On this blog we have explored the many extant and evolving heritage installations associated with Offa’s Dyke and related monuments. A notable example of this is the Ruabon Heritage Trail which was relaunched in 2021 with one of its panels 15 dedicated to Offa’s Dyke on Tatham Road. This post introduces this trail and evaluates the interpretation of Offa’s Dyke on the relaunched interpretation panel.

Ruabon Community Council’s website has details of the walk here. The news of the relaunch in 2021 Ysgol Rhiwabon was covered by the Shropshire Star. It states that the initiative was that of the chair of the Friends of Ruabon, Jo Smith. It comprises 15 boards and plaques throughout the village. Her rationale was:

“The trail is around 20 years but the old boards were showing their age. The Friends of Ruabon wanted to renew them and update their content. We also saw this as an opportunity to relaunch the trail and make more people aware of it locally.”

Jo Smith, Shropshire Star: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/oswestry/chirk/2021/08/24/heritage-trail-is-relaunched/

Hitherto, there was a very faded, illegible heritage interpretation panel that had been installed in the early 2000s.

Councillor David Blithell is credited for the logistics for the relaunch. Photographs and further details can be found on the group’s Facebook page which I reproduce via screenshot here to celebrate the opening of this initiative to renew the heritage trail. Ken Skates approved of the scheme. Key dimensions of the boards are their smart and simple bilingual arrangement and QR codes which will be linked to elements of the World Heritage Site. The principal archaeological elements of the trail are the church, Dyke and hillfort as well as historical buildings in the village.

Evaluating the Heritage Panel

The first point to reiterate that this is a direct replacement to an earlier panel in the same location, situated beside Tatham Road on a bank looking east over the wooded ditch and bank of the monument. In this situation, the monument is on private land. It is striking in proportions but both it and the vistas across Ruabon are partially obscured by foliage from the publicly accessible bank of the road. Still, I’m delighted that the faded and damaged sign has been updated and Offa’s Dyke is integrated into the history of the village via this heritage trail.

Regarding its contents, the information is clearly presented, bilingual and reasonably up-to-date.

The use of puns is all the rage (in no small part thanks to Cadw’s newer heritage panels) and the use of ‘Special offas or clearance deals?’ resonates with my 2020 online event of the same name: ‘Special Offa’. However, the meaning of the alternatives and the question: ‘Special Offa or clerance deals?’ is obscure to say the least.

Regarding the text of the panel, it correctly identifies Offa’s Dyke as an ‘Anglo-Saxon defensive earthwork built by the Mercian kingdom’ and takes the argument forward that this was a ‘symbol of power and intent’. This is a good pairing of terms as it articulate that it was a major work of engineering that ‘loosely’ relates to the modern English-Welsh border. However, I would note, as often happens, the chronological ordering of Dyke and border are reversed by the language used in the text, as it states that the Dyke ‘loosely followed today’s Welsh border’. Obviously this is counterintuitive since the Dyke cannot ‘follow’ something not there yet!

The description of Offa’s Dyke’s bank as 4m high and ‘the height of a double decker bus’ is somewhat exaggerated. For while the stretch around Ruabon School is described by Ray and Bapty (2016: 169) as one of the ‘monumental construction mode’ sections, they only go as far as stating that ‘the bank may still survive up to 3.5m high’. Certainly the Ruabon stretch affords a striking impression of its scale but given a double-decker bus is usually over 4m high (4.38m). But given the lack of details regarding the original superstructure, and the fact the bank and ditch operated together rather than in isolation to create a vertical barrier of up to 6m or more given the depth of the ditch uncovered at Chirk Castle (Belford 2019), this is perhaps not a heinous misrepresentation of the magnitude of Offa’s Dyke in places, if not consistently along its entire route (Note: Humphrey’s (2021: 111) estimation of an average vertical height from apex of bank to bottom of ditch of 3.38m is likely a significant underestimation of the original proportions of the monument.

The description of Offa’s Dyke as for ‘surveillance, communication and to assert control over the Welsh’ is one of the best simply synopses of its imagined function and significance on any heritage interpretation panel I’ve seen. This is correctly joined by an explanation that it has subsequently been subject to damage and destruction without trying to pass judgement on key unanswered (and unanswerable at present) questions regarding the duration and detailed character of its use and appearance.

Also of note is that Wat’s Dyke is mentioned in a separate, second paragraph, noting that at Ruabon the two parallel linear earthworks run closest to each other. Justifiably, text does not commit to an interpretation regarding the relationship between the two monuments.

The photograph does a good job of showing what you are supposed to be looking at, although a plan and map might have also assisted the viewer to relate this section to the overall stance and placement of the monument and its relationship with Wat’s Dyke.

I’ve already identified issues regarding the difficulties of apprehending the monument from the public-accessible land, the pun title, an anachronistic wording to the text, the description of the scale of the monument and the lack of map or diagram. In addition, I must lay out a couple of further criticisms. While the panel mentions both monuments, it is a disappointed that the relaunched Heritage Trail does not include Wat’s Dyke itself when it formerly had done (for this, see a subsequent post). The old Wat’s Dyke heritage board as not been replaced. A second issue is that, despite me visiting only 2 years after the relaunch, my attempt to ‘go digital’ didn’t work as the QR codes, if ever operable, no longer connect up! The aspired connection to the nearby UNESCO WHS of Poncysyllte Aqueduct and Canal has not been established.

Conclusion

The previous panel was worn and faded and thus illegible. The new one replaces it in a location where the Dyke is striking in its proportions but sadly summer foliage makes it difficult for non-experts to fully apprehend and appreciate.

Still, I celebrate this addition of an up-to-date, smart, bilingual heritage interpretation panel on the line of Offa’s Dyke, conveying a well-balanced interpretation of the monument’s early medieval function, significance and damaged state. It is supported by a good photograph of the monument and with the potential to link to digital resources. Offa’s Dyke is justifiably one of 15 locations on Ruabon’s Heritage Trail and thus integrated into the story of Ruabon’s past for today’s community and visitors. However, the management of vegetation cover on the spot will be required, the pun title, the sequence of Dyke and border is reversed in the text and the scale of the monument is exaggerated too. The lack of a map or diagram makes it difficult for visitors to understand what they are looking at. Furthermore, the removal of Wat’s Dyke from the Ruabon Heritage Trail is a retrograde step and the failure to establish or maintain the digital dimensions to the trail is a wasted opportunity. Finally, the link to the World Heritage Site of this trail, and for Offa’s Dyke, is a facility unfulfilled at present.

Despite these reservations, I fully welcome and celebrate this installation in helping visitors and locals alike learn about this important monument.

References

Belford, P. 2019. Hidden earthworks: excavation and protection of Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dykes, Offa’s Dyke Journal 1: 80-95.

Humprheys, O. 2021. Offa’s Dyke in the Landscape: Comparative Size and Topographical Disposition as Indicators of Function, Offa’s Dyke Journal 3: 108-128.

Ray, K. and Bapty, I. 2016. Offa’s Dyke: Landscape and Hegemony in Eighth-Century Britain. Oxford: Oxbow.