Alfred Watkins was an English businessman and amateur archaeologist who developed the idea of ley lines.
Watkins Exposure Meter with timing chain, manufactured by R Fields & Co, Birmingham. Note: this is not the later, pocket-watch shaped, Watkins Bee Meter. Photo: Tony French
A blue plaque marking Watkins' home at Hereford, Herefordshire
Ley lines are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognised by ancient societies that deliberately erected structures along them. Since the 1960s, members of the Earth Mysteries movement and other esoteric traditions have commonly believed that such ley lines demarcate "earth energies" and serve as guides for alien spacecraft. Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience.
The Malvern Hills in the United Kingdom, said by Alfred Watkins to have a ley line passing along their ridge
Watkins believed that the Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex depicted a prehistoric "dodman" with his equipment for determining a ley line.
In the 1960s writer John Michell (photographed in 2008) played a major role in promoting a belief in ley lines.
In the 1960s, Philip Heselton (pictured in 2005) established the Ley Hunter magazine.
