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 ridge dyke 690m north east of Baker's Folly
running north west-south east across a spur of Bell Hill, on a gentle south
western facing slope. It is one of four similar sites situated on the edge of
the plateau, possibly associated with the broadly contemporary settlement at
Ringmoor 1.5km to the north east. These other sites are the subject of
separate for schedulings.
The cross dyke has a bank, 8m wide and 1.2m high, with a ditch on its
northern side, 8m wide and approximately 1m deep. There is a slight bank on
the outer edge of the ditch, 1.5m wide and 0.3m high, visible along much of
the length of the earthwork. The dyke has been truncated by the modern
ridgeway track at a point where it kinks and changes direction slightly. It
has been suggested that this deviation in the alignment may be due to the
presence of a burial mound, much mutilated and now no longer identifiable on
the surface, but recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1955 as being 10m in
diameter and 0.6m high, adjacent to the southern edge of the dyke. The Royal
Commission on Historical Monuments of England suggested that there may have
been an original entrance through the earthwork at this point. Part of the
parish boundary bank between Okeford Fitzpaine and Ibberton runs along
the bottom of the ditch at the north western end of the dyke. This survives to
1.8m wide and 0.3m high.
The cross dyke lies within a prehistoric field system which has been reduced
in height by ploughing in the vicinity of the monument. This is not included
in the scheduling.
All fence posts and the surface of the track are excluded from the scheduling,
although the ground beneath these features is included.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
31062
Legacy System:
RSM
End of official list entry
