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DEVILS DITCH

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Four sections of the Devil's Ditch boundary earthwork and two associated barrows. The earthwork is of a Late Bronze Age or Iron Age boundary earthwork whose survival varies greatly along its length.

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[SU 20934855 - SU 21714725] Devil's Ditch [O.E.] [Twice] [SU
21714725 - SU 23234355] Devil's Ditch [O.E.] (Course of) [Three
times]. (1)

Additional courses: SU 22404850 to SU 22254819 (SU 24 NW 146)
and SU 21774877 to SU 22414893 (SU 24 NW 145) [at which
latter point the two earthworks intersect and pass into
the county of Wiltshire.] (2)

A bivallate linear earthwork of LBA ranch boundary type (see SU
24 SE 13) extending for some 7700.0m. from Tidworth Barracks
southwards to the River Bourne near Cholderton. The county
boundary between Wiltshire and Hampshire follows it all the way
except for a short stretch near Tidworth.

Published 1/2500 revised. (3)

The Devil's Ditch was investigated as part of the Wessex Linear
Ditches project where it formed the eastern boundary of the Northern
and Southern Core Territories. Excavations took place at SU 21104831
(LDP 052), SU 21564491 (LDP 090) and SU 21724599 (LPD 094). The ditch
at LDP 052 and LPD 090 was found to be V-shaped c. 3.7m - 4.9m wide,
and up to 1.75m deep terminating in a steep-sided basal slot. The
ditch was originally flat-bottomed but had been remodelled and the
original silts cleaned out. A cattle skull recovered from secondary
ditch deposits was used to provide a Radio-carbon determination
(OxA-3046). This was used to date events which were noted elsewhere
in the ditch complex (SU 25 SW 166), a discrete cultural horizon
which appears to be connected with the re-use of the ditch system
during the Middle Iron Age.

These excavations also recovered Roman Pottery from the top of the
ditch. Roman and Late Bronze Age pottery was also recovered by field
walking along the southern section of the ditch. (4)

The Devil's Ditch was investigated by RCHME field staff as part of Salisbury Plain Training Area Project. Further details can be found within the project archive.

The linear earthwork bounds the Tidworth golf course on the SW for its entire length, skirting and partially destroying two round barrows as it does so. Where it crosses Dunch Hill it is 5m wide and 1m deep with a corresponding bank on its N side, except where it descends the slope of Dunch Hill. A second linear ditch, c5m wide and 1m deep, with a corresponding bank on its N side, abuts and may even cut into the `Devils Ditch'. This runs to the NE for a distance of 100m following the line of the earlier fields. On reaching the summit of the hill it turns ENE and is clearly aligned on a group of round barrows some 350m W of the golf course perimeter. Surveyed at 1:2500. (5)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

OS. 25" 1939

( 2) General reference

Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club 14 1938-40 p141

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 25-JAN-67

( 4) General reference

English Heritage Archaeology Report 2 1994: Prehistoric Land Divisions on Salisbury Plain. 53ff (R. Bradley, R. Entwistle. F. Raymond)

(5) General reference

D Field/2-2-95/RCHME:SPTA Project

(6) General reference

English Heritage Schedule Entry 03/01/1997

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