Recently I conducted some further early medieval dyke-hunting but in this case it mashed up ‘urban exploring’ and what I now refer to as ‘snicket archaeology’. This is because I was in Oswestry, scouting a section of Wat’s Dyke I didn’t fully understand based on maps and previous published accounts. I also wanted to look for potential locations for a follow-up to the What’s Wat’s Dyke? comic heritage trail for Wrexham and locations in the unlikely environment where Wat’s Dyke has been subsumed within the Shropshire market town’s suburbs.

Fox’s account

When Sir Cyril Fox conducted his survey of Wat’s Dyke this was largely undeveloped countryside. Let’s start with Fox’s description quoted in full to give context to this section south of t he town from the Cambrian Works to the Mile Oak.

From Shelf Bank, c. 400 ft above O.D., the Dyke is aligned along the western-facing flank of a shallow valley for over 1,000 yards, to a springhead by Gallowstree Bank, where this feature ends. The gorund is level or gently sloping, and the alignment offers wide views to the W. The Dyke was on a large or fairly large scale throughout and is on the whole well preserved.

To return to detail: As far as the cross-road by BM 394.1, the line of the Dyke is marked by a hedge-scarp; thence onwards to field 84 by a belt of trees. It is hereabouts revetted, probably in the early nineteenth century, with stone; the W. ditch is extensively ploughed-in. The best-preserved portion is at the SE. corner of field 84. The stone wall forming the E. boundary of the next field, that in which the megalith known as Careg Lwyd formerly stood, is on the bank, the (W.) dich being fiarly well preserved. Beyond this field the Dyke extends downhill to the spring.

Fox 1955: 250.

Limitations

This is an inadequate description of the monument by Fox, since he fails to explain where precisely it appears beside the Cambrian Railway Works and the exact nature of its ditch and bank along this stretch southwards. Equally, there is the lack of any careful or clear sense the line of Wat’s Dyke in relation to the topography and the historical environment. It gives us little to go on.

The further challenge of reading the monument in this critical stretch between Old Oswestry hilllfort and Maesbury has been exacerbated in the following century since Fox conducted his survey. Namely, this particular 2.5km stretch between the Cambrian Railway Works and Mile Oak is surrounded by, and subsumed within, property boundaries of suburban housing, businesses (supermarkets Aldi and Morrison’s) and the Maesbury Road industrial estate.

All is not lost, however, and I was able to follow Wat’s Dyke’s line, where publicly accessible. Where not accessible, I was able to perceive where it survives via satellite photographs and maps. In doing so, I’ve come to better understand how the monument was placed and how it has survived in a range of loci where the public can discern and learn about the monument.

Snicket Archaeology from North to South

The line of the Dyke at the north of this section coincides with green space – the Wilfred Owen Green where it rises southwards up the side of Shelf Bank – a prominent hill equivalent to the pair of hills – Old Oswestry Hillfort and Old Gravel Pit Hill – to the north of Oswestry. Until I had visited I hadn’t realised how significant this hill was, and how Wat’s Dyke is aligned carefully to incorporate these three hills in succession and to dominate the landscape to the west.

One can then follow Wat’s Dyke southwards on a snicket between Armillan Court and Powis Avenue. At the east end of Walford Road, one can see the scale of the bank set against the hillside.

The snicket turns left away from the line of the Dyke just to the south of this point and so it cannot be followed any further.

One can then pick up the line of Wat’s Dyke where it is crossed by Middleton Road and it is visible as a raised garden on the north side of the road and as a wooded bank to the south.

From here southwards, it is preserved in green space between Woodlands Close/Border Close/Plas Newydd Close/Southgate Close/Plas Newydd Close to the west and Laburnum Drive to its east. Here, the Dyke possesses impressive dimensions: a large low bank and also in places sections of ditch are visible. Here, alongside the Dyke (but not mentioning it) there is a marker to commemorate the Mile Oak.

The southernmost part of Laburnam Drive finds a 19th-century stone wall built along the top of the Dyke which serves to accentuate the appreciation of the bank’s scale, even though the ditch is no longer extant here.

Then, followed for a short stretch by Pine Grove, the Dyke is lost from public access southwards but preserved in back property boundaries between Oak Drive (to the east) and Greystones Way (to the west). What is surprising is that the bank – low and heavily denuded, is still visible in section where it is cut by the Shrewsbury Road between the Aldi and Morrisons supermarkets. From there southwards Wat’s Dyke is not publicly accessible alongside the Maesbury Road Industrial Estate.

Conclusions

Despite the challenges of understanding the landscape context and character of Wat’s Dyke here, I came away with an appreciation of how Wat’s Dyke is indeed not simply incorporating Old Oswestry hillfort, but how and why it skirts the western edge of Old Grave Pit Hill and does the same for Shelf Bank. Together these constitute a triad of prominent hills incorporated within the line of Wat’s Dyke. In this regard, the Dyke’s course along the shoulder of Shelf Bank and then its continued straight downhill course southwards towards a spring is more readily comprehensible and fits with its ‘hydraulic’ behaviours elsewhere (Williams 2021).

In terms of the heritage interpretation, it is sad that the monument is completely neglected in terms of signs and panels when there is so much potential for residents and visitors to better appreciate the monument. While difficult to discern, the signs and map for Wilfred Owen Green Space has no information about the Dyke (although the Dyke is briefly mentioned as a scheduled ancient monument in online information). Give the peace memorialisation theme of the green space, opened in 2010, this is a particularly striking missed opportunity. For while no scholar would frame Wat’s Dyke as primarily or exclusively a military work, its martial elements as a frontier installation defending against raids and facilitating offensive military operations cannot be discounted. Likewise, the relatively well-preserved section by Laburnam Drive has no information about the monument; I wonder how many visitors even realise it is there? Similarly, the space between Morrisons and Aldi could readily have a marker noting the presence of the Dyke. A sense of this important ancient monument running through their community is sadly lacking at present. Oswestry’s visitors and residents, as well as Wat’s Dyke as a significant national monument for Wales and England, deserve better.

Bibliography

Fox, C. 1955. Offa’s Dyke. A Field Survey of the Western Frontier-Works of Mercia in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries A.D. London: The British Academy/Oxford University Press.

Williams, H. 2021. Rethinking Wat’s Dyke: a monument’s flow in a hydraulic frontier zone. Offa’s Dyke Journal 3: 151–182.