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] Some 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.
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, so that a ditch was not needed there.
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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.
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.
Caesar gave details of crossing the Thames and proceeding north towards the stronghold. He possibly crossed the Thames at Brentford, [6] although other locations have been posited.
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.
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.
The Trinovantēs or Trinobantes were one of the Celtic tribes of Pre-Roman Britain. Their territory was on the north side of the Thames estuary in current Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, and included lands now located in Greater London. They were bordered to the north by the Iceni, and to the west by the Catuvellauni. Their name possibly derives from the Celtic intensive prefix "tri-" and a second element which was either "nowio" – new, so meaning "very new" in the sense of "newcomers", but possibly with an applied sense of vigor or liveliness ultimately meaning "the very vigorous people". Their capital was Camulodunum, one proposed site of the legendary Camelot.
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.
Tasciovanus was a historical king of the Catuvellauni tribe before the Roman conquest of Britain.
Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2021 census was 6,622. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell.
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.
The site of the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43 has been a matter of academic debate. Although it is generally believed that the force left from Gesoriacum (Boulogne), it is possible that part of the fleet sailed from near the mouth of the Rhine. Rutupiæ has earthworks that defended a bridgehead dating from this period and is often stated as the site of the landing, though there are plausible arguments in favour of a landing further west along the south coast of Britain.
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.
Wincobank is an Iron Age hill fort near Wincobank in Sheffield, England.
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, England dating from 3,000BC.
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".
Sidbury Hill, or Sidbury Camp, is the site of an Iron Age bivallate hillfort on the eastern edge of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. The site is sub-triangular in shape, approximately 17 acres (6.9 ha) in area, and is constructed on the site of a Neolithic settlement.
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.
Ponter's Ball Dyke is a linear earthwork located near Glastonbury in Somerset, England. It crosses, at right angles, an ancient road that continues on to the former island of dry land in the Somerset levels surrounding Glastonbury Tor. It consists of an embankment with a ditch on the east side. It is built across the ridge of land between Glastonbury and West Pennard. Both ends of the ditch and dyke disappear into moorland, formerly swamps.
