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Summary

Possibly a late Iron Age cross-ridge dyke

Monument Types

• LINEAR EARTHWORK (?, Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 49 AD)

Protected Status

• Area of Archaeological Significance 33
• Scheduled Ancient Monument 27ab:11040/1
• Scheduled Ancient Monument HT27-b: SECTIONS OF GRIMS DITCH

Full description

Two sections of ditch c.450m and c.750m long, extending from TL 0019 0904 in the east to TL 0131 0900 in the west. It is c.3m wide and c.2-3m high, but eroded in places <1>. Extends further east [50]. The earthwork is much larger than the sections of Grim's Ditch on the south side of the valley and unlike the rest of Grim's Ditch it does not follow the contour and is therefore a 'cross-ridge dyke'. In form and aspect it is more comparable with the large dykes of late Iron Age to early Roman in date in the St Albans and Wheathampstead areas [47, 48]. A late Iron Age/early Roman date for the monument is more likely than the later Bronze Age (c.1000 BC) date suggested for the rest of Grim's Ditch <2>.
It is shown on the 1882 OS map <4> running across Berkhamsted Common, with its western end against the boundary fence of Berkhamsted medieval deer park [6381], and the middle, at the bend in the earthwork, cut by a quarry pit and one of the many tracks across the common.

<1> Ancient Monuments Field Report (Unpublished document). SHT8300.

<2> Stewart Bryant (HCC), Information (Verbal communication). SHT5002.

<3> Dyer, James F, 1963, The Chiltern Grim's Ditch; Antiquity vol.37, 46-9 (Article in serial). SHT4275.

<4> OS 25 inch map, 1st edition, 1878-82 (Cartographic material). SHT8116.

Sources and further reading

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