A Guard Ditch

      Of all the things my Celtic ancestors accomplished along the way, they certainly new how to dig ditches and put up fences. From one of the earliest circular farms (Abingdon, p.170, Green) down to the much larger and complex hillfort (Old Oswestry, p.190-193, Williams), they surrounded each with ditches and fences.  Initially, the fences were more like hedges formed by a dense row of branches or shrubs, and intended as a barrier defining the outside from the inside. The fences became more complex and stronger to provide defense against all kinds of beats and bangs, from all sorts of animals, including humans.

      The following drawing shows Old Oswestry and its relationship to one of the more famous dykes. The Anglo-Saxons came to call this Wat's Dyke after their word "wat" meaning guards. [I have not seen this described among the many references to this structure, but the word is from my Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English by H.Corson, Henry Holt & Company, 1873, p. 472]

      Now, one can see the dyke (bank and ditch) as they were positioned by the fort colored in orange. The ditch faces the western side with the fence on the eastern side. This would make one think that folks wanted "things" to stay on the western side. All along it seemed a little odd that one would place the dike some 500 feet below the ones above, who were able to throw objects down on your head. Not much in the way to guard if you're at the bottom. It must be to guard against something else?  From this fort, the dyke runs some 65 km to the north. [1 km =.62137 mi. for us on this side of the great pond!] The following figure shows Wat's dyke northward as it leaves the fort.

       The map is modified from www.streetmap.co.uk. Anyway, what's the deal? My theory is yet to come.