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The Bulwarks (Minchinhampton)

Dyke

Fieldnotes

Visited 6.3.13

Directions:
There are several minor roads which run across Minchinhampton Common.
One of the roads runs right through The Bulwarks Dyke.

I have only ever visited a couple of Dykes in the past but this is probably the second most impressive I have seen (after a superb section of Offa’s Dyke near Knighton).

The Dyke is very obvious and snakes across the Common.
The banks still stand to around 2m in height – from the base of the ditch

Well worth a look when visiting the nearby Whitfields Tump Long Barrow.

***
In the excellent book Prehistoric England by Nicholas Thomas (page 131) there is a nice photo of a section of the Dyke being excavated. You can see how well constructed it was. In the book it is referred to as Minchinhampton Enclosure and is said to be over 1 mile long enclosing an area of 600 acres. The excavation found the original ditch to have been 6ft deep and 12ft wide. Interestingly the book states the Dyke may have been built by Caratacus following his defeat by the Romans. (Don't think it would have stopped the Romans for very long!)
Posted by CARL
8th March 2013ce

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