Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
There is some debate as to whether or not the earthworks found in the Herefordshire plain are sections of Offa's Dyke. One explanation for the existence of these earthworks is that they formed woodland banks or boundaries in the dense woodland that appears to have been present in Anglo-Saxon Herefordshire. Marge Feryok argues that the Herefordshire earthworks are not part of Offa's Dyke and gives alternative explanations for the presence of the various sections (see Marge Feryok, "Offa's Dyke", in Sarah Zaluckyj (ed.), Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, Logaston Press, 2001, pp. 163-193).
She says that the section of dyke found at Bridge Sollars and over Garnons Hill may have been built to block a Roman road that runs parallel to the river Wye. Other earthworks have been recorded in Britain that were built to block earlier Roman roads. Roman roads were a quick and effective way for the Romans to unify a once-disconnected landscape, but after the Romans left the use of dykes can be seen as one way in which to re-assert local independence.
The dykes at Holmes Marsh (HER 5577) and Lyonshall (various HER nos.) are built at right angles to a postulated Roman road which runs from Mortimer's Cross to Clyro. The ditches may have been used to block this road in the valley of the Curl Brook, as it is also blocked by the Rowe Ditch at Pembridge.
The last sections of Offa's Dyke in north-west Herefordshire are the small sections that run north from Lyonshall Park Wood, and are connected by hedgerows and low earthworks to a bank which comes out at the northern end of Berry's Hill, Titley. Despite intensive survey by the Offa's Dyke Project no connection can be found between the end of this section and the beginning of the main section on Rushock Hill, 1½ miles to the west. Marge Feryok suggests that this section may form part of a park or woodland boundary.
All these sections of dyke vary greatly in size and scale, and only the section at Lynhales in Lyonshall is anything near the dimensions of the main section of Offa's Dyke. Most of the sections are much smaller in size, and no dating evidence has been found that can place them as contemporary to the main section north from Rushock Hill.
[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2005]