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Summary

Ploughed-out section of major Iron Age earthwork

Monument Types

• DITCH (Earlier Iron Age to Middle Iron Age - 800 BC to 101 BC)
• LINEAR EARTHWORK (Earlier Iron Age to Middle Iron Age - 800 BC to 101 BC)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Earlier Iron Age to Late Iron Age - 800 BC to 49 AD)

Associated Events

• Excavation on line of A41 Berkhamsted to Kings Langley bypass, 1991-92

Protected Status

• Area of Archaeological Significance

Full description

A ditch or bank recorded in a geophysical survey in 1987 was investigated during work in advance of the A41 bypass. The site had been ploughed for many years and no earthworks were visible, but this is on the line of the prehistoric linear earthwork known as Grim's Ditch. The topsoil contained several struck flints (and some undated cut features). The main ditch fill contained small sherds of middle Iron Age date. Late Iron Age and Romano-British sherds were found higher up in the fill. There was also evidence of slumped and ploughed-out bank material on the north side.
On the north side a large east/west ditch ran parallel to the main ditch (part of Grim's Ditch itself). For other records relating to Grim's Ditch, see [49, 50, 1479, 2022, 2023, 4336].
No securely stratified struck flint was recovered but 104 pieces were recovered (blades, scrapers, and cores). 48 residual flakes (including a blade, scraper, knife and core fragment were found in features dating to the Iron Age and later.
287 sherds (3780g) were found. 35 date to the mid/late Iron Age and were found in eight stratigraphically related deposits within the ditch. Sherds of the same date were found within the ploughed-out bank.
For a Saxo-Norman hearth, see [18606].

Anon, 1992, Land south of Rucklers Lane, Kings Langley: the results of the archaeological evaluation prior to the deposit of waste material from the construction of the Kings Langley by-pass, RNO 440 (Report). SHT12595.

McDonald, Tom, 1994, Archaeological site summaries of excavations undertaken on the A41 London-Birmingham trunk road (Berkhamsted by-pass section), RNO 412 (Report). SHT12567.

McDonald, Tom, 1994, Archaeological site summaries of excavations undertaken on the A41 London-Brimingham trunk road (Kings Langley & Berkhamsted by-pass sections), RNO 413 (Report). SHT12568.

McDonald, Tom, 1994, Concordance of finds (including environmental samples) from excavations undertaken on the A41 London-Birmingham trunk road (Kings Langley & Berkhamsted by-pass sections), RNO 410 (Report). SHT12566.

Thorn, Brett, 1997, An archaeological and management survey of Grim's Ditch, Bucks, RNO 414 (Report). SHT4677.

<1> Last, Jonathan, 2001, A41 Berkhamsted and Kings Langley bypasses (summarised from draft revised updated project design), RNO 977 (Unpublished document). SHT6483.

Sources and further reading

Related records

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