Great food, great company, great evening.
In the deepest Surrey countryside on a warm Summer evening. Sue, a Waverley dowsers member has a couple of fields which have shown to have been likely occupied in Roman times. If you project the nearby marked Roman Road, on the OS map, it should pass across the corner of these. Plus from Google Earth an aerial photo implies that there are outlines of something in her largest field.
We headed off to the Roman Road field and soon pegged out several road features, showing that Roman Roads may not have been all that straight. Next we headed up to the top field ridge and defined the outline of a reasonably sized farmhouse outline with excellent views of the rolling surrey hills.
We returned for an evening meal and a good chat and finally to watch the full Moon (albeit slightly misty). All completed by Ken playing his Didgeridoo. Many thanks to Sue for her hospitality.
Geoff Mitchell
Waverley Dowser recently met at a location in their catchment area of Crondall, Cranleigh, Lightwater, Farnham, Farnborough , Guildford and Haslemere, to put into practice their dowsing skills. The objective was to find the location of a roman road, its width, depth [as they have been covered over time] and direction.
Geoff Mitchell, the current Chair of the Group gave Members a briefing about roman roads and ditches and how vegetation was cleared so as to alleviated ambush positon near the road. He suggested that the group dowse for the type of road surface they were searching for.
The photograph shows the sample field in which they dowsed.
Firstly each member dowsed for the centre line of the [main] road and marked that with a flag and then ranging rods. This produced a near straight line over part of the search area. Then the Group dowsed the edges/ditches. Depth of cover over the road was dowsed for using a pendulum. The pendulum was used in the same way as one might dowse for water depth. All of the these findings were plotted on a field plan.
One member found a “side” road and dated this by pendulum counting as circa 340 AD. This is significant as a coin had been found in this area before the present owner lived there. Two Members dated the coin as either 320 or 340 AD
The evening cold air was counteracted by a wonderful vegetable soup and home made bread and an in depth discussion on the dowsing results today and a plan for a revisit with the owners consent.
The important thing was by and large the results showed a strong consensus.
The dowsing skills had been gained by self tuition or through training with Waverley Dowser or Nationally run courses, with the BSD.
The Group is always looking for places where dowsing training can be used be it gardens/ houses/offices etc. Members of the Group give talks or run course eg on meditation. Ken, one of the Members brought a Yidaki. This is a ‘Digeridoo’ from a northern native tribe. Ken played it much to the fascination of friends. The instrument is formed by the work of termites who eat the dead wood inside of a tree or branch to produce a hollow musical instruments.
A most intriguing finale to an educative evening searching for history and culture; with participants from all sorts of backgrounds.
Michael Haxeltine
As part of the Group’s Training programme Waverley Dowsers are holding another Mothers and Daughters introduction to dowsing on the 30th September in Godalming.
Further information on dowsing in the UK or the work of the Group can be viewed on their Web page Waverley Dowsers or from Geoff Mitchell. 01276 472 977 or Michael Haxeltine 01252 541 639