HER 503 DESCRIPTION:- Scheduled Monument Description:- Section of Offa's Dyke between SO 54586 01325 and SO 54535 01543. Formerly known as SAM95. NATIONAL MONUMENT NO: 33473 NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE: SO54540152 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a section of Offa's Dyke in Cutt's Orchard, 230m south east of Brook House. Offa's Dyke generally consists of a bank up to 3.5m high with an intermittent ditch to the west and quarry pits to the east. In places Offa's Dyke was strengthened by additional earthworks, namely a berm between the bank and ditch, and a counterscarp bank on the western lip of the ditch. This 50m long section of the Dyke is visible as a bank with shallow quarry pits to the east. The bank runs north-south down the face of a hill slope which falls from about 70m above sea level to 50m above sea level. The bank is between 8m and 10m wide at its base and stands to a maximum height of 0.5m. Quarry ditches are visible on the eastern side of the bank along the entire length of this section, surviving to a maximum depth of 0.4m and to a width of between 2m and 3m. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE The section of Offa's Dyke 230m south east of Brook House survives well. The bank will have preserved part of the original ground surface, predating the construction of the monument, and along with the quarries to the east will contain environmental evidence in the form of organic remains which will relate both to the Dyke and to the landscape within which it was constructed. The bank will also contain evidence relating to the methods of construction of the monument and the building materials used. NATIONAL MONUMENT NO: 33474 NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE: SO54550146 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of Offa's Dyke 290m south east of Brook House on Madgett Hill. Offa's Dyke generally consists of a bank up to 3.5m high with an intermittent ditch to the west and quarry pits to the east. In places Offa's Dyke was strengthened by additional earthworks, namely a berm between the bank and ditch, and a counterscarp bank on the western lip of the ditch. In this 54m long section, the Dyke is visible as a bank with shallow quarry pits to the east and runs north-south at the base of Madgett Hill. The bank is about 12m wide at its base and stands to a maximum height of 2.3m on its western face and 1.1m on its eastern face. Quarry ditches are visible on the eastern side of the bank along the entire length of the section, surviving to a maximum depth of 0.9m and to a width of between 2m and 4m. The bank in this section has been revetted on both sides with stone walling and appears to have been reused as part of a later (probably medieval) mill complex. Overgrown linear rubble spreads to the west of the bank may indicate the remains of buildings associated with the complex. The purpose for which the bank of the Dyke was revetted is unclear, although as the area between the walls is flat, it may have been intended to create a causeway leading to a now lost bridge over the stream and allowing access for vehicles to the mill from both sides of the watercourse. All fence posts and stiles are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE The section of Offa's Dyke 290m south east of Brook House on Madgett Hill survives well. The bank will have preserved part of the original ground surface, predating the construction of the monument, and along with the quarries to the east, will contain environmental evidence in the form of organic remains which will relate both to the Dyke and to the landscape in which it was constructed. The bank will also contain evidence relating to the methods of construction of the monument and the building materials used. The reuse of the bank as part of a medieval mill complex is unusual and indicates that it had survived as a significant earthwork until that period. NATIONAL MONUMENT NO: 33475 NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE: SO54570137 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a section of Offa's Dyke 380m south east of Brook House, on Madgett Hill. Offa's Dyke generally consists of a bank up to 3.5m high with an intermittent ditch to the west and quarry pits to the east. In places Offa's Dyke was strengthened by additional earthworks, namely a berm between the bank and ditch, and a counterscarp bank on the western lip of the ditch. In this 91m long section the Dyke is visible as a bank with a shallow ditch to the west and an area of contiguous quarry pits to the east, running north-south up the slope of Madgett Hill. The bank, which has a rounded profile, is between 9m and 10m wide at its base and stands to a maximum height of 1.1m on its western face and 1.7m on its eastern face. The