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 reused 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.
Details
The monument includes a length of the prehistoric boundary known as the
Buckinghamshire Grim's Ditch located in woodland on high ground to the
east of Princes Risborough. The section of Grim's Ditch follows two
distinct alignments. Beginning at Redlands End the boundary runs in a
north easterly direction for some 830m through Barnes's Grove; then, after
a pronounced turn eastwards for about 760m along a wooded belt leading
towards Hampden House. Early Ordnance Survey maps show the right-angled
bend between the two alignments as a largely uninterrupted earthwork. In
subsequent years the bend was cut through by a trackway destroying
sections of the bank, although a recent geophysical survey has identified
buried segments of the accompanying ditch.
To either side of the bend the boundary survives as a substantial bank and
ditch along most of its length. The earthen bank, measures up to 9m wide
and stands up to 0.9m high. The ditch, running parallel along the south
and east sides of the bank measures 8m across and, although partly filled
by centuries of erosion, is 0.8m in depth. Excavations along other
sections of Grim's Ditch, carried out in 1973 and 1991, produced evidence
of a level area, or berm, separating the bank and ditch. Evidence for a
palisade trench, which would have supported a wooden fence was also found
along the outer edge of the ditch. Similar components may survive as
buried features along this particular section of the Grim's Ditch.
Further sections of Grim's Ditch remain visible to the south near Redlands
End and to the east beyond Hampden House. These sections and others along
the entire known route of the boundary are the subject of separate
schedulings. It is thought that the earthwork originally continued between
this section and Hampden House; although landscaping of Hampden Park in
the 18th and 19th centuries appears to have removed all evidence of the
monument in this area.
All fences and fenceposts 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:
35336
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Books and journals
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
