Cross dyke 870m north west of Burton Farm
List Entry Summary
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.
Name: Cross dyke 870m north west of Burton Farm
List entry Number: 1019197
Location
The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County:
District: Wiltshire
District Type: Unitary Authority
Parish: Kingston Deverill
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 10-Jan-2000
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 31687
Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
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.
The cross dyke 870m north west of Burton Farm is well preserved and is a good
example of this type of monument, providing an important insight into the
division of land in the later prehistoric period. It will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
The monument includes a length of cross dyke situated 870m north west of
Burton Farm, on Cold Kitchen Hill, the eastern end of a ridge of Middle Chalk
to the north of the upper reaches of the Wylye valley. The cross dyke survives
as an earthwork 120m long running north east from the top of a coombe cut into
the south facing slope of the hill. Beyond this it has been reduced by
ploughing and is visible as a soilmark. The earthwork comprises a ditch 0.5m
deep and 4m wide flanked to the south by a bank 0.5m high and 4.5m wide.
The scheduling includes only the best preserved section of the cross dyke,
where it remains as an earthwork as the quality of surviving remains in the
levelled area is unclear. Other linear boundaries in the area are the subjects
of separate schedulings.
All fenceposts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath
them is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
Selected Sources
Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire, (1957), 253
National Grid Reference: ST 84761 38008
Map
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This copy shows the entry on 24-Apr-2018 at 01:51:20.
End of official listing