Watkins' first career was as an "out-rider" for Watkins Brewery and later the Imperial Mills and as a result he became well known in the local countryside. He sat and passed his City and Guilds in 1883, winning the premier silver medal.
In 1886, Alfred Watkins married Marion Mendam Cross. They had two children; a son Allen and daughter Marion. As a family man, Watkins used to amuse his children with his conjuring tricks and slide shows. The family lived at Sunnyside, Broomy Hill, until 1890 and then moved to the Vineyard Croft, Hampton Park. In 1920, when the children had grown up, Alfred and Marion settled near to the Cathedral at No. 5 Harley Court, where he died in 1935 (photo lower right).
In politics, Watkins was a staunch Liberal. He had a strong sense of public duty and he expected others to have the same. In 1905 and 1906, he organised and spoke at slide-shows throughout the country against Joseph Chamberlain's proposals for protective tariffs. These meetings were well attended and had considerable political effect.
Watkins' involvement in the world of photography started with a primitive pinhole camera which he made from a cigar box. He felt that the entire process of getting a good picture was simpler than what was thought at the time, and involved only one factor, that of the property of light. With that in mind, Watkins devised his Exposure Meter after working out the mathematical properties of light, the size of the camera lens, and the amount of exposure. In April of 1890, he published his findings in the British Journal of Photography, and he also took out a patent for his exposure meter. Like so many good ideas, it received a poor reception amongst the business community! Not to be deterred, Watkins invested his own capital and set aside a room in the Imperial Flour Mills for the manufacture of the meters. The original price was one guinea. This was the beginning of the Watkins Meter Company.
The Watkins Meter Company manufactured the various meters, including the Bee, named after Watkins' own devotion to amateur beekeeping (a collection of his books on beekeeping is now kept at Hereford Library). The company also developed the Watkins Time Tank and the Watkins Time Thermometer, and published the "Watkins Manual of Photography" and issued periodical Plate Speed Cards. The Manual ran into eleven editions. Watkins himself answered many personal letters from photographers with problems.
In 1908. Watkins became President of the annual convention of the Royal Photographic Society, held in Hereford that year, and he gave a public address. Two years later, he was made a fellow of the Society. In the same year, he was awarded the 11th Progress Medal in the Society's history for his scientific research in exposure and development.
The then President, Lord Crawford, said at the time, "The mere fact of the Society giving the highest honour at its command to Mr Watkins this year stamps his methods and inventions with a significance which no other Society in the world could give them".
In 1911. Watkins published a book for photographers called "Photography: Its Principles and Applications" which became a valuable reference work. It was universally praised and was reprinted three times. Watkins carried out the practical research for his book in his cellar at Vineyard Croft. He was not a believer in expensive equipment and built his dark-room with suitable everyday materials to hand.
Alfred Watkins' contribution to photography is not his only claim to fame. He also invented a flour to make a perfect brown bread, the Vagos or "Wandering Maiden" from the Roman name for the River Wye. Though a brown loaf, Vagos did not qualify as a wholemeal because the roughage had been excluded from its ingredients. The loaf soon became popular, it had a pleasant slightly malted flavour and sold well in the local shops. Watkins promoted his new loaf at the Baker's Exhibition which was then held at the Agricultural Hall in Islington, London.
Watkins was also a keen archaeologist and antiquarian. His association with archaeology led to him joining the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (founded 1851) which was based in Hereford. He became a leading member of the club and gave frequent lectures, illustrated with his own slides.
Watkins also undertook a survey of pigeon-houses in the county. His report, illustrated with many photographs, was reprinted in 1889 from the Royal Archaeological Journal for private distribution. However, his longest and most comprehensive survey for the Club was of church and market crosses. He photographed and measured some 120 crosses, all of which were included in his report, "The Standing Crosses of Herefordshire", which was published by the Woolhope Club in 1929.
Today, Alfred Watkins is best remembered for his controversial studies of "Ley Lines". He spent the last fourteen years of his lfie accumulating a mass of evidence to support his controversial views. Watkins made his momentous discovery on June 30th, 1921, when, during a visit to Blackwardine, near Leominster, he decided to look at the map for interesting features. He suddenly realised that a series of straight lines could link all the various landmarks into a network of ancient tracks.
Watkins believed that this alignment could not be due to mere chance. He believed that prehistoric man had deliberately made the tracks as a sort of road network, using the various landmarks as sighting points. Many of them are situated on hilltops where they could be seen against the horizon, and thus made excellent reference points for the Neolithic or Bronze Age traveller. He first voiced his discoveries in public at a slide-show and lecture to fellow members of the Woolhope Club where, although treated with some scepticism, they were well received and aroused keen interest.
A few months later, in 1922, Watkins published his first book about Leys, called the "Early British Trackways". During the next three years he continued to amass evidence to back up his proposals concerning Ley Lines. His best known book on the subject, "The Old Straight Track", first published in 1925, is still in print.
In 1927, Alfred Watkins published the "Ley Hunter's Manual" which became a popular guide for field-workers. During the 1920s, the Old Straight Track Club was formed, with Watkins as president. It catered for well informed people in sympathy with his findings and who wished to find out more about them.
Hereford lamented his death in 1935. His funeral took place in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral, which was crowded to capacity. The Dean, Dr R. Waterfield, conducted the ceremony, and Mr R. H. West was the organist. The Daily Express of the 9th April of that year provides a fitting epitaph for the prominent Herfordian:
"A good citizen died yesterday, the kind which keeps the public life of the countryside on the highest plane of any in the world. His name was Alfred Watkins. You can conjure with it in Herefordshire and in the counties of the Welsh border. He was scholar, miller, farmer, archaeologist, naturalist, inventor, magistrate, county councillor, politician and leader of public opinion. He was full of years and honours. You could say of him what Earl of Morton said at the graveside of John Knox: Here lies one who never feared nor flattered any flesh."Alfred Watkins' grave can be found at Hereford Cemetery in Westfaling Street. His last residence, at No. 5 Harley Court, is marked with a plaque. Most of Alfred Watkins' books are available in the Hereford Library, Broad Street. "The Old Straight Track" can also be purchased at any of Hereford's bookshops.
Alfred Watkins' personal library is also in the Hereford Library, which also houses the transactions of the Woolhope Club, to which Watkins contributed many articles and photographs. Most of his photographs are in the Library in the form of glass-plate negatives, and copies of the photographs may be purchased.
Hereford City Museum has a display featuring a collection of various Watkins Exposure Meters and the cameras with which Watkins took many of his photographs. The building housing the Museum and Library is also the home of the Woolhope Club, which still holds regular meetings and publishes its transactions annually.
ALFRED WATKINS 1855-1935
PIONEER PHOTOGRAPHER AND ANTIQUARIAN
© Hereford City Council
An MSC Community Project Publication
Books by and about Alfred Watkins
© Starblazer 2001
- Alfred Watkins: a Herefordshire Man
- Ron Shoesmith / Paperback / Published 1990
- The Old Straight Track
- Alfred Watkins / Paperback / Published 1987
- The ley hunter's manual : A guide to early tracks
- Alfred Watkins / Paperback / Published 1989
- The ley hunter's manual : A guide to early tracks
- Alfred Watkins / Paperback / Published 1983