Analysis of circular arrangement of Churches

Based on 1999 circle of Churches around Waldringfield in RDA In 1999 David Aldred wrote an article in the RDA Deben magazine which described a surprising circular arrangement of other Churches around Waldringfield at a radius of two old Suffolk miles.  Also W.G.Arnott mentions the transport of stone fonts from Norfolk by water and accessibility from the river.

The table summmarises data from OS maps and Google Earth.

Circularity

This diagram shows the four circumferential churches. It also attempts to show the ease of access to church sites from the water in the days before sea walls were constructed. Note Brightwell for example. Sutton may have been closer to the water than this shows.

This seems to work the circle is as stated with a radius of 2×1830 yards give or take. The distances agree to within 1%.

Pre sea walls then, with the exception of Bucklesham, our local Churches are between 250-750m from boat access and seem to be built at the nearest location that is between 15-20m above sea level with no real attempt to go to higher ground.

Ctrl/+ will expand image, use browser full screen.

All churches could have been built at a higher point nearby but outside the circle. The diagram shows the height profile around the circle with locations of sites. The sites selected are not at the highest points on the circle. The diagram shows the height profile around the circle with locations of sites. The sites selected are not at the highest points on the circle.

For the sites to be on the circumference of a circle centred on another site then all we need is for the distances to that site to be the same. The only other similarity in the area seems to be centred on Bucklesham passing through only Kirton and Waldringfield with a radius of 4754 yards. A rigorous analysis would need  list of locations of Medieval churches which does not seem to be available.

Distance

There were about 500 medieval churches in Suffolk. Suffolk has an area of about 3798 km2.   List of nearest Churches  Each church, on average equates to an area of about 3798/500= 7.6km2. 

Assume that Churches  are distributed fairly evenly. Using the Suffolk number of churches and area gives a result that, on average, churches should be about 4130m from their neighbour. Density was most probably higher in our part of Suffolk so they would be nearer. With our group of five churches the distance from Waldringfield is 3299m.

Aldred relates the radius to two Suffolk miles and mentions the scale on Robert Morden’s maps having three types of mile. We beg to differ with his analysis and find that Morden’s 1722 map of Suffolk has three mile scales corresponding to 1903 yards, 2025 yards (one minute of Latitude) and 2187 yards. ¹⁾1722 Robert Morden map of Suffolk It is not clear why Morden chose the 1903 and 2187 yard values ²⁾these values are measured from a copy so not exact and what happened to 1760? Morden does not use a mile of 1830 yards so, unless a link can be found to a Suffolk mile of this distance then there is no significance in the radius. We did find references to Megalithic yards (speculative) and if these exisited the radius would be around 4000 of these. On balance, therefore, he we find that the distance is not especially significant.

Alignment of Church on site

Churches only seem to be aligned Nave-Tower roughly east-west, this could easily have been done exactly. Current thinking re. slight variations in the churches’ orientation is that they tried to orientate the building to face where the sun would rise on the Feast Day of its Patron Saint.RT

Sutton Church has no Tower (fell down 17C).

Alignments and lines of Sight

Possible alignments are

1. Geographical to some other place. Nothing obvious although it’s very easy to line up with something somewhere.
2. Solar sunrise/set/noon. Only possible on bearings from 050 to 310. Significant are 050,090, 130, 230, 280, 310. Can’t see any of these alignments.
3. Stellar. Would need to know the era as these would change over the centuries. However, the only possibility would seem to be observing rise or set to indicate date. Rise/set time changes by 4 minutes per day and twilight is variable in conditions. Mist over the river would be an issue. If stellar observation was a requirement then it would be better to use the nearby sea horizon.
4. Celtic Solar paths of Solstice lines or similar have been proposed ³⁾Graham Robb . These might be made to fit with all sorts of things with some imagination. Seems highly unlikely.

We can reference the sites as B,M,S,R and W. Alignments would probably involve W as the central site but others are plausible. We’d expect to have a line of sight and find that B, M, S have this with a mere 2.5m maximum height difference. RW has an 8m rise which could be a problem. WR might be easier.

