Reasons for Designation
Cross dykes are substantial linear earthworks typically between 0.2km and 1km
long and comprising one or more ditches arranged beside and parallel to one or
more banks. They generally occur in upland situations, running across ridges
and spurs. They are recognised as earthworks or as cropmarks on aerial
photographs, or as combinations of both. The evidence of excavation and
analogy with associated monuments demonstrates that their construction spans
the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used
later. Current information favours the view that they were used as territorial
boundary markers, probably demarcating land allotment within communities,
although they may also have been used as trackways, cattle droveways or
defensive earthworks. Cross dykes are one of the few monument types which
illustrate how land was divided up in the prehistoric period. They are of
considerable importance for any analysis of settlement and land use in the
Bronze Age. Very few have survived to the present day and hence all well-
preserved examples are considered to be of national importance.
Details
The monument includes a cross dyke, aligned north east by south west, situated
on the upper north facing slope of Black Down, overlooking the South
Winterbourne valley.
The cross dyke was mapped by the Ordnance Survey in 1902 and recorded by the
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England in 1955. It then
comprised a bank 8m wide, 90m long and about 1m high, with a quarry ditch to
the west which was 4m wide and about 0.6m deep.
The cross dyke has since been partly levelled and the adjacent area of the
ditch infilled. Only the southern end now remains upstanding as an earthwork
and this has the appearance of a bank 8m wide, 12m long and about 0.5m high.
Archaeological field evaluation by English Heritage in 1996 within the
levelled areas of the monument has demonstrated the survival of remnants of
the bank and the preservation of the quarry ditch as a buried feature 5m wide
and about 0.8m deep.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
22934
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Books and journals Other
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.
End of official list entry
