The Wansdyke & District Forums

Hi everyone, im doing a project for school on local history and ive picked Wansdyke because its right near us and nobody at school had even heard of it. Problem is every website says something different. Who actually built it and why? Was it the Romans or after? Any help appreciated, it has to be in for half term. Thanks!

Welcome, and a good choice; it is the great enigma of this county, and you will get more honest disagreement here than from any website. The short answer is that nobody knows for certain, which is itself worth putting in your project. What we can say: it is post-Roman, almost certainly; an earthwork bank and ditch running for miles along the downs, the ditch on the north side. That tells us it was built by people to the south, looking north, expecting trouble from that direction. The name is Old English, Wodnes dic, Woden's dyke, which means the Saxons who named it did not know who built it either, and ascribed it to a god. That alone should tell you how old it already seemed to them.

http://www.wansdyke21.org.uk/wansdyke/w ... anmaps.htm

Selwood has it right. The current thinking, for your project, Jordan: likely fifth or sixth century, the troubled period after the Romans left, when British kingdoms were defending against Saxon expansion from the Thames valley. East Wansdyke, the stretch on the Marlborough downs, is the best preserved; West Wansdyke is more argued over. Cite it as a frontier work of the sub-Roman period and you will be on safe ground, but do say the dating is not settled. Your teacher will be impressed that you know it is not settled.

I will be the awkward one, as ever. Parts of what gets mapped as Wansdyke reuse the line of the Roman road, and parts may be older boundary than people allow. Do not let anyone tell you it is one thing built in one go. Jordan, if you can get up onto it, walk a stretch, stand in the ditch and look north as Selwood says. A frontier makes sense to the body in a way it never does on a page.

And for a splash of colour for the project, Jordan: the old story is that the Devil dug Wansdyke in a single night, which is what country people always said of anything too big to have been made by ordinary men. The same is said of the Devils Dyke and a dozen others up and down the land. It tells you nothing about who built it and everything about how it felt to those who came after, that it could only have been the work of a giant or the Devil. Good luck with the marks, dear.

this is brilliant thank you all so much. i didnt know about the Woden bit, thats going straight in. and yeah im going to walk it on saturday with my dad, gonna stand in the ditch and look north like you said. will report back.

got an A! thanks everyone, especially the Woden and Devil bits, my teacher read that part out to the class. couldnt have done it without this forum.