SLIMBRIDGE DOWSING GROUP REPORTS
A life dowsing - George Applegate
By 10 am on Saturday 22 September, the Slimbridge Village Hall was bulging at the seams. Almost 40 people from far and wide had packed in to hear George Applegate speak.
Author of The Complete Guide to Dowsing, and now in his 80s, George began dowsing in 1938. He went to all his dowsing jobs on a Velocette motorcycle and became quite confident. “The biggest danger in dowsing,” said George, “is your ego! The best way to learn is from your mistakes, the difficulties and problems. You don’t learn from success, which goes to your head.”
His first big job was at Mere, where the local water board asked him to find the right spot to sink a borehole that could pump 100,000 gallons per hour. That borehole still supplies Yeovil, Sherborne and the surrounding area today.
Billy Butlin of holiday camp fame, once contacted George urgently,
having run out of water with a site full of unhappy campers. Rushing
down to Minehead, George found a contractor on site, ready to begin
drilling. He duly dowsed and discovered a good underground supply
flowing in from the Brecon Beacons. It was so prolific, the Butlin’s
site now sells a million gallons of water per day to the local
authority.
George Applegate demonstrating his dowsing methods to
Peter Golding and others at a meeting of the Slimbridge
Dowsing Group 22 September 2007
Dowsing for water in Australia was something of a challenge, where they have had no rain for over four years. There was no grass, the livestock were dying, it was a very serious situation. George organised drilling down to 6,000 feet where they found a plentiful supply of water that was 30,000 years old. “It was quite good,” he said modestly.
Dowsing for the National Trust on Brownsea Island was relatively straightforward but for one small problem. “A lovely site,” said George, “but very expensive to get the drilling rig over there.”
Other assignments have included Regent’s Park, Wormwood Scrubs prison and Hammersmith Hospital. For George, the most exciting jobs are the ones that go wrong. “Not because of the dowser,” he explained quickly, “but sometimes the driller will drill too fast, which means the spoil does not come up, but goes sideways, along the strata, and blocks the flow. Other times, the geology can cause complications.”
This modest and charming man delighted his audience with some amusing experiences too. While dowsing in the Cheddar Gorge area, two policemen suddenly appeared and arrested George, convinced he was the poacher they had been seeking for some months. Having no ID on him at the time, George was escorted to the police station from where he was allowed to telephone the Clerk to the District Council, who came and bailed him out.
George’s favourite dowsing assignment was in Dorset, not far from Corfe Castle. The site turned out to be a naturist camp, and he had 300 interested but naked people following him around. “Some of them,” revealed George, “would have looked better covered up!”
George’s pet hate is dealing with “bureaucrats who don’t know what they are talking about”. He has an assignment in London where finding water has been relatively straightforward, but getting the relevant permissions for various stages has taken nine months so far, and the project still hasn’t got anywhere.
George also offers a de-watering service, where he will find out where unwanted water is coming from, and re-route it. He has done this successfully in a skyscraper in New York, a lady’s sitting room in Leicester and in the Severn tunnel near Bristol.
Having found water to irrigate a golf course in Japan, hot water for a spa hotel in Bath, and royal water for Prince Charles at Highgrove, George is now turning his attention to oil. As we know, you can dowse for anything if you ask the right questions, and dowsing for oil is quite lucrative.
During a lively questions session, everyone was keen to know how George had achieved his unbelievable 99% success rate. “You have to have a strong desire to do it,” revealed George. “You have to need to do it. And you have to have faith in yourself that you can do it. It’s guesswork and God really.”
After signing copies of his book for enthusiastic purchasers, George lead the large group out to the car park, where he demonstrated his method of dowsing for all to see.