Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
In Yazor parish the earthwork that may have been part of Offa's Dyke has been extensively levelled in the area where it coincides with Claypits trackway, and also in Upperton farmyard to the south of the road. The dyke then becomes visible again in a field to the south, but here the bank has been ploughed down. The western ditch has also been filled in but the scarp still measures 13ft on the slope. To the south of the railway line in a pasture field the dyke is covered by a spoil heap for 25yds but then becomes present again, although somewhat smaller. The feature now becomes a boundary in pasture fields before gently sloping down towards the Yazor Brook. Just to the north of the Yazor Brook is a pond and in this area the dyke is much damaged, but to the south-west of the pond, in a grove of oaks, the bank and ditch are fairly perfect and moderate in size with the scarp measuring 16ft on average. The dyke continues down the slope, getting smaller before ending at the point where a marshy flat begins, 50yds from the present brook. Here no western ditch remains and the bank is perhaps 12ft at its highest.
Beyond the Yazor Brook the Ordnance Survey map is misleading as there is no trace of the dyke as indicated on the map between the stream and Bowmore Wood. Where the dyke does reappear on the 400ft contour to the south of the Wood it is not marked on the OS map.
The next possible stretch of Offa's Dyke begins on the south flank of Burton Hill, below Ladylift Clump. Here the dyke begins abruptly as a very large broad bank with traces of a western ditch. The dyke is a western-facing slope some 12ft high at its highest, with no westerly ditch remaining and within a pasture that has remained unploughed in living memory.
[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2005]