Introduction

     Part  1a  Geometrical facts
     Part  1b  Facts about the key places 
     Part  2   Speculations

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1a Geometrical Facts

     The Compasses              Littley Green (LG)   TL 6688 1723 
     The Square and Compasses   Fuller Street (FS)   TL 7473 1605 
     The Compasses              Gt.Totham     (GT)   TL 8682 1309

     St John the evangelist    Little Leighs(LL)    TL 7188 1675

     Littley Green    5m 
     Little Leighs    6.6m
     Fuller Street    3.3m
     Great Totham     0.9m

The line points to 106 degrees (true) looking ESE.

SQUARE AND CIRCLE

     The Compasses     Pattiswick (PW)  TL 8206 2470

The distance from the intersection to Pattiswick is 10.145km which is only 89m more than the distance to Littley Green being an error of less than one per cent.

Twice the distance from the intersection to Fuller street is 10.132km, an error of less than 1 in 600 if compared with Pattiswick or less than 1 percent difference if compared with Littley Green.

Suppose we extend the perpendicular south of the base line. 3 and a bit km south (exactly 2 miles) is Hatfield Peverel church bang on the line.

Continuation of this line to just within the 10km radius brings us to the Bell Inn at Danbury. If we plot the exact radius we end at a point just inside Danbury Park currently with no features on it.

There is no question of a simple line of sight being established along the length of the base line. Many of the segments definitely aren't straight sighting.

The completed figure can be visualised as a circle 10 miles in diameter in the centre of the county of Essex, with a roughly east-west base line of astonishing accuracy and a roughly north-south perpendicular.

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1b About key places

Littley Green

Originally "Little Lee Green" where "Lee" is probably related to the other various spellings of Leighs/Leez.

"Compasses" The furthest I can trace the name back to is 1882. However George Dalby the landlord was a beer seller in Littley Green for 20 years prior to this. The building itself was built in the 1880's. >Drop in for a nice pint straight from the barrel>

Little Leighs

Church St John the Evangelist. This is (at least) Norman in origin. Inside is a wooden effigy in religious vestments of an unknown person. There are two tombstones in the churchyard supposedly of crusaders with a cross pattée and 'a reversed omega'.

Cole hill

Chapel about 600m north of the church at Great Leighs. This only appears on the 6" 1st Ed Ordnance Survey (about 1875) but is pretty close to the line. (Difficult to measure, but I estimate within 25m) This was designated as "non-secretarian". In 1862, according to the Post Office Directory, "An independent chapel has been erected at the sole expense of Joseph Tritton Esq. of Norwood Surrey." This might refer to this building or it might be a replacement for it, the replacement being nearer the village. Today there is a small plot of flat ground in the right place that could mark the site.

Fuller Street

"Square and Compasses" There is no reference to this before 1926 in the Post Office Directory. There are no other written records although I'm certain beer was sold here in the last century, probably very similar to Littley Green. In 1823 there were 2 beerhouses shown in Whites Essex guide. (In a hamlet of a dozen houses!) The building is at least 200 years old and possibly much older. >Drop in for a nice pint straight from the barrel>

Intersection

If you've seen the middle of a field that has been a field for 3 (and probably many more) centuries then you'll know that the only fitting description is 'empty'. There are absolutely no landmarks. A metal detector survey just before the present crop was planted drew a blank, and local knowledge is also silent.

Great Totham

"Compasses" References in parish registers mention this pub in 1758 and the landlord tells me that someone has traced it back to 1640.

Eastern extension

Tolleshunt D'arcy The hall at D'arcy is ancient although remarkably little history is known about it. The present building goes back to perhaps 1450. The dovecote through which the line goes is supposed to be Tudor. So far there doesn't appear to be any significance here. There is a longshot that the dovecote originally served another purpose, but no evidence for this possibility.

Northern arm

Pattiswick "Compasses". Sometime between 1780 and 1781 the name of this pub was changed from the "Carpenters arms" to "Compasses". The landlord remained the same, Stephen Bridge. The main feature of the coat of arms of the Carpenters Company is three compasses.

Southern arm

Hatfield peverel church A 19th Century Methodist church. This church is the only one in the centre of the village. The anglican church is three quarters of a mile away from the centre and is associated with a priory.

Danbury "Bell" This goes back to at least 1758.

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2 Speculations

Western extension - Black Chapel.

This is a church sized chapel of ease, the history of which I have not yet discovered. I assume that the Black refers to the Black friars. This chapel is in the middle of nowhere but on a main road so I'd guess that it was associated with a religious order and not intended to be a parish church. Bearing in mind the accuracy of the base line this appears to be well off the line at 150m too far south. My conclusion is that the history of this place needs investigating but is not really evidence for the existence of the line.

