The Deben’s Ring of Churches

“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.”

Albert Einstein

George Arnott suggested that most local churches “…stand on the banks of a creek and were at one time accessible by boat, so that material.. could be brought by water…” ¹Locations of local Churches – Arnott, W.G. (1950) Suffolk estuary : the story of the river Deben. N. Adlard, , 2D Impression.. A Deben Magazine article by David Aldred described a circular arrangement of churches around Waldringfield at a radius of two ‘Old Suffolk Miles’²Circular arrangement – River Deben Association Magazine Riverdeben.org. 1999. These two, unrelated, ideas merited some enquiry especially as they involve history, sea, maths, astronomy and maps.

Questions to consider: How close could a boat get to each church? Are the churches actually in a circle? Was the distance significant? Are there any other alignments of the churches?

Access by water

Our local churches were either built or rebuilt in stone from wooden structures, from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Waldringfield, for example, did not have a church listed in the eleventh-century Domesday Book. The sea walls were built in stages from around the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries onwards. Consequently, there was once water where there is now land. Stone is not widely available in East Suffolk and, as it is also heavy, is most easily transported by boat.

Making the assumption that, for water transport, a minimum draught of about 1.2m (4 feet) would be needed, and that use would be made of Spring tides, then a map can be constructed using LIDAR data to indicate which areas would be accessible assuming the sea walls did not exist.

The table in the notes shows that Sutton and Brightwell are up to 1600m from water access. However, it may be that the channels have filled in somewhat over the centuries, so perhaps they were closer. The other churches mentioned are within about 500m, as are most in the vicinity.

Circular Arrangement of Churches and Radius

If a circle of radius 3294m, Aldred’s two, supposed, Suffolk Miles of 1830 yards, is constructed with its centre on Waldringfield Church Tower³The centre of the churches can be chosen anywhere along the axis which is about 20m, this introduces some variability., then the maximum distance of Brightwell, Martlesham, Sutton and Ramsholt churches from its circumference is 50m⁴Distances – Brightwell +36m, Martlesham +35m, Sutton +0m, Ramsholt +24m. It is possible that a closer arrangement could be found by moving the centre or radius slightly.. This corresponds to a fit better than 1%, which could be improved upon with some minor adjustments. Kirby’s surveying of Suffolk in the early eighteenth century had errors greater than 1%.⁵Was Kirby deficient in skill? – See John Kirby’s Suffolk introduced by John Blatchly for discussion. Inaccuracy was mainly caused by errors in angles. However, it seems probable that surveying techniques from , at least, the Roman era would permit such precision⁶See discussion of surveying p36 Arcane Landscape. ‘A Ritual Landscape Considered’: Accessed 29 November 2023. https://arcanelandscape.com/project/a-ritual-landscape-considered/.

The sites appear to be randomly spaced around the circumference and not equally distributed or at significant points, such as cardinal directions. There are no obvious reasons why churches should be in a circle and no other known examples exist⁷The only other similarity in the area seems to be a circle with a radius of 4754 yards centred on Bucklesham which passes through only Kirton and Waldringfield which does not seem of any significance with only two circumferential points.. David Aldred states that the radius is 3660 yards (3294m). The four outer churches are within 1% of this radius so, he was correct regarding the circle and distance. Arnott would have been tickled pink to know about this.

Elevation of Sites

Common suggestions for the siting of Churches include: being at the highest point in the parish; being convenient for the Lord of the Manor; being on pre-Christian sites. Pre-Christian sites would not necessarily have the constraint of being near water, as they were not made of stone. An English Church is also generally built on an east-west axis with the altar at the east⁸Orientation of churches. Wikipedia. The alignment of the Churches considered here is only approximately on the east-west axis. varying by +/- 10 degrees.

An analysis of the height profile around the circle with the locations of sites shows that none are at the highest points on the circle⁹The highest points are about 500m anticlockwise from Martlesham and 500m clockwise from Brightwell. Also, all of these Churches could have been built at a higher point nearby but further from the circle. If height were significant then a better set of high points could be chosen.

Waldringfield Church is next door to what was probably the site of the Manor House of Waldringfield Hilton and could have been built on a higher site nearby. It has been said that Ramsholt Church was once a lookout tower, but if this were true it should have been built on a higher point easily found close by.

Map of Churches, and other local Churches included for context – many are navigational landmarks.

Alignments

If the arrangement is pre-Christian then there would have been more land, now subsumed, to seaward which could have provided alignments (think of Dunwich). There could have been more trees than now in pre-Christian times and fewer than now in medieval times so we cannot be sure how these would affect the line of sight. Churches were often built on existing religous sites. Could there be some type of astronomical alignment between the sites?

