Of course, when the Angles cottoned on to the benefits of woad, they noticed that its use was accompanied by an increase in casualties, at dawn and dusk, when the light was poor.

Woad, it seems, acted like camouflage in low light conditions.

Thanks to the abundance of chalk in the South of England, the solution was very simple, and it has ever since been standard procedure to have a white line down the middle of the Woad.

Don T.