Linear boundary earthwork 250m west of Stockport

Reasons for Designation

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

Despite erosion by cultivation the linear boundary earthwork west of Stockport will provide archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a section of linear boundary earthwork, aligned broadly north to south on a gentle north facing slope, 200m west of Stockport. The earthwork survives as a shallow depression 430m long, with an average width of 3m, flanked on either side by a bank, previously recorded as between 2.5m and 3m wide. The banks have been levelled by cultivation although the ditch will survive as a buried feature. The boundary earthwork represents the surviving elements of a longer boundary earthwork which is shown on the OS 6' map of 1926 as extending to the north west towards Amesbury. It may also have continued to the south but the area of the earthwork has been used as a dump and this precludes positive identification. Therefore, only the section of linear earthwork which can be positively identified is included in the scheduling. The linear boundary earthwork is located within a field system which has been largely levelled by cultivation and is therefore not included within the scheduling. All fence posts and telegraph poles are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

28940

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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