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Devil's Dyke is the remains of a prehistoric defensive ditch which lies at the east side of the village of Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England. It is protected as a Scheduled Monument. [1] It is generally agreed to have been part of the defences of an Iron Age settlement belonging to the Catuvellauni tribe of Ancient Britain. It has possible associations with Julius Caesar's second invasion of Britain (54 BC)
Historic England refers to the Devil's Dyke as being part of a much larger site. [1] Other sources are more specific as to what sort of earthwork it may be, suggesting that the dyke protects one side of an oppidum (a large fortified Iron Age settlement) covering about 40 ha. [2] The area is marked as a "Belgic oppidum" on Ordnance Survey maps.
Although recent archaeological studies have proven the main 'devil's dyke' ditch, the deepest part of what was assumed to be defensive ditches, around the settlement, was in fact the only part to have such ditches. It was thought that ditches in other parts of the site had been lost to erosion, but tests have shown the rest of the settlement would have been indefensible by ditches alone, and that what had been thought to be ditches were just minor boundaries surrounding the majority of the settlement, perhaps to keep animals from straying outside rather than defending the interior from attack.
Today two sections of ditch remain. The western section, adjacent to the village, is the Devil's Dyke. It is around 30 m wide and 12 m deep at its largest. A smaller ditch to the east is known as "The Slad". A moat continues the line of the ditch to the south of The Slad. Unlike Devil's Dyke, the Slad is located on private property, and is not accessible to the public. [3]
The River Lea could have served as a defensive barrier on the northern side of the settlement.
Belgic pottery was found in the 1970s during construction of the Wheathampstead by-pass which goes through the northern part of the putative oppidum to cross the River Lea. [4] The Catuvellauni are often linked to Belgic Gaul. There was also a smaller amount of pre-Belgic pottery.
Visitors are welcome to visit the Devil's Dyke. According to a plaque at one entrance to the dyke, the land was presented by Lord Brocket in 1937 on the occasion of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. [5]
Other parts of the Wheathampstead earthwork are not accessible. According to Historic England, there is a risk to the site from arable ploughing. It is included in the Heritage at Risk Register. [1]
The site is a candidate for the strongly defended place where Julius Caesar fought Cassivellaunus in 54 BC, as described in his firsthand account De Bello Gallico . There are other possible locations for the stronghold (for example, Ravensburgh Castle, Hexton) and the historical evidence neither supports nor disproves the claim of the Devil's Dyke.
The theory that Wheathampstead was attacked by Caesar was supported by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who carried out a 1932 excavation of the site. The sign at the entrance to the Dyke states that it is the probable place (based on the assertions of Sir Mortimer), which has led to the claim often being repeated as an established fact. No archaeological evidence exists of 1st-century military activity in Hertfordshire.
Loughton Camp, according to Roger Nolan (2018), was the previous marching camp used prior to the presumed assault on Devil's Dyke.
Some archaeologists, including Sir Barry Cunliffe, suggest that the Wheathampstead earthwork was connected with other local earthworks, particularly Beech Bottom Dyke, four miles to the south west. This theory implies a single defensive earthwork running from the River Lea to the River Ver, and possibly a large enclosed settlement. The fortifications were probably erected by King Cunobelinus to define areas of land around their tribal centre at Verlamion – the predecessor of the later Roman city of Verulamium.
Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hillfort 1.6 mi (2.6 km) southwest of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age.
Camulodunum, the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "strapline" in the 1960s identifying it as the "oldest recorded town in Britain" has become popular with residents and is still used on heritage roadsigns on trunk road approaches. Originally the site of the Brythonic-Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon, capital of the Trinovantes and later the Catuvellauni tribes, it was first mentioned by name on coinage minted by the chieftain Tasciovanus some time between 20 and 10 BC. The Roman town began life as a Roman legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by the Emperor Claudius. After the early town was destroyed during the Iceni rebellion in AD 60/61, it was rebuilt, reaching its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. During this time it was known by its official name Colonia Claudia Victricensis, often shortened to Colonia Victricensis, and as Camulodunum, a Latinised version of its original Brythonic name. The town was home to a large classical temple, two theatres, several Romano-British temples, Britain's only known chariot circus, Britain's first town walls, several large cemeteries and over 50 known mosaics and tessellated pavements. It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height.
