Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

The Shire Ditch See also HEREFORDSHIRE 244

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1003537
Date first listed:: 01-Jan-1953

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1003537
Date first listed:: 01-Jan-1953

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: County of Herefordshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Colwall
District:: County of Herefordshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Eastnor
County:: Worcestershire
District:: Malvern Hills (District Authority)
Parish:: Castlemorton
County:: Worcestershire
District:: Malvern Hills (District Authority)
Parish:: Little Malvern
County:: Worcestershire
District:: Malvern Hills (District Authority)
Parish:: Malvern Wells
County:: Worcestershire
District:: Malvern Hills (District Authority)
Parish:: West Malvern
National Grid Reference:: SO 76150 37696, SO 76188 38551, SO 76210 39026, SO 76635 40640, SO 76841 41299, SO 76904 45015, SO 76911 44047, SO 76930 44708

Summary

Medieval boundary dyke known as The Shire Ditch, 670m west of Malvern Wells.

Reasons for Designation

Medieval boundary dykes are substantial linear earthworks, typically comprising a bank and ditch or double bank and ditch. They are recognised as earthworks, as cropmarks on aerial photographs, or as combinations of both. They are also sometimes referred to in early documents. In earthwork form they can be confused with prehistoric dykes, and indeed some may be prehistoric in origin, reused at a later date. Medieval boundary dykes were constructed throughout the Anglo-Saxon and post-Norman Conquest periods as boundary markers for large estates, townships or other areas of the landscape. Some had an additional defensive or other role which can sometimes be identified by the specialist design of the earthwork. The construction of medieval boundary dykes required a huge investment in labour. They are of considerable importance for the analysis of contemporary settlement and land use patterns. Relatively few examples have survived as earthworks to the present day and hence all well preserved examples are identified as naturally important.

Despite partial afforestation and the insertion of path ways and fences, the medieval boundary dyke known as The Shire Ditch survives comparatively well with some substantial earthworks. The Shire Ditch is of considerable significance and is a good example of a prominent boundary and local landmark. The ditches and banks will contain important archaeological information relating to the use and construction of the monument.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 18 May 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

This monument includes the remains of a large medieval boundary dyke situated in a commanding position on the Malvern Hills, west of the River Severn. The monument survives as the visible earthworks and buried features of linear boundary ditches with associated quarry banks, boundary stones and two mounds. The Shire Ditch is orientated north to south along the Malvern Ridge beginning at the south eastern facing slope of Sugar Loaf Hill, extending south for approximately 7.62km to the northern slope of Ragged Stone Hill. The dyke is broken by six gaps where the terrain and archaeological features renders the dyke unnecessary. The boundary dyke is defined mostly by a single bank with a ditch on the eastern side that is up to 40m wide. The dyke begins along the south eastern slope of Sugar Loaf Hill and is defined by a low bank with a shallow ditch on the eastern side. The boundary continues southward as a single bank and ditch for about 890m along the ridge of Worcestershire Beacon. At the summit of Worcestershire Beacon the dyke is divided by two circular mounds. The northern mound is approximately 11m in diameter and up to 0.6 high and the southern mound is about 11m in diameter and about 0.5m high. On the south facing slope of Worcestershire Beacon the dyke terminates at a road gap and resumes southward for about 640m to a second road gap. A short section of about 260m long is situated on the ridge north west of Upper Wyche where the dyke is denoted by two banks up to about 2m high with two ditches up to 0.9m wide and 0.6m deep with a quarry face to the east. A section about 3.3km long is situated on the Malvern Ridge west of Malvern Wells terminating on the southern facing slope of Wynds Point. The dyke is then separated by a hillfort on the Herefordshire Beacon and Millennium Hills and continues from an abutment on the south eastern corner of the ramparts on Millennium Hill before turning south to follow the ridge across Hangman’s Hill. The boundary dyke then extends across the ridge of Swinyard Hill until it is cut by Gullet quarry. The dyke recommences on the northern facing slope of the Gullet Pass and crosses the northern slope of Midsummer Hill with a bank up to 0.5m high and ditch 0.9m wide. The dyke abuts the northern external ditch of the hillfort and then resumes across the top of Ragged Stone Hill. A series of nine stone and iron boundary markers have been erected along the length of the boundary dyke.

Archaeological survey work has revealed that some lengths of the boundary were originally built in the Bronze Age and the earthworks were modified and extended by Gilbert de Claire in about 1287 to define the boundary between his lands and those of the Bishop of Hereford.

Further archaeological remains survive within the vicinity of the monument, but are not currently protected because they have not been formally assessed. The Shire Ditch runs between other archaeological remains, protected separately as scheduled monuments Herefordshire Beacon Camp (1001792 or HE3) and Midsummer Hill Camp (1003813 or HE4).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: WT 244
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Bowden, M, Field, D, Winton, H, The Malvern Hills an Ancient Landscape, (2008)
Other
Hancox, E. & Russell, O. 2009, Recent Changes to Scheduled Monuments in Worcestershire. Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service.
Herefordshire SMR:-30819, 3798, 3818, 3751, 3822, 3824, 3823, 3825, 3826 & 3819
PastScape Monument Nos:- 1334798, 113491, 1334784 & 113500, Worcestershire SMR:- 3821
Vaughan, T. & Rimmington, N. 2006. Condition Assessment of the Shire Ditch, The Malvern Hills, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service.

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.