Western extension - Brewery

Naturally, as a drinker, my first thought was that the line pointed the thirsty to the source of the truly excellent ales brewed by Mr. Ridley. What could be more satisfying to the Essex drinker than this solution? As well as the brewery, at Hertford End, both the Littley Green Compasses and the Fuller Street Square and Compasses are owned by Ridleys. At present the earliest known date for these houses being in Ridleys hands is not known. Neither is the date of their naming nor the date of their construction. Behind the brewery (off the line) is a field marked on the OS 1st Ed as Chapel field. I wonder how it acquired that name? There is also the remote possibility that Bishop Ridley (burnt at the stake) had some part to play in the mystery.

St John the Evangelist - Little Leighs

One of the 'two' Saints (the other being St John the Baptist) which are associated with templars and present day masonry. The wooden effigy is regarded as rather unique but nothing much is known about it. The two crusader tombs have two interesting features. Firstly the use of the cross pattée which has perhaps more than just templar connections. Secondly the inscribed "reversed omega" appears to be highly unusual. So far I have seen neither the tombs or a picture.

The intersection is in a field with no signs of anything being there going back to 1777. The adjacent field maps show arable pasture as the dominant land use very much the same as today. There used to be (demolished in 1950s) a couple of cottages near (150m) the intersection point called "Halfway Cottages".

Danbury is associated with Crusaders. I'd go further and say templars. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist - the patron saint of the templars. The Saint-Clere (Sinclair) family were associated with Danbury and there is evidence to suggest that there are Saint-Clere knights buried in the church. (The Sinclairs were/are mixed up in templar/masonic activities.)

It appears that there were two churches in Danbury until 1440. No record remains of where the lost one was or why Lord D'arcy decided to merge the two. Presumably what with the drop in population and inflation caused by the black death 90 years previously and a lack of income there was neither the need nor the cash for two churches in Danbury.

The line passes through the "Bell" public house. This has a private cupboard behind the bar with religious relics and is supposed to be on the site of a monastery. Why is is called the Bell? Surely because it is next to the church - but there is no church nearby! My theory about the "Bell" is that it used to be next to the church that was 'merged' in 1440. The 1440 date is the date of the legal merging which may well have been formalising an existing situation. For some reason it was thought necessary to preserve the memory of the church in the cupboard behind the bar. If this was the case then it may indicate the church had some particular significance. In any event the 'missing church' would be certainly on the perpendicular and only about 200m short (2%) of the radius.

The Knights Templars were warrior monks. The order became wealthy and powerful. It was well disciplined, offered security services from safe deposit to international credit transfer in the 12th century. One of their headquarters was in Essex at Cressing Temple near Witham. There are plenty of other places in Essex with Templar connections. For various reasons in 1307 the Templars were brutally and horribly suppressed in France on orders of the Pope and the King. Hardly any escaped. In England the Pope's command was acted on after three months and very half- heartedly. Only a very few Templars were caught the others just vanished. It is therefore assumed that they 'went underground'. If you want the full story and reasoning why masons were not a guild of craftsmen but a brotherhood of fugitives then read Robinson's book "Born in blood". In 1717 the Masons broke cover, but until then, in an age when non-conformism meant burning at the stake, lives really did depend on absolute trust, secrecy and safe houses for men on the run.

Danbury and nearby Bicnacre has been associated with the Templars and supposedly has carvings and tombs of crusaders in the church. In the Peasants revolt of 1381 (in which the organising hands of a secret society have been long suspected) there were battles in the vicinity. Does this point to a centre of activity at Danbury after the suppression?

The intersection

Tunnels everywhere in folk history!

Pub names

SOME OTHER PIECES OF INFORMATION

Similarly there was (from before 1769 to present day) the "Three compasses" at West Hanningfield. I can't find any connection between these except that the priory of St John lay directly between them. Also I can't find any geometrical connection between these pubs and the main geometrical figure. I can find no geometrical link with the Compasses in Broomfield road Chelmsford that is first recorded in 1878.

In 1772 there is fleeting evidence for a Compasses pub at Fryerning.

I have not been able to untangle which pub was which in Danbury and Bicnacre. There might have been just the one with Bicnacre being lumped in to Danbury. This needs detailed analysis of the records and local research.

CONCLUSION

All snippets of information, local history, myths and references to bunches of Compasses and Carpenters Arms pubs anywhere in the country would be most welcome. I have a lot of other odd data but so far nothing more than suggestions of patterns and vague theories.

Reference to 'underground' templars as foundation of Masons: BORN IN BLOOD by JOHN J ROBINSON ISBN 009 922861 0

Author: Peter Fox
Address: 2 Tees Close,Witham,Essex CM8 1LG
Telephone: 01 376 517 206
Copyright: Peter Fox
Issue:www-3 March 1997

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