Special Offa 12: The Northern Quest for Offa’s Dyke – Ray Bailey

There is no doubting of the presence of Offa’s Dyke at Trefonen, but in Flintshire, contrary to tradition, officially, Offa’s Dyke does not finish at the coastal town of Prestatyn as traditionally accepted, In fact they say it has never run through Flintshire, it finished at Treuddyn, some 20 miles from the coast! It never went ‘From sea to sea’ as stated by Asser. The population is still unaware of this, indeed so was I, until, when researching for a talk on Medieval Flintshire some years ago, I came across this fact.  The latest book ‘Offa’s Dyke, Landscape and Hegemony in eighth century Britain’ published in 2016 by Keith Ray and Ian Bapty, states at the beginning, “That the evidence to date, including archaeology, seems to confirm that Offa’s Dyke is absent in the area”. But they do acknowledge the possibility that new evidence could question this, and throw new light on the subject.

My researches by this time had accumulated no less than nine descriptions  dating from 1750 to 1912AD, of the Dyke, both by local people and visiting Antiquarians, who had walked the Dyke, describing it in physical detail. There is also an Original Document dating to 1546 mentioning ‘The Dike’. Could all of them be wrong? Another puzzling factor was Fox’s excavations, for he ignored these, and began his excavations at Newmarket a mile to the West of the original descriptions, for he believed this was a more likely position. The northern descriptions, and the Document, were ignored completely and never investigated, yet Fox was aware of some of these. CPAT excavated Fox’s dig in 2012, but they too did not investigate the Northern Route. My question was why no investigations to the North?

Fox’s map showing the present so called ‘Whitford Dyke’ and the Accepted termination at Treuddyn

The earthworks Fox did investigate, and his projected route of Offa’s Dyke, are now considered to be prehistoric in origin and named ‘The Whitford Dyke’, if this is so, we have an Prehistoric earthwork of some significance, for it can be traced for approximately six miles in length.

I had so many questions and concerns, when fortuitously I met Professor Keith Ray three years ago, and was able to voice these concerns. This resulted in me taking both Keith and Professor Howard Williams in September 2017, to an earthwork feature, I had been taken to by a local historian some years previously, which I had identified as a large infilled ditch, some thirty feet in width. Not only wide but continued downward, following an ancient boundary,  approximately over half a mile in length before reverting to a more normal ditch like appearance. It could further be traced by boundaries to the sea.  I think   it fair to say both Keith and Howard were both intrigued and surprised, Keith stating it even had a counterscarp in places. This, the first unrecorded earthwork has become known as the ‘Gronant feature’.

The ‘Gronant feature’ East of Prestatyn, looking along the boundary, with denuded bank, ditch and counterscarp, the sea in the background

So began our Quest, ODC North, now consisting of some thirty members, was formed, the object, to make people aware of the ODC, highlighting both Wat’s and Offa’s Dykes, other linear earthworks, and their condition, and to research them both in field and desktop.

Members of ODC North at the Gronant feature. The radio mast is the location of the previous photograph, the Dyke/boundary L to R in centre.

With Keiths help, guidance, and expertise, and usually with his participation at the front of us in the field, we have now identified no less than five unrecorded earthworks in Flintshire, all heading in a South Easterly direction toward Trueddyn, the present accepted termination of Offa’s Dyke.

The ‘Gronant feature’ has been further confirmed by an original document discovered by an ODC North member, dating to 1146 regarding the construction of Prestatyn Castle, in which it states it was built ‘By the Dike’.  This was further enhanced on a Lidar image, showing not only the castle earthworks, but also of the ‘Gronant feature’ earthworks extending to the sea, exactly to the position described in some of those aforementioned documents.

LIDAR image showing newly discovered earthworks including line of the Gronant Feature at R.H. side.

South of the Gronant Feature lies the historic town of Caerwys, where we find our next unrecorded discovery, a substantial earthwork, tree covered and some 500 yards in length, located on the fringe of the town, aligned in a South Easterly direction. When later I gave a talk to fifty members of the Local historical society, I asked for information regarding the earthwork, no one was aware of it or its purpose, even long term residents! Illustrating how easy it can be to miss even large items in the landscape. Just over a mile South East of Caerwys is our next discovery:

Swan Wood, Keith and Howard in discussion.

Swan Wood, within which lies this impressive earthwork emanating high above the ancient Roman route, now the A541. Here we are looking South Eastward along the bank just above the scarp, the Chwiler Valley to the right. The bank is two metres high further along the ridge, and over fifteen metres wide. Roughly a three hundred metre length of bank survives in the wood, quarrying having destroyed the earthworks to the East. There are possible indications of earthworks on a ridge further Eastward that have yet to be investigated.

Six miles South East is the hamlet of Llanerch, near to the County town of Mold. Close by is the battle site of Rhuall, fought between the Britons, Picts, and Saxons dating to AD 420.

Llanerch earthwork looking South East.

Keith had wanted to investigate the topography in the River Alyn Valley in this location. Within minutes we had found this earthwork bank extending some 400  yards in length. This view is looking South Easterly, taken on a later visit in rather inclement weather! The bank is scarped so that it stands some three metres above the infilled ditch.

From here we took a North Easterly route where we were able to trace it to above the Alyn Valley where it ran along the crest of a ridge for a short distance, before descending into the Valley, turning at right angles before crossing the River Alyn, where its angled continuation can clearly be seen.

Here we are looking South East on the North side of the River Alyn, where the bank has been affected by agricultural improvements. Frances on the left is standing behind the ditch, Geoff is in the ditch. (Both ODC North members). Keith told us this is not an unusual configuration, and can be seen elsewhere along the Dyke. The length traceable is approximately a little over a mile.

The total length of our discoveries is around four and a half kilometres of unrecorded earthworks. There is much to do before we can be certain of answers regarding the work we have carried out to date, more research, recording, surveying, perhaps excavations, and not forgetting those unresolved questions that began this Quest, when present conditions allow.

I am ending with Fox’s map showing the sites discovered, the present accepted Termination at Treuddyn, and Keith Ray’s projected line in red, and his comment regarding the matter presented earlier this year at the national ODC conference in Cardiff.