Dowsing provides proof for sceptics (From Gazette Series)

Dowsing provides proof for sceptics

SIR - In some quarters the ability of dowsers are in doubt, certainly where castles, tunnels and boundary walls are concerned.

In the 1970s the then editor of the Gazette asked if I could find Dursley Castle by dowsing and, needing proof, he set me some tests.

Mr Workman, now in his 70s, was the engineer for the old Dursley Water Company in earlier years. He took me around Dursley dowsing for water mains and to his amazement I found his water mains. His comment was: "I wish I had known you years ago, you could have saved me a lot of work".

Of the castle he knew nothing but said he was told by older people that when foundations were dug for the Tabernacle a thick wall was found under the east side of the site.

He said he found a similar wall while excavating across the road from the Tabernacle to the Co-op building (now the Warehouse) also behind the International store (now Somerfield) and down behind the Old Vic picture house and behind the church.

Mr Wilkes wrote in the Gazette that a tunnel was found under the old Wilkes shop site. This was one of my tunnels. Another tunnel I found was from the church down Long Street to The Priory. When buildings were demolished in Long Street for the building of Lister's Club, workmen discovered a tunnel. This was told to me by the late Robin Cross, an electrician's foreman for Lister's, who lived opposite the club, as did his father before him.

This small town nestled in a Cotswold coomb,making it a trackway through the Cotswolds. Travellers from Ireland and Wales going across the country towards London passed through the town.

Dursley in the Middle Ages was a prosperous town. In 1471 it was made a market town. The newly created cloth trade made it a place of some importance. Craftsmen of the wool trade were made welcome but many people were not.

Parish records tell of vigorous efforts by constables and bailiffs to search out beggars and vagabonds. A wall around the town could have helped to control this problem and made it safe for its inhabitants. Local stone was plentiful and labour was cheap which made a wall feasible.

Royce Denning, Sunnybrook Cottage, Sharpness