Herefordshire Plain sections

In the area between Rushock Hill in the north-west of the county and the River Wye just above Hereford there are a number of earthworks that do not form a continuous line. This is part of the argument for their not being part of the original Offa's Dyke, as the gaps account for nearly three-quarters of the length.

Cyril Fox of the Offa's Dyke Project has offered the opinion that the reason for the incomplete earthwork in the Herefordshire Plain is that the area was so densely wooded that this in itself formed a sufficient boundary. However, other scholars have argued this point as at the time of the Domesday Survey Herefordshire had the smallest amount of woodland recorded, and as timber was such an important economic and agricultural resource much of it would have been cut down. The forests themselves would have most likely been managed with the undergrowth being kept clear for hunting and pannage. (See David Hill and Margaret Worthington, Offa's Dyke: History & Guide, Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2003.)

Other suggestions for the origin of the sections in Herefordshire are that the earthwork was once a continuous line from Berry Hill to Lyonshall and that the gaps have been created by later agricultural practices.

Frank Noble has suggested that the gaps in Herefordshire were once filled by palisades (wooden walls) or felled trees, and Lord Rennel of Rodd has offered the theory that Offa's Dyke once included the short dyke known as Grimsditch and Rowe Ditch, both near Pembridge. Another suggestion is that the dyke never went further south than Rushock Hill and the earthworks in Herefordshire are separate earthworks of various dates, but this raises the question of why Offa would have built a boundary that dealt with only a part of the Welsh threat, in effect leaving the job half done?

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2005]