ditch is between 3m and 6m wide and up to 0.4m deep, while the quarries are up to 8m wide and 0.6m deep. The Offa's Dyke long distance footpath signpost at the southern end of the section is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE The section of Offa's Dyke 380m south east of Brook House on Madgett Hill survives well. The bank will have preserved part of the original ground surface, predating the construction of the monument, and along with the ditch to the west and quarries to the east will contain environmental evidence in the form of organic remains which will relate both to the Dyke and to the landscape within which it was constructed. The bank will also contain evidence relating to the methods of construction of the monument and the building materials used. {Source work 2873.} c.1880-c.1925 - A bank was recorded on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd OS County Series 25" maps. {Source Works 5134, 5136, 5138.} 1893 - Maclean reported that part of this section had been levelled "many years ago". {Source Work 1604.}. 1931 - Fox described the monument as a "broad rounded bank, 66 ft overall, with well defined west ditch and a spoil ditch on east side" becomes "smaller" towards southern boundary of area. A broad high bank is seen revetted with stone walling, which suggests that the dyke has been at some time enlarged and utilised as a mill dam." {Source Work 102.} 1971 - This section is visible on aerial photographs extant on grassland. {Source Work 615.} See also unscheduled section to the north. {Pers. comm. S. Brown.} 1983 - Noble described the southern portion of the bank as "battered but recognisable" and the northern portion as "massive". He states that a short stretch seems to have been adapted as a dam at some subsequent period. {Source Work 2424.} 1995 - The Offa's Dyke Management Survey made detailed records of this section of the monument. These records can be found as SMR 16370 and 19372. At that time the monument consisted of a bank divided into three sections, separated by what appeared to be post-Offan quarrying and by the Brockweir Valley. The central portion of the monument here was revetted on both sides with large stone blocks and appeared to form part of a later (medieval) milling complex (SMR 21570). The northern section of the monument (to the north of the Brockweir Valley) was reported to have been bulldozed in recent times. Features such as a ditch, counterscarp, berm and Offan quarries were intermittently associated with the bank. {Source Works 2206, 6650.} 2000 - Scheduling reviews "50m long section of bank, with quarries to the east in Cutts Orchard, 62m south west of March Dyke NGR: SO 54570137 ... ...Reason For Amendment To Scheduled Area: None it’s a new proposal" {Source Work 17507.} "54m long section of bank, with quarries to the east on Madgett Hill, 70m south east of Mackenzie Hall NGR: SO 54550146... ...Reason For Amendment To Scheduled Area: The monument has been reviewed and it is now considered that the scheduling should be amended to cover the full extent of the monument, including the quarry pits to the east of the bank which will contain archaeological information and environmental evidence essential to a full understanding of the monument." {Source Work 17508.} "91m long section of bank, with ditch to the west and quarries to the east on Madgett Hill, 220m south east of Mackenzie Hall NGR: SO 54570137... ...Reason For Amendment To Scheduled Area: The monument has been reviewed and it is now considered that the scheduling should be amended to cover the full extent of the monument, including the ditch to the west and the quarry pits to the east of the bank which will contain archaeological information and environmental evidence essential to a full understanding of the monument." {Source Work 17508.} 2003 - This area was mapped at 1:10,000 scale as part of the English Heritage: Gloucestershire NMP project. The scheduled section of Offa's Dyke in Cutt's Orchard is visible on aerial photographs, 230m south-east of Brook House. It is 227m in length. The section is 50m long, up to 0.5m high and up to 8m wide. Quarry ditches are visible on the eastern side, surviving to a depth of 0.4m and between 2m and 3m wide. {Source Works 4249, 7549, 7530.