Dowsing Vectors on Vectis
In the Footsteps of Gary Biltcliffe and Caroline Hoare
The Sun and the Serpent aside, there are few works that delve more deeply into the heart of Britain's long-distance energy lines, in such depth and with such insight, as Gary Biltcliffe and Caroline Hoare's Spine of Albion. For anyone who has not come across this tome, it is the tale of a non-physical exploration cum practical pilgrimage, which tracks the longest distance dowsable flows in the UK, from the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight (IoW) to the northernmost coast of Highland Scotland.
The epic journey starts with the arrival of the Belinus 'ley' at the unprepossessing seaside town of Sandown IoW. As we were marking our own significant coalescence of space-time just around the bay at St Catherine's lighthouse, it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Sandown off-season is a cameo of post-war, post-Brexit traffic-clogged inner suburbia. I'm sure it's delightful, even vibrant in mid-summer, but the atmosphere on our visit was just pleasant and unchallenging - provided you were well wrapped up against the elements. It wasn't the most obvious place to embark on any landmark saga - except, of course, it was just that.
In The Spine of Albion, Gary and Caroline picked out
two churches above the cliffs of the south west of the IoW - one newer, St Patricks RC building, the other Christ Church, an older, more standard CofE structure. St Patrick's has a giveaway feature that shouts at you that it's a bit special - a full scale Irish round tower, much venerated by those researching the phenomenon of using such architecture to 'broadcast benevolent energy' to the surrounding fields of Eire. Although there were no fields here to benefit in the traditional sense, I am sure the urban landscape would derive some positive vibes from this energy distributor for some distance around.
The real interest in St Patrick's, of course, is that despite being victorian, it straddles most of the Belinus ley. It also hosts a section of Billy Gawn's lunar grid, with a crossing point somewhere in the middle of the building. Being neither Catholics nor locksmiths, we had to accept that that was a bit of research we would have to leave to others. However, before moving on, we were amused to find a man-hole cover with stars and sun symbols in the pavement outside the church doors - right on the 'ley'. In my wildest dreams, I couldn't think the Founding Fathers requested the style of this piece of mundane ironwork, but it is often surprising what presumably non-dowsing civil engineers feel is appropriate at such locations.
A couple of hundred metres up the road, we dodged the incessant flow of cars and lorries to have a closer look at the Anglican sister church. The wider aspect of Belinus encompasses the church, although the tower is off-centre to the core of the ley. The building was being used as what appeared to be a Warm-space for a large group of men of a certain age (well, my age) and we chose not to disturb them. However, the real excitement was to be found outside, where the moon grid line that we had discovered down the road was found to be tight up against the lower masonry of the C of E church - so tight in fact that it almost seemed improbable.
Having understood what the Belinus ley 'felt like', we trundled up the road to the ancient little church of Yaverland, where the Belinus earth energy serpent could allegedly be found. Gary and Caroline's clues are always pretty spot on, and we found the current sweeping through the (sadly locked) little building and out of the back - straight through the neighbouring, and also clearly historical Yaverland Manor House. For some reason I had got it into my head that I was looking for the female current and couldn't understand why my rods were indicating something else. However Ros, as ever, just found what she found - and we were clearly dowsing the male line.
I was able to discern the presence of two parts of the Martian grid, which crossed somewhere inside, and contributed to the very solid sensation of the whole site.
Pushing my way through the buddleia at the back of the church, I found that the window of the Manor House that was smack on Belinus had been blocked up (a bit like many churches have had their north door blocked in more recent times). I didn't detect any obvious adversity in the churchyard, but it felt it might not be doing the inhabited space of the ground floor of the house a lot of good.
O ur last port of call for the day was to find a suitable and accessible part the Elen serpent. After a few wrong turnings and diversions, we gave up on our original targets and closed in on the interestingly named Quarr Abbey. For readers from the south west, it's a bit like Buckfast Abbey in Devon, with 'real' Benedictine monks and a vast, and very welcome, tea room. Quarr is a huge brick-built edifice, about 100 years old, and with a middle-eastern style tower reminiscent of Westminster RC Cathedral in London.
Nearby, are the largely robbed out ruins of the mediaeval Quarr Abbey (1135-1536). We had to dodge some enthusiastic tree-felling activities and turn a blind eye to the Footpath Closed signs, but we did eventually find the remnants of the historic site, and we were able to dowse Elen, albeit at a short distance, coursing through the beleaguered remains, which now form part of the overly monumental facade of
the Abbey Farm.
W e tracked Elen back towards the more modern main building, through the woods, which Gary and Caroline mark as Eleanor's (of Aquitaine) Grove, through old and extensive new orchards, and into a part of the mother site.
Back on my grid quest, I found that there were crossing solar lines at, or very close to, the massive brick tower. Did the 20th Century architects actually know about such a dowsable current? Well, apparently, yes - and no.
It seems unlikely that they were pre-Gawnian celestial grid chasers, but they do seem to have been aware of the currents in an informational sense. Such places are very difficult to deconstruct academically, and maybe we should just accept that we all experience the subliminal flows in different ways.
There was a lot to experience here, and we had only arrived mid-afternoon. It deserved far more attention - and probably on a day when organised tours of the mediaeval part of the site are in process to provide better access.
Whatever you feel about the religious aspect of places like Quarr, the foundation seemed overtly welcoming, and it is very up-front about the cultural, social and environmental impacts of their community.
Many thanks to Gary and Caroline for providing the original information for our quest - and we look forward to their forthcoming presentation to the TDs, which concerns a similar type of thoughtful and thought-provoking journey.
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
January 2024