Line of sight would be between the outside sites and Waldringfield probably since this is a reasonable distance to see, visibility over more than distance, say B-R, would be more difficult.

If the arrangement is pre-christian then there would have been more land, probably low, to seaward.

Fewer trees (Mark Bailey book)

The height profiles along each line of sight to Waldringfield is given below. 

If alignments were significant then probably a better set of high points could be chosen. The highest points on the circumference were not chosen. They are about 500m anticlockwise from M (bearing 316 from W) and 500m clockwise from B (bearing about 270 from W).

Brightwell

Martlesham

Sutton

Ramsholt

Note from Mark B.

Customary measures of a mile are well enough known before the statutory mile of 1760 yards was established, but I had not heard of the 1830 mile in Suffolk. That does not imply doubt on my part, it is not something as a medievalist I have come across.

The theorising about astrological links between church sites and the clustering within a circumference is not something I’ve heard about, and I would be dubious. Parish churches emerged rapidly (‘like mushrooms in the night’) in the C10, often originating as the private church of the local lord and quickly serving a communal use. The density of churches in Suffolk and Norfolk reflects the density of settlement there already by the C10, and the precise location of a church is reckoned to have been primarily a function of the then location of the lord’s hall, and/or the location of the main settlement at the time (and settlement shifts in East Anglia) and/or a pre-existing holy site (pagan or Xian…think Glastonbury tor).

Questions?

• Why would you do this?
• When were these Churches built?
• How would you lay this out without modern tools? ⁴⁾see Ancient Paths – Graham Robb
• Can’t find references to old Suffolk mile, found great and small mile but different.
• Perhaps the alignment is pre-historic. Are there any prehistoric finds at the identified sites or elsewhere on the circle?

To do at some point

• Answer above questions.
• A list of church locations in east Suffolk is in the spreadsheet. Calculate distance from each to nearest, say, ten. Sort by variance, select those with a match))
• Mathematical analysis of probability of this alignment.
• Take pictures from roof of our Church tower.
• Visit the other sites.

Supporting this not being co-incidental

• The sites are on a circle around Waldringfield Church and vary from this by only around 30m (<1%) which could be accounted for by whether the tower or altar were taken for measurement. This seems unlikely to be just co-incidence.
• The radius of the circle is 3660 yards = 3300 metres.
• Radius= 4037 Megalithic yards if these existed. See Megalithic yards – speculative.
• Radius= 2 old Suffolk miles of 1830 yards if these existed as no records found so far.
• The sites are not at the highest points on the circle.
• All churches could have been built at a higher point nearby but outside the circle.
• If this was a prehistoric alignment then as there is not much stone in this area whatever it was would be likely to be made of wood.
• There was a 5C urn found on the site of the church so maybe Waldringfield was a religious site in earlier times.

Supporting this being co-incidental

• The sites are unevenly distributed around the circumference.
• Paths between churches don’t seem to show a pattern.
• The angles between the sites don’t seem significant or equal.
• Martlesham and Sutton have no Solar bearing significance from Waldringfield.
• There is no obvious solar bearing from Waldringfield to the others.
• The are no known arrangements of churches in circles.
• There are no known megalithic arrangements of this size.
• BT Radio Tower is an almost exact fit. on the circle It was built a little later and has little religious significance.
• There seem to be no other obvious points on  the circumference such as Kingston or Sutton Hoo.

Conclusion

The circular arrangement and very close agreement with both two Suffolk miles and 4000 Megalithic yards seems too exact to be a co-incidence. However, these measures are both possibly fictitious and, without a mathematical analysis, the circular arrangement could just be chance. There are no obvious geographical or solar alignments and, if one wanted to make them, these are probably not the best sites. If there is any significance it is likely to be pre-christian so could be millennia old. Without a mathematical analysis or further information I don’t think we can decide this either way but for now it looks like an interesting co-incidence and an open case.

For the really curious

Churches-relative-to-Waldringfield-and-list-of-300-plus-nearby-1-1as a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, other than our local churches the locations are not exact so useless for analysis.

Google Earth file on request.