} 2011 - This site is included in a thesis on Medieval Dykes when looking at Offa's Dyke in the Wye Valley:- There are two sections main sections of bank commonly called Offa’s Dyke on the east bank of the River Wye in Gloucestershire, a shorter stretch centred on English Bicknor, a longer section downstream centred on St Briavel’s Common extending north from Newland parish to Tidenham. This study refers to these two parts as the English Bicknor earthwork and the southern earthwork. Most parts are quite close to the east bank of the river, usually on top of the cliffs on the eastern side though across St Briavel’s Common the earthwork runs across flatter land up to a kilometre from the river. Note that another earthwork in Gloucestershire also in Tidenham parish commonly called Offa’s Dyke at the mouth of the River Wye, Beachley Bank, has a separate entry. With no conclusive dating evidence the earthworks along the Wye valley in Gloucestershire are possible early medieval dykes (though the builders of the earthwork might have reused or refurbished the Iron Age ramparts at Symonds Yat and Lancaut no dimension are given as this is speculative). Name:- Hill implied it was the publication of Fox’s work that lead to the attachment of Offa’s name to these earthworks (Hill and Worthington 2003 146-48). However, earthworks along the River Wye are clearly marked as Offa’s Dyke on nineteenth century Ordnance Survey maps, called Offa’s Dyke by Omerod in 1842 and a 1321 document names an earthwork near St Briavel’s as Offedich (Ormerod 1842 14-15; Herbert 1996 249). Evidence:- Along the east bank of the River Wye there are undoubtedly earthworks, but it is very difficult to distinguish it from evidence of quarrying, lynchets, hollow ways, field boundaries and Iron Age features. Fox, Hill, the Ordnance Survey, the NMR and the Gloucestershire SMR all dismiss or include sections the others do not. It was usually assumed gaps in the earthwork existed as the builders utilised cliffs as well as older earthworks to save on labour (Stanford 1980 197). Though Bapty notes recent lidar data fills many of the gaps along the River Wye, but just because a feature links two earthworks it is not proof they are all contemporary and not, say, a field boundary or track (Bapty 2007 24). Though both Malim and Hill accept there is an earthwork running along the east bank of the River Wye, neither think it part of Offa’s Dyke noting how it is much smaller (Hill 2000 198-200; Hill and Worthington 2003 45 and 143-47; Malim 2007 25). Not only are the earthworks by the Wye often set back from the crests of slopes it would be odd if the Mercians built a dyke in Gloucestershire where steep cliffs line the banks of the river when they did not bother in Herefordshire where the valley is much easier to cross (Hill and Worthington 2003 147). For Fox, Offa set back the earthwork from the Wye because, as an agreed frontier, he allowed Welsh boatmen access to the river and the earthwork marked the edge between cultivated Mercian land to the east and forest and moor to the west (Fox 1955 211-23). There have been a few excavations and watching briefs (usually in advance of pipeline laying), but not only have these produced no dating evidence, often the trenches reveal no sign of the earthwork (Hill and Worthington 2003 144 and 184). This is possibly due to the fact that being a scheduled monument the digs were at pre-existing gaps in the earthwork where past activity has already destroyed the dyke. In 1965 a group from Gloucester Museum cut a section through the earthwork at Lippett’s Grove in Tidenham parish (SO540001) revealing a bank, an apparently very shallow ditch and a counterscarp bank. In 1978-79 Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service carried out a dig at Birchfield Cottage in St Briavel’s parish (SO535025), but found no evidence of a dyke. According to Hill they dug near the Devil’s Pulpit (at ST543995) in 1983, but the only dig in the area recorded in the SMR was a watching brief carried out two years later just to the north (at SO542000) on a narrow trench cut by the South Wales Electricity Board through an existing gap in the monument.1 The latter dig found the base of the bank and the base of the infilled ditch. In 1993 a dig they carried out at Beeches Bungalow in St Briavel’s Common (SO538031) revealed that construction of the house platform had removed all traces of the dyke. As well as these excavations sections of the earthwork have been surveyed by Gloucestershire County Environment Department (for example in 1995 they started on the area north of Lydbrook, SO602183 to SO596170) and more recently this work has involved the use of lidar data (Nenk, Margeson et al. 1996 255; Bapty 2003; Bapty 2007 24). Location:- The English Bicknor earthwork lies in the parishes of Lydrook and English Bicknor and if we connect the definite portions marked in Fox’s plans (SO592173 southwest to SO584168) this section was up to 1.2 kilometres long, though Hill gives a figure of 800 metres as there are gaps in the earthwork (Fox 1955 184-86; Hill and Worthington 2003 45). This section might be even longer as the SMR/NMR record it about 100 metres further south (SO583165) and there is a feature that follows the same alignment as the dyke further north which might be a hollow way, though Fox and the NMR