2nd Visit to Grove

On Monday 19 April we once again set out to dowse the area around Grove. Although it was slightly hazy from the Icelandic Volcano ash cloud, the sun was getting through and we felt warm as we walked along the canal path. We climbed over the stile and went across the field, full of sheep with their lambs and it really felt like spring at last!

We crossed the footbridge and were soon on the site of the old monastery fish ponds. We had been here before (please see entry 1st July 2008 for the details). We both felt our chests tighten as the energies of the area flowed around us. We dowsed for ley lines and picked up three but only two were important. We were interested in finding out if we were near a node point. Unfortunately, because this field is enclosed with fencing and barbed wire, we were unable to follow the main leyline directly, instead, guided by our rods, followed a marked path across the field, over another very small bridge, continued along the path about 200yds and came out by the quarry.

Last year this ground had been churned up by the heavy plant vehicles and was very muddy but today it was now dry and covered with the seedy heads of coltsfoot and other ground plants and a Skylark was singing above us, and, to make it perfect, ahead of us was our beautiful old Oak tree. It was lovely to see it again and we were very pleased when we discovered that Jackie’s crystal offering that we had made last year was still there. Although old and many branches now dead there were still signs of this year's new growth.

The energies in this area are, literally, breathtaking. Reading the history of Grove (Jackie’s specialist subject!) this area was well known for its meeting point of several ley lines. These 'node' points hold the energies of all the crossing ley lines. Sian did a “helicopter” dowsing and the rods pointed to Ivinghoe Beacon, Billington Church, St Michael’s Church Grove and All Saints’ Church. We again picked up our two major ley lines. One ran across from All Saints to Ivinghoe Beacon and resonated to the colour Yellow; the other ran from Billington Church to St Michaels Church at Grove and resonated to blue. The latter possibly went on to the tree circle (See our entry dated 5th Nov 2008). Jackie was rather disappointed to find that the All Saints to Ivinghoe Beacon resonated to yellow as this signified it was part of the Mary Line as she felt this was part of the St Michael Line, as this has resonated to Red in the past. (But do the ley lines resonant with different colours on different days depending on weather, strength of the energy etc. Something we may need to check each time we go dowsing.) We felt this meeting point (node point might have been very near the site of the old hamlet of Grovebury and Grovebury Priory.

Sian took a panoramic photo from where we stood.She started facing the magnificent spire of All Saints, in Leighton. She moved around across thenew buildings of the housing estates and up to Billington, where we could see St Michaels Church on the top of the hill. Then on to see the outline of the Downs in the distance, on to the Beacon, with the tower of St Mary's Church at Edlesborough in the fore ground. Then round to St Michael's church Grove and in the distance Wing Hill, then back to All Saints. The hills surrounded us and we were standing in the flat valley bottom that covers several miles. The ancient energies of Ivinghoe Beacon seem to sweep down and wash the whole area. What a special area this is, and we wondered what the magnificent oak tree had seen over the years. Perhaps Nuns and monks had sat under its branches.

We plan to visit Billington, Edlesborough, Ivinghoe, Stanbridge, Tilsworth and Eggington churches to see if the blue leyline and also the other we picked up flow through them and confirm what we had found today. We were now starting to feel hungry and decided to go back for lunch. This however was delayed as Sian, AGAIN, lost her rods (again please see entry for 5th November 2008). Rather wearily, we made our way back to the oak tree, and Jackie's rods once again came to the rescue and found Sian’s rods on the ground. I do wish she would look after her things!! Sian here – I’m soo sorry Jackie – What a complete idiot I am. But at least it shows how utterly brilliant you are finding lost things with your dowsers. Is that enough grovelling?!!!

Windmill Path Revisited

After dowsing the monastry walls and discovering several instances of ghostly goings-on, we decided to concentrate on Windmill Path. Please see photo above left.

So on the evening of 14th April 2009 we re-traced our steps down the alley way along the White House into Windmill Path but with our cameras this time. We didn't feel we picked up very much dowsing, but were amazed when the photos were put on the computer and we were able to zoom in. Photo on the left is before enlargement and even though you can't see them all on this small screen, there was one large orb plus many smaller ones.

The picture top of the page right is a close up of the large green orb. We hope to publish more photos of this expedition at a later date.

Now what do we do next!

Our curiosity piqued by our last outing, after lots of research in our local library of historical books and records and very old maps, we discovered that Leighton Buzzard had another windmill at Grove. Apparently, the Leighton Buzzard windmill had been built because the local townspeople found it too far to walk to Grove. We also found in our research that there was another abbey or priory at Grove as well. This was fascinating and we were amazed that, from one tentative outing as a bit of a laugh, we were in a full blown search to find not one but two priories and, what's more, two windmills to boot. We could see a whole summer of adventures ahead.

Sian's husband had worked at the council offices in The White House and vaguely remembered a small hidden path that led nowhere in the grounds. One of the old maps showed this path. So that is where we opted to go next.

We weren't sure whether we were allowed in the grounds but discovered that houses had been built on the site and it was open to the public; so in we walked.

We didn't need our dowsing tools. There, right at the back of the grounds, was a path and it was precisely parallel to the old walls. And even more excitingly, the path came to a stop at secret gate set into the old walls. This was probably where the monks walked. The gate was in a direct line to the town centre so perhaps they used this gate to leave and enter the monastery. We then walked back outside to see if we could see where the secret door was and found that it had been concreted in and no-one could possibly have guessed it was there.

We took our dowsing tools once again down Windmill Path. Not so nervously this time and asked them to show us where the Windmill had been. Quite independently from each other, we were directed to spot at the far end, near to Beaudesert and set a little way in, on the right, from the path. We were to be vindicated in our conclusions - but that is for another entry on another day!

So, to finish for this part of the town, we came to the conclusion that the entitites that people had been seeing were probably the energies left behind from the townspeople going to and from the windmill and monks going into town and back again from the monastery.

Old monastery walls

Our interest was aroused by stories we had heard about an old monastery which used to be on the land now occupied by The White House. We had been told about the old walls that still stood there and had heard, from a couple of sources from people who lived either end of these walls, that there were some strange "goings on" around that area. Jackie knew that area so we took our dowsing rods and "bobber" and off we went. I have to say we did feel a bit on the silly side - every time someone near we hurriedly put away our dowsing tools!!

What we found was fascinating. Down one side of the walls there was a very wide path which Jackie "felt" she had been there before. Perhaps when she was a child, she definitely hadn't been there before in her adult lifetime. We both had a "flash", a feeling, that we saw a woman walking along this path - in both our visions she was wearing dark clothing, long black or dark gray wide skirt, back or dark gray top with white collar and white apron with a white bonnet. Quite extraordinary that we both felt the same thing. This wide path we discovered was called Windmill Path and, after research in the local library, we discovered that the main windmill in Leighton Buzzard was at the end of this path.

Anyway back to the old walls. We found a Yew tree which suggests there might have been a church on the site. We found archways and a strange curve in the wall. We discovered part of the old wall in the car park of what is now the Catholic Church. Churches are invariably built on previous church sites, going way back into ancient and pre-christian times. We were pretty convinced that these walls were, in fact, a religious site. We also thought that the phenomena that our two sources had been seeing, might have been the townspeople going to and fro the windmill. In spite of some funny looks we were determined to come back and see if we could find the energies of the lost windmill and to explore inside the walls.