• Geographical alignment to some other place: it is quite easy to line up anything with something somewhere. Nothing obvious.
• Considering alignments from the outer sites through the centre of the circle: Solar sunrise or set is only possible on bearings from 050 to 130 and 230 to 310 which excludes all but Brightwell where Sunset aligns around 5th March & 10th October, Shottisham gives alignment within two degrees of the Northern Winter Solstice Sunset but that is not close enough to signify anything. So, none of the alignments seems to be more than chance.
• Three of the five churches are ‘All Saints’, perhaps an ecclesiastical marketing ploy to increase appeal, with mentions of James, Mary and Michael. It has been suggested that there could be a dated solar alignment here, such as a feast day,  but the range of dates would be limited to those near an equinox for a Church since it is on an east-west axis. So, nothing seems relevant here.
• The only possibility would seem to be observing the rise or set to indicate the date which would not be practical without a clear horizon. Unlikely.
• Celtic Solar paths of Solstice lines or similar have been proposed elsewhere¹⁰Solstice Alignments – Robb, G. (2014) The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe. Picador ¹¹Arcane Landscape. ‘A Ritual Landscape Considered’: Accessed 29 November 2023. https://arcanelandscape.com/project/a-ritual-landscape-considered/.: these might be made to fit with all sorts of things with some imagination but are not apparent here.

So, there do not seem to be any alignments and there would be easier ways of achieving them if required.

Suffolk Miles

Aldred relates the radius to two Suffolk miles of 1830 yards making 3660 yards. Did this exist? He mentions the scale on Robert Morden’s maps having three types of miles. However, Morden’s 1722 map of Suffolk has three different mile scales corresponding to 1903 yards, 2025 yards¹²2025 Yards is One minute of Latitude, used as an English Mile on eighteenth century charts and 2187 yards. It is not clear why Morden chose the 1903 and 2187 yard values (these values are measured from a copy so not exact). Morden does not use a mile near either 1760¹³The mile was standardised to 1760 yards in 1760. or 1830 yards.

There are references to Megalithic yards¹⁴Wikipedia See Megalithic yards of 2.77 feet (0.83m) and another or 2.722 feet¹⁵See this paper at Cartography Unchained for a discussion of ancient measures.. If this were so then 3660 British yards = 4034 of these units¹⁶Calculation is 3294m/0.3/2.722ft=4033.8Megalithic Yards.

On balance, therefore, the distance does not seem significant and evidence of the ‘Suffolk Mile’ has not been found.

Conclusions

1. The local Churches are nearly all convenient for access by water if we remove the sea walls.
2. All churches could have been built at a higher point nearby.
3. The circular arrangement agrees to better than 1%.
4. The statement that the radius was two Suffolk Miles seems false unless the ‘Suffolk Mile ‘ can be found. If there is a ‘Megalithic Yard’ then a radius of 4034 of them does not seem significant.
5. The sites are not at the highest points on the circle.
6. There seem to be no other obvious historical points on the circumference such as Kingston or Sutton Hoo.
7. The angles between the sites do not seem significant or equal.
8. The sites are unevenly distributed around the circumference and paths between churches do not seem to show a pattern.
9. There are no other known arrangements of churches in circles nor megalithic arrangements of this size.
10. There are no apparent geographical or solar alignments and, if one wanted to make them, these are not the best sites.
11. Star alignments seem most unlikely.
12. The circular arrangement intuitively seems too exact to be a coincidence.
13. BT Labs Radio Tower is also an almost exact fit on the circle. It was built somewhat later and has religious significance to few.

Sadly the conclusions are mostly negative and it seems that the circle is just an interesting coincidence. There are now more questions such as why the Churches were not built higher up and why Morden chose those map scales.

• 1
  Locations of local Churches – Arnott, W.G. (1950) Suffolk estuary : the story of the river Deben. N. Adlard, , 2D Impression.
• 2
  Circular arrangement – River Deben Association Magazine Riverdeben.org. 1999
• 3
  The centre of the churches can be chosen anywhere along the axis which is about 20m, this introduces some variability.
• 4
  Distances – Brightwell +36m, Martlesham +35m, Sutton +0m, Ramsholt +24m. It is possible that a closer arrangement could be found by moving the centre or radius slightly.
• 5
  Was Kirby deficient in skill? – See John Kirby’s Suffolk introduced by John Blatchly for discussion. Inaccuracy was mainly caused by errors in angles.
• 6
  See discussion of surveying p36 Arcane Landscape. ‘A Ritual Landscape Considered’: Accessed 29 November 2023. https://arcanelandscape.com/project/a-ritual-landscape-considered/
• 7
  The only other similarity in the area seems to be a circle with a radius of 4754 yards centred on Bucklesham which passes through only Kirton and Waldringfield which does not seem of any significance with only two circumferential points.
• 8
  Orientation of churches. Wikipedia
• 9
  The highest points are about 500m anticlockwise from Martlesham and 500m clockwise from Brightwell
• 10
  Solstice Alignments – Robb, G. (2014) The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe. Picador
• 11
  Arcane Landscape. ‘A Ritual Landscape Considered’: Accessed 29 November 2023. https://arcanelandscape.com/project/a-ritual-landscape-considered/.
• 12
  2025 Yards is One minute of Latitude, used as an English Mile on eighteenth century charts
• 13
  The mile was standardised to 1760 yards in 1760.
• 14
  Wikipedia See Megalithic yards
• 15
  See this paper at Cartography Unchained for a discussion of ancient measures.
• 16
  Calculation is 3294m/0.3/2.722ft=4033.8Megalithic Yards