18 Facts About Alfred Watkins

Alfred Watkins was an English businessman and amateur archaeologist who developed the idea of ley lines.

Alfred Watkins travelled across Herefordshire as an 'out-rider' representing the family businesses and so got to know the area intimately.

Alfred Watkins made some cameras himself and manufactured an exposure meter called the Watkins Bee Meter due to its small size and efficiency.

Alfred Watkins was active in the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom and served as its president when it was held in Hereford in 1907.

In photography, Alfred Watkins began with a primitive pinhole camera made from a cigar box.

Alfred Watkins devised an "exposure meter" after exploring the mathematical relations of light, lens size and exposure period.

Alfred Watkins published findings in the April 1890 edition of the British Journal of Photography and patented his exposure meter.

On 30 June 1921, Alfred Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire and had the idea that there was a system of straight lines crossing the landscape dating from Neolithic times.

Alfred Watkins presented his ideas at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford in September 1921, and published his first books Early British Trackways in 1922 and The Old Straight Track in 1925.

Alfred Watkins published a further book on leys and participated in the Old Straight Track Club from 1927 to 1935.

Alfred Watkins was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an authority on beekeeping and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Alfred Watkins was involved in the preservation of Pembridge Market Hall in Herefordshire.

Alfred Watkins was sensitive to such arguments and argued for caution.

Alfred Watkins drew up a list according to which landscape features could be given values between.

Alfred Watkins' work resurfaced in popularised form from the 1960s following the publication of John Michell's book The View over Atlantis in 1969.

Alfred Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman.

Alfred Watkins was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today.

In 2002 Alfred Watkins had a beer named after him, "Alfred Watkins' Triumph", brewed by Wye Valley Brewery Ltd.