'Mysterious Mitcham' is the online sequel to 'Strange Mitcham':



Second (2011) edition now available.

'MYSTERIOUS
MITCHAM'

  Contents:

Covers the London Borough of Wandsworth (Balham, Battersea, Putney, Tooting & Wandsworth):

The Kingston Zodiac

The 1970s saw the first publication of a remarkable book. The Kingston Zodiac by Mary Caine purported to reveal the truth about the landscape around Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey - that a set of ancient, magical images was outlined in the roads, paths and rivers surrounding that town. So large were these images, and so great their extent, that the edge of Caine's zodiac brushes right up against Mitcham.

This was not the first such attempt to divine mystical meaning from the English landscape. In 1935, Katharine Maltwood claimed to have (re)discovered a group of enormous drawings surrounding Glastonbury in Somerset. Because of their correspondence with the constellations, she referred to the group as 'The Temple of the Stars', and she believed that this was the original round table of Arthurian legend.

Caine was spurred into a similar study of Kingston's surroundings by a friend's comment that many of her local pubs had zodiacal names such as the Ram and the Bull. Drawing a circle around Kingston approximately 12 miles [19 kilometres] in diameter, she studied her maps and delved into legends, and images started to reveal themselves to her. First, she identified the representation of a lion, then of a pair of twins and gradually others followed.

In all, she discovered 13 images - the 12 signs of the zodiac and the additional image of a huge hound whose purpose, she said, was to guard the circle. To those who could understand these drawings, they revealed the astrological influences that various places were under.

Whitton and Hounslow, for example, are under the influence of Aries, which in turn is ruled by Mars, the god of war. This explains why armies have assembled in this area, and why the heath was such a magnet for highwaymen. Kingston is governed by Libra, the sign of justice, which is why Surrey's county law courts came to be sited there.


Scorpio: the Sign of Death

Mitcham itself lies mostly just outside the zodiac, but two signs do impinge upon its borders. The first of these is Scorpio, which Caine describes as the zodiac's death-sign. Its crooked tail hooks into Wandsworth (see my Haunted Wandsworth [2006] for more about this) and follows the River Wandle down into Merton, where the scorpion takes a bite out of the Colliers Wood area, encompassing the site of the old Merton Priory. One of its claws grasps the lower edge of Wimbledon Common, including 'Caesar's Camp', believed to be an Iron Age hill-fort. The other claw reaches down into Morden, whose name Caine likens to the Persian word 'mordad' meaning death.


Virgo: the 'White Goddess'

Nearby, Virgo - the 'White Goddess' - stretches from Beddington to Ewell, revealed in the enormous outline of a seated maid. The ragged hem of her dress is drawn by the meandering path of the River Wandle as it forms the border between Mitcham and Beddington to the east and St Helier and Carshalton to the west. Alluding to the Biblical nativity scene, Caine mentions the 'delightful coincidence' of Mitcham's Three Kings Road being close by, describing this as three kings coming 'to the feet of the Virgin'.

Above: Three Kings pond: Three Kings Road lies just on the other side of the
water. (James Clark, 2007)

She does not attach any great importance to this coincidence though. In any case, it should be noted that Three Kings Road is actually some three-quarters of a mile [just over one kilometre] from Virgo's feet.


A Magical Pattern

Comparisons of Caine's drawings with old maps of the area show that many of her lines do follow ancient roads and rivers. However, critics would point out that some of the features she uses to draw her signs were shaped relatively recently, such as Nonsuch Park's amphitheatre and irrigation ditches, which form, respectively, Virgo's ear-hole and facial profile.

Caine's answer to such objections is that these zodiacs are the result of natural laws and that where human beings have redefined the drawings it is because they are simply obeying these laws, however unconsciously. Thus new roads and developments may continually change the landscape but the Kingston Zodiac - its magical pattern imposed upon the land at the time of our planet's formation - will always be revealed to those who know how to see.

[Sources: Caine, Mary (2001) The Kingston Zodiac, Capall Bann Publishing, Berks.; Clark, James (2006) Haunted Wandsworth, The History Press.]