More information : [ST 1613 3820 to ST 1615 3803] DEAD WOMAN'S DITCH [NR] (1)
Univallate Ditch on the West. (2)
The scene of the discovery of the body of the wife of John
Walford, whom he murdered in 1789 and for which crime he was
subsequently executed at Walford's Gibbet, nearby (ST 13 NE 34). (3)
This is a linear earthwork consisting of a bank with a ditch
along the western side. It crosses high ground from a spring at
ST 1593 3862 to a stream at ST 1625 3771. It appears to be a
boundary, rather than a defensive, earthwork, of uncertain
date, although clearly predating a road and enclosure bank
which cut through it. For a similar work see ST 13 NW 27.
Surveyed at 1/10560 (see map diagram). (4)
The name 'Dead Woman's Ditch' occurs on Day and Masters' Map of
Somerset of 1782, and therefore antedates the Walford murder. (5)
ST 160 385 - ST 162 378 Dead Woman's Ditch. Linear earthwork, SAM No 453. (6)
Part of the Dead Woman's Ditch is visible, through the trees, on aerial photographs, on Robin Upright's Hill. The bank and ditch are visible for 170m to the south of the road across the hill, between ST 1614 3803 and ST 1613 3820. The bank can be seen for 410m between Lady's Fountain and the road, from ST 1594 3862 and ST 1611 3827. There appear to be some breaks in the bank but as the exact details of the form cannot be seen on the aerial photographs it is unclear if these are modern or not.
Comparison with other linear ditches suggest that Dead Woman's Ditch could have a Prehistoric or Early Medieval origin.
(7)
A linear earthwork, known as Dead Womans Ditch, of probable later prehistoric date, runs for some 950m from Ladys Fountain, across Robin Uprights Hill, to Ramscombe. The earthwork is now in woodland. The southern section, in Ramscombe, has been under coniferous plantation for much of the 20th century; the section on the ridge top is mostly covered with scrub oak, and the section which runs down Robin Uprights Hill to Ladys Fountain is now in regenerating oak coppice.
The south end of the earthwork has been cut by a forest track at ST 16247 37722, but the earthwork presumably terminated close to this point near the stream in the bottom of Rams Combe. The earthwork here comprises a broad, spread bank, 8m wide and 1m high, with a ditch on its west side, 5m wide and 0.8m deep. Some 150m of the earthwork were able to be surveyed, despite the fact that it is covered with dense coniferous plantation. North of ST 16184 37863, however, the plantation is too dense to allow survey but the earthwork does appear to continue up to the top of the plantation.
The earthwork runs for some 170m between the top of the coniferous plantation and the road between Over Stowey and Crowcombe. Here the earthwork comprises a bank, 6m wide, 1m high, with a ditch on the west side, 4m wide and 2m deep. The south end of this section has been cut through by the commons enclosure bank. Two paths cut the bank and the whole has been cut through by the Over Stowey to Crowcombe road. North of the road the earthwork has been cut through by a series of tracks or packhorse ways which survive as earthworks. At ST 16129 38234 the bank survives as a spread, sub-rectangular mound, 15m long, 8m wide and 0.8m high. The earthwork is then continuous for some 780m to its terminal close to Ladys Fountain at ST 1594 3863. A substantial track cuts the earthwork at ST 16078 38372. In the ditch, at ST 16028 38536 a hollow, 6.7x3x1m deep may be the site of a small building or shelter which has utilised the ditch. At ST 15968 38619 a sub- rectangular mound of stones on the bank, close to its terminal, may be some form of marker.
The earthwork was surveyed using EDM with differential GPS control at a scale of 1:1000 as part of the EH survey of the Quantock Hills AONB (8).
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