is dubious of this northern extension. The negative evidence of various surveys recorded in the SMR make Noble’s suggestion the dyke extended even further north into the parish of Ruarden very unlikely (Noble and Gelling 1983 12 and 16). The southern earthwork starts just south of Redbrook (SO539091) and runs southward through the parish of St Briavel’s through the parish of Hewelsfield and Brookwier finishing in Chapelhouse Wood near Tutshill in the parish of Tidenham (to ST536951) 14 kilometres away as crow flies, 16 kilometres on the ground (Fox 1955 186-96; Hill and Worthington 2003 45). A lynchet (ST533945, Gloucestershire SMR reference 21591) may mark a small continuation about 400 metres further south of Chapelhouse Wood (Fox 1955 195-96; Noble and Gelling 1983 2-3)There is a gap about two kilometres long in the southern section between Dennel Hill and Woodcroft (ST549967 to ST538953). On loops in the east bank of the River Wye there are two multivallate promontory forts and though archaeologists have not excavated them, the NMR and SMR assumes they are Iron Age. The first at Symonds Yat (SO564156, NMR SO 51 NE 3, Monument 109563) lies in the gap between the English Bicknor and southern section of Offa’s Dyke (Fox 1955 186). The second at Lancaut (the ramparts run from ST542968 to ST541965, NMR reference ST 59 NW 3, Monument 198723) lies in the middle of the gap in the southern section where Fox failed to find any signs of anything that might be Offa’s Dyke (Fox 1955 194-95). If excavated there Iron Age ramparts might show evidence the builders of Offa’s Dyke in Gloucestershire reused or refurbished them. None of the earthworks in this section is contiguous with parish boundaries, possibly because utilising the nearby River Wye was far more obvious and convenient. Structure :- As it is not certain which sections of the earthworks along the Wye in Gloucestershire are original unaltered by later agricultural activity or quarrying, measurements are difficult to make. In some parts Fox mentions a wide berm, in others he says there is no berm (Fox 1955 187-88). In most sections there is a single bank and usually a single ditch, but the ditch varies from the east to the west side; this eastern ditch being one of the reasons Hill dismisses this earthwork as the work of Offa (Fox 1955 220; Hill and Worthington 2003 146). An eastern ditch is on the ‘wrong’ side for a Mercian border with the Welsh and Fox constantly dismisses apparent eastern ditches as quarries for the bank (Fox 1955 184, 187-88 and 191). The English Bicknor earthwork and the southern section both vary in scale and structure. The northern part of the English Bicknor earthwork in Lydbrook has no ditch, but parts of the front of the bank have a possible stone revetment. Further south in English Bicknor there is a ditch on the west side separated from the bank by a berm. This ditch is up to 5 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep (though in parts only 0.4 metres deep and much narrower) and there is often a counterscarp bank. The bank in this sector varies from 7 to 10 metres wide to 11 to 15 metres wide. The height of the bank is difficult to measure where it is on sloping ground (as this exaggerates the elevation on the western side), but seems to be around 1.5 metres high, though Fox said where ‘recent’ roadway cut through dyke in English Bicknor the bank was found to be 2.1 metres high (Fox 1955 184). The southern earthwork, being longer, varies even more. In the parish of Newland there is a bank up to 10 to 13.5 metres wide and up to a metre high with intermittent ditches on the west side up to a metre deep and 5 metres wide sometimes with a counterscarp bank up to 0.8 metres wide and 4 to 8 metres wide. In places in Newland there are quarry ditches 0.4 to 1 metre deep and 3 to 6 metres wide on the east side, elsewhere the earthwork is merely terrace 4 metres wide and a metre high, and in others it is a scarp of the slope up to 3.5 metres high. On St Briavels Common some sections have a bank up to 1.2 metres high and 6 metres to 11 metres wide with quarry ditches to the east up generally 0.5 metres deep (though in some places up to 1.5 metres deep) and 3 to 5 metres wide (again in places up to 7 metres wide). In some part of St Briaviels’s Common, for example south of Sittingreen, there is a ditch to the west of the bank, this is around 0.4 metres deep and 7 metres wide, separated from the bank by a berm and in places there is a counterscarp bank around 0.5 metres high and 6 metres wide. In Hewelsfield and Brookwier parish near Brook House east of Brookwier there is a bank up to 0.5 metres high and up to 8 metres wide with quarry ditches on the eastern side up to 0.4 metres deep and 2 to 3 metres wide. The Lippett’s Grove the bank stands to a maximum height