SLIMBRIDGE DOWSING GROUP REPORTS
Archaeological dowsing at the site of The Battle of Evesham
AGMs are renowned for being boring, but ours was brief, and no-one actually went to sleep. Committee members gave the usual reports and we learned that our paid-up membership has now increased to 39 plus many visitors, mainly thanks to the Gazette, who are very good to us and include our activity reports and photographs on a regular basis. The same old faithfuls were re-elected yet again.
The AGM was followed by a talk from member Peter Gibson about some archaeological dowsing research he had recently done for the Simon de Montfort Society in Evesham. They were keen to find indications of a chapel and a spring thought to have healing properties, on the famous site of the Battle of Evesham, which took place in 1265.
There being no physical evidence remaining, dowsing was their best hope. Accompanied by Barry Goldring, Peter Golding and Rex Brice, Peter had visited the site and met with gratifying success.
The whole area had at one time belonged to the Abbey, and there is still an Abbey Farm nearby. They quickly located a well with a font not far away, and then a sacred area with an altar or shrine beside the main path.
Continuing their investigations, they found indications of a chapel but the dates were not right. This was something of a red herring, probably a pagan religious building because the altar was on the north side. They later found indications of another chapel and on asking for the dates, their dowsing reactions suggested this was the right one, particularly as there was a leyline running through it, suggestive of a religious building. There were four leylines crossing the sight, connecting it with the Abbey itself, some distance away.
On a second visit, bearing in mind that a battle would have produced a significant number of bodies, Peter searched for and found indications of a large mass grave. This was substantiated by the fact that there was no grass in that area, simply broadleaf weeds. The energy there was not good, with several negative spirals. Evesham folk confessed they did not like to go there, especially the man responsible for cutting the grass!
Further dowsing around the chapel discovered a grave before the altar. Peter wondered if it might be that of Simon de Montfort himself, but Barry’s dowsing rods told him it was the remains of a child. Physical artefacts from the 13th Century were now at some 3 metres below the current ground level, so a dig would be a major undertaking.
The Simon de Montfort Society had also invested in a Geophysical company to do depth soundings and resistivity tests. When Peter showed their plotted results compared to his own, there were many consistencies and matching areas. “We look for walls and they look for rubble,” said Peter. Both had obtained similar results although dowsing was more detailed - and cost nothing but a flask of coffee and a pleasant day out.