The Devil's Dyke is an earthwork in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

. It consists of a 7.5 miles (12.1 km) long bank and ditch that runs in a south-east direction from the small village of Reach

Reach, Cambridgeshire

Reach is a small village and civil parish on the edge of the fenland in East Cambridgeshire, England.Reach is located at the north end of Devil's Dyke, about west of Burwell. The dyke split the settlement in two until part of it was refilled to create the current Fair Green in the 18th century...

 to nearby Woodditton

Woodditton

Woodditton is a village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, England. The other settlements in the parish are Ditton Green, Little Ditton and Saxon Street. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 1,789 people....

. It is generally assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 earthwork and is one of the largest and best surviving examples of its kind in England.

Description

Devil's Dyke is over 7 miles (11.3 km) long and is the largest of the Cambridgeshire dykes. In places the bank is 9 metres (29.5 ft) high and 36.5 metres (119.8 ft) across. In modern times a number of railway lines and roads have been cut through the dyke, including the A11 (the main road from London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

) and a branch line of the Ipswich to Ely rail line

Ipswich to Ely Line

The Ipswich to Ely Line is a railway line linking East Anglia to the English Midlands via Ely. There is also a branch line to . Passenger services are operated by National Express East Anglia...

.
From Reach, the dyke crosses farmland, before running along the edge of the July Course at Newmarket Racecourse

Newmarket Racecourse

The town of Newmarket, in Suffolk, England, is the headquarters of British horseracing, home to the largest cluster of training yards in the country and many key horse racing organisations. Newmarket Racecourse has two courses - the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course. Both are wide, galloping...

 and then through the woods of a private estate near the village of Woodditton.

History

At its creation, the chalk barrier ran from The Fens

The Fens

The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....

 in the north-west to the clay woodlands in the south making circumvention difficult. The dyke crosses three Roman roads, including the Icknield Way

Icknield Way

The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.-Background:...

, and may thus have served as a way of controlling trade and movement in and out of the area. Findings such as the small quantity of silt in the ditch fills also suggest that the dyke fell into disuse soon after it was built. The dyke is the largest of several earthworks in south Cambridgeshire designed to control movement along the ancient Roman roads. The others include Fleam Dyke

Fleam Dyke

Fleam Dyke is an earthwork in eastern Cambridgeshire, England, generally assumed to be Anglo-Saxon of origin. As a few potsherds of the early and late Bronze age were found in the most eastern part of the dyke it seems that much older earthworks have been used. The archaeologist Prof...

, Brent Ditch

Brent Ditch

Brent Ditch is generally assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon earthwork in Southern Cambridgeshire, England built around the 6th and 7th Centuries . However most of its structure has been lost over time...

 and Bran ditch

Bran ditch

Bran Ditch or Heydon Ditch is generally assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon earthwork in southern Cambridgeshire, England.Most of the ditch has been lost to agriculture over time, but its line its marked throughout by both hedgerow and the route of the Harcomlow Way and Icknield Way paths...

. Black Ditches, Cavenham

Black Ditches, Cavenham

Black Ditches is an earthwork close to Cavenham, which is generally assumed to be Anglo-Saxon, dating to the 6th or 7th century. It runs south-east from the village for approximately , remaining almost unbroken as a single embankment along its length, reaching a height of almost at points...

 is a fifth earthwork guarding the ancient Icknield Way and can be found in Suffolk just north west of Bury St Edmunds

Early commentators

The earthwork has been described by various different commentators since Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 times. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

 refers to the Devil's Dyke in its annal for 905, when Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...

 is recorded as fighting and defeating the Danes

Danes

Danish people or Danes are the nation and ethnic group that is native to Denmark, and who speak Danish.The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century...

 of East Anglia, having first laying waste to the countryside: 'and he laid waste their land between the Dyke and the Ouse as far northward as the Fens'—' and oferhergade call hera land betwuh dicun and Wusan. call oþ da fennas norð . Abbo of Fleury

Abbo of Fleury

Abbo of Fleury , also known as Abbon or Saint Abbo was a monk, and later abbot, of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire near Orléans, France....

, writing in the late 10th century, described East Anglia as "fortified in the front with a bank or rampier like unto a huge wall, and with a trench or ditch below in the ground".

Modern scholarship

Archaeological Carbon-14

Carbon-14

Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues , to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological...

 dating has concluded that the dyke was reinforced in the late 6th or early 7th century at a time when competition between neighbouring Saxon tribes was particularly fierce. It is believed that the dyke would have been used to demarcate the boundary of a tribe's influence as well as a barrier to the British tribes to the west.

Heritage

The course of the dyke is now controlled by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Scheduled Ancient Monument

Scheduled Ancient Monument

In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

, as well as Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

. A well-kept footpath runs the full length of the dyke.

The path is also home to several rare species of flora and is an excellent example of a chalk grassland. Flowers often seen along its route include the Pasque flower Pulsatilla vulgaris

Pulsatilla vulgaris

Pulsatilla vulgaris belongs to the buttercup family , native to western, central and southern Europe....

, and six species of orchid

Orchidaceae

The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species,...

 including the Lizard Orchid

Lizard Orchid

The Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum hircinum, is found across Europe, from Spain eastwards to the Balkans and Hungary and in western North Africa. It is usually rare but can sometimes be found in great numbers in suitable habitats. This orchid grows in dry meadows, rocky areas, and open woods...

.
The Chalkhill Blue

Chalkhill Blue

The Chalkhill Blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.Males have pale silvery-blue wings with black and white border . Females are dark brown, also with the black and white borders...

butterfly can also be found here.

External links

• Devil's Dyke Restoration Project
• 'The Devil's Dyke', from Legends of the Fenland People.