE = 11 megalithic yards based on a 19:11 ratio = 30°
Using simple trigonometric ratios based on a number 19 a series of different angles can be created. |
We might therefore safely
conclude, with some justification, that the Rollright stone circle was used
as a template for setting out its larger version in the landscape.
If we consider the
Rollright stones to be a template of a larger landscape circle, the next key point to have been
established would have to have been the barrows near Heaver wood which are
on a bearing of 271.25°. This is very close to being exactly east-west
(270°) but not quite, being 1.15° adrift.
Fig 4. Plan of Rollright stones with its
possible use as a template. Click to enlarge.
Astronomical Connections
In the Cotswold case the
Rollright to Heaver barrow alignment very nearly marks the equinox sunrise
or sunset position depending upon which direction it is viewed but the angle
is a little out to be precise. There had to be a very good reason for this
slight shift, perhaps topographical features affected the line of sight but
another explanation is an alignment to a star rather than to the equinox
sunrise or sunset. If this is correct then the star that would fit this
alignment is Procyon, the fifth brightest star in the heavens, which would
have set on an azimuth of 271.85° around 3100 BC.
If we use the layout of the
Rollright circle as our model for the larger landscape circle some
fascinating features can be observed. The diagonal from Chipping Campden to
Bledington church is on a bearing of 152°. Superimposing this bearing onto
the Rollright stones we find that both the Bledington and Chipping Campden
points are marked by significant stone.
We do not know for certain
how much the Rollrights have been damaged and what stones have been removed
or repositioned but by way of assessment we can mark on the positions of all
the sites on the large landscape circle to see how this fits with the stone
positions of the Rollrights. Applying this technique I am now sure that the
Rollrights were used as a model for the larger landscape circle.
The Pattern Continues
Fig.4 Shows some of the
Cotswold Circle points superimposed on the ground plan of the Rollright
Stones. It is clear that there is a correlation of sites which supports the
view that the Rollrights acted as the template.
There is not space in this
work to fully consider the various aspects this pattern but its existence
lends substantial weight to the concept of vast landscape patterning carried
out in the Neolithic period. Although these sites are not all of ancient
origin, the design they display fits well with what we have already
discovered from the Marlborough Downs circles. The Neolithic peoples were
certainly in evidence in this area, for long barrows are scattered across
the region, with a significant group focused around Swell Hill Farm and
another group just to the west of Stow-on-the -Wold.
The Cotswolds region is a
very striking, with mellow dry stone walls bordering wide open fields. The
natural stone buildings have a unique charm that makes this a very desirable
place to live. One of the highest point in the area, which also sits very
neatly on the circumference of our circle, is Cutsdean Hill at 305 metres
above sea level. From here the land slopes gently down towards the east, cut
here and there by river valleys. The ancient Roman Road the Fosse Way, runs
diagonally through the centre of the circle, passing within 200 metres of
the central node point.
The Fosse Way is the main
artery to the two principle towns to be found here. Moreton-in-Marsh, the
largest is about 1.5 kilometres north of the centre, whilst the pleasant
market town of Stow-on-the-Wold is a further 5.5 kilometres to the south. On
the northwestern edge lies Chipping Campden, which has already been
mentioned.
In all a further seven key
sites mark the circumference of this landscape circle in addition to the
road, the churches of Bledington and Chipping Campden and the megalithic
sites of the Rollrights and Heaver Wood. These additional sites include a
Neolithic settlement adjoining the Fosse Way; the enigmatically named
Salter's Pool with its adjoining Round Barrow and a recumbent stone on the
top of Cutsdean Hill, which is the highest point in the area.
The discovery of
identically sized landscape circles in two distinct areas suggests that
other may well have been created. This offers scope for further research
into this type of patterning.
The more that this research uncovers the greater must be our
respect for these ancient people who wove harmonious patterns across the
British landscape. The Cotswold circle like those on the Marlborough Downs,
is in a similar ratio to the Earth by the enigmatic number 666. It
also incorporates relationships to star patterns in its design and
execution. Despite our modern technological achievements these fall short of
what Neolithic people were able to achieve. A harmonious balance to the
Earth
© David Furlong 1998
For information on the Marlborough Downs Landscape
Circles see:
Keys article part 1
For information on the hidden geometry of Avebury see
article:
Avebury's Geometry
See also article on the number 666
and Silbury Hill and the Sanctuary
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