of 5.1 metres on its northwest face and 1.4 metres on its southeast faces (this variation is due to the steep slope) and is about 12 metres wide at the base. Where the slope is steep there is a berm about 2 metres wide, where the slope is shallow there is a ditch on the west side up to 0.7 metres deep and 3 metres wide and a counterscarp bank up to 0.7 metres high. A series of quarry pits lie to east of the bank in Lippett’s Grove up to 0.7 metres deep and between 3 and 7 metres wide. The southernmost section in Chapelhouse Wood in Tidenham the Dyke is visible as a ditch up to 0.4 metres deep and one metre wide with a bank on the east side bank around a metre high and 10 to 12 metres wide. To the west of the ditch is a counterscarp bank up to 0.4 metres high and 4 metres wide and shallow quarry pits to the east of the bank. An approximate median size for the features in the southern section (working from west to east across the monument) is a counterscarp bank 0.6 metres high and 5 metres wide, a ditch 0.6 metres deep and 4 metres wide, a bank a metre high and 10 metres wide and a quarry ditch 0.7 metres deep and 4 metres wide. {Source Work 10811.} 2017 - A management conservation survey was undertaken by Offa's Dyke Association, Historic England and Cadw during 2017. A managment plan was produced. Each land parcel management recommendation has been added to the field parcels allocated during the 1995 management survey by Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service. Project ID: OD246 Name: Between 1020596 and 1020597, Mill Hill Length (metres): 205 County: Gloucestershire NGR: SO 5442 0177 to SO 5457 0154 Description: Fox describes the section as: ‘… it can be traced across a tangle of small enclosures, now waste, to field 50, where it is levelled. Rises in the hedgerows carry it across a lane to enclosure 51, orchard, where it is again present …’ In 2017, the alignment of Offa’s Dyke through Fox’s ‘tangle of small enclosures’ now forms the property of Stoney Creek and its garden curtilage. There is no trace of an earthwork here, nor in pasture to the S of Stoney Creek. S of this pasture, the alignment lies beneath a surfaced tennis court. Assumed destroyed. Action: None Recommended for Scheduling? No, assumed destroyed Project ID OD247 Scheduled Yes Scheduled Monument Number 1020597 Guardianship No On Heritage at Risk Register? No Name Offa's Dyke: section in Cutt's Orchard, 230m south east of Brook House County Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean) National Grid Reference SO 54541 01519 No of Segments in Section 1 Survey Date(s) Tuesday, August 22, 2017 Form Slighter Condition Trend Unfavourable No Change Vulnerability Low Risk Low Condition Code VW5 Description Monument section, of slighter form, beneath deciduous woodland Action Clear understorey, stumps to remain in situ and be chemically treated to control regrowth Biodiversity Deciduous Woodland (100%) Landscape Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Project ID OD248 Scheduled Yes Scheduled Monument Number 1020598 Guardianship No On Heritage at Risk Register? No Name Offa's Dyke: section on Madgett Hill, 290m south east of Brook House County Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean) National Grid Reference SO 54557 01456 No of Segments in Section 1 Survey Date(s) Tuesday, August 22, 2017 Form Substantial Condition Trend Unfavourable No Change Vulnerability Low Risk Low Condition Code VW5 Description Monument section, of substantial form, beneath deciduous woodland. Tree windthrow. Revetment wall. Offa's Dyke Path follows unsurfaced track across north-east corner of Scheduled area Action Clear understorey, stumps to remain in situ and be chemically treated to control regrowth Install sacrificial surface to line of Offa's Dyke Path Biodiversity Deciduous Woodland (100%) Landscape Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Project ID OD249 Scheduled Yes Scheduled Monument Number 1020599 Guardianship No On Heritage at Risk Register? No Name Offa's Dyke: section on Madgett Hill, 380m south east of Brook House County Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean) National Grid Reference SO 54577 01366 No of Segments in Section 1 Survey Date(s) Tuesday, August 22, 2017 Form Slighter Condition Trend Unfavourable No Change Vulnerability Low Risk Low Condition Code VB4 VS3 Description Monument section, of slighter form, beneath pasture with bracken, scrub and trees. Offa's Dyke Path follows the line of the Dyke, to its east. Some slight wear. Action Clear scrub and trees, stumps to remain in situ and be chemically treated to control regrowth Control bracken by repeated cutting or chemical treatment, as appropriate Biodiversity N/A Landscape Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty {Source Work 17359.} |