Berry's Wood, Titley parish

HER no. 8221 (SO 3232 5866)

A small section of earthwork to the north of Berry's Wood. The dyke reappears near to Flintsham Farm and has recovered its normal north-south alignment. It is well marked and appears as a flattened bank 50ft wide overall, with a broad western ditch and a gap in the centre aligned on the western slope of an isolated steep-sided wooded knoll.

At the north end the 1833 Ordnance Survey map shows the dyke heading northward up to the Titley - Kington road, thus adding 130yds to the known length. There is now no trace whatever on the level pasture field which occupies this area, but it may be accepted as the evidence of the early map is usually reliable. There is no evidence of the dyke to the north of the road on disturbed ground which slopes steeply down to the floor of the brook.
 
The dyke enters Berry's Wood and its bank merges into the slope of the knoll. At the point of its disappearance it is undamaged, 36ft wide overall with a broad western ditch. It was quite never constructed on the knolls beyond this point. From the south side of the knoll an ancient hedge-line leads down to the River Arrow, approximately in line with the continuation of the dyke on the other side of the river. This hedge is mainly on the alluvial flat, but a small portion near the knoll is on a gentle slope and here there are faint traces of a levelled bank which cannot be definitely identified with Offa's Dyke.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2005]