The Catuvellauni were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century.
An oppidum is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. Oppida are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian plain in the east. These settlements continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe. Many subsequently became Roman-era towns and cities, whilst others were abandoned. In regions north of the rivers Danube and Rhine, such as most of Germania, where the populations remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD.
Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2001 census was 6,058. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell.
Chirk Castle is a Grade I listed castle located in Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is now owned and run by the National Trust.
Devil's Dyke or Devil's Ditch is a linear earthen barrier, thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, in eastern Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. It runs for 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) in an almost straight line from Reach to Woodditton, with a 10-metre-high (33 ft) ditch and bank system facing southwestwards, blocking the open chalkland between the marshy fens to the north and the formerly wooded hills to the south. It is a Scheduled Monument, a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different functions.
Grim's Ditch or Grim's Dyke or Grimes Dike is a linear earthwork in the London Borough of Harrow, in the historic county of Middlesex, and lends its name to the gentle escarpment it crowns, marking Hertfordshire's border. Thought to have been built by the Catuvellauni tribe as a defence against the Romans, it extended east–west about 6 miles (9.7 km) from the edge of Stanmore where an elevated neighbourhood of London, Stanmore Hill, adjoins Bushey Heath to the far north of Pinner Green – Cuckoo Hill. Today the remaining earthworks start mid-way at Harrow Weald Common.
Verlamion, or Verlamio, was a settlement in Iron Age Britain. It was a major centre of the Catuvellauni tribe from about 20 BC until shortly after the Roman invasion of AD 43. It is associated with a particular king, Tasciovanus. Its location was on Prae Hill, 2 km to the west of modern St Albans.
Beech Bottom Dyke, is a large ditch running for almost a mile at the northern edge of St Albans, Hertfordshire flanked by banks on both sides. It is up to 30 m (98 ft) wide, and 10 m (33 ft) deep, and it can be followed for three quarters of a mile between the "Ancient Briton Crossroads" on the St Albans to Harpenden road until it is crossed by the Thameslink/Midland mainline railway at Sandridge. Beyond the railway embankment it continues, to finish just short of the St Albans to Sandridge road. This part is not accessible to the public.
Waulud's Bank is a possible Neolithic henge in Leagrave, Luton dating from 3,000BC.
Hertford Heath is a village and civil parish near the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 2,672.
Braughing was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its name in Latin is unknown.
Loughton Camp is an Iron Age Hill fort in Epping Forest, one mile (1.6 km) northwest of the town of Loughton.
Caesar's Camp is an Iron Age hill fort around 2,400 years old. It is located just in Crowthorne civil parish to the south of Bracknell in the English county of Berkshire. It falls within the Windsor Forest and is well wooded, although parts of the fort have now been cleared of some trees. The area is managed by the Forestry Commission but owned by Crown Estate, and is open and accessible to the public. The hill fort covers an area of about 17.2 acres and is surrounded by a mile-long ditch, making it one of the largest in southern England.
Black Ditches is an earthwork close to the village of Cavenham of Suffolk, and part of it is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The earthwork is 4.5 miles long between the River Lark at Lackford and the Icknield Way. It is described by the Suffolk Historic Environment Record as having no direct dating evidence but "by analogy with other linear earthworks in the region it is usually assumed to be post Roman".
Norsebury Ring is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located in Hampshire. Now mostly ploughed out to the South and east, some ditches and ramparts remain within a small copsed area to the North and west, which are surprisingly intact with a small outer ditch, then a bank, then another larger ditch followed by larger bank. However the trees and undergrowth hide the earthworks from immediate view.
Cholesbury Camp is a large and well-preserved Iron Age hill fort on the northern edge of the village of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is roughly oval-shaped and covers an area, including ramparts, of 15 acres (6.1 ha), and measures approximately 310 m (1,020 ft) north-east to south-west by 230 m (750 ft) north-west to south-east. The interior is a fairly level plateau which has been in agricultural use since the medieval period. The hill fort is now a scheduled ancient monument.
The Martin Down Enclosure is an archaeological site on Martin Down, near the village of Martin, in Hampshire, England. It is near the boundaries with Dorset and Wiltshire.
