The WALL that Divided Britain [20:52]

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· Intro
0:01 · [Music] now if you're familiar with the history of Britain well you'll be aware of hadran's wall
0:05 · built in 122 ad a Roman Frontier wall you may have even heard of the antonine wall
0:11 · same purpose if you really like your history of Britain well you may have even heard of offer's
0:16 · Dyke the wall that separated Mercier and Wales but what if I told you there was another another
0:23 · wall in the south of Britain perhaps of equal if not greater importance have a look at this
0:33 · this absolutely Monumental structure and it stretches across Southern Britain from one
0:39 · side almost to the other this has puzzled antiquarians of old of new archaeologists
0:45 · for hundreds of years surely we should know more about this and what it was for to help
0:53 · us understand this wall this Monument would give us so much context about the landscape
0:58 · the people and what was going on here at the time that meant the need for this Monumental earthwork
1:04 · to be constructed and yet despite almost 300 years of guesswork sporadic digging where we
1:11 · still don't know what it was for and who it was built by that was until now in the last couple
1:17 · of years we've had some archaeological dates which are going to help us piece this puzzle
1:21 · together welcome to the story of Wansdyke we're going to build a wall it's going to be built
· What is it?
1:42 · in its physical form that we can observe today we have 2 and a half sections we have the West
1:48 · Wansdyke stretching from mais noel to Southern bath this is by far a complete unit and instead
1:53 · is made up of individual sections following a clear route it's around 15 km long so we
2:00 · have this section the Eastern section which I'm exploring today you're going to see a
2:03 · lot of this now this ran from Morgan's Hill uh Northwest of devises all across to South
2:08 · Marlborough in savanake Forest that's the absolute definite route potentially more
2:13 · further on but these are the Earthworks that you can see still remaining today now this
2:18 · route is 18 km long and is considered perhaps the most complete section of the sections of
2:24 · the ones dik now I suggested we had two and 1 half sections I'll come to the half shortly
2:30 · but first of all pressing problem of how do we know that this section here the Eastern section
2:34 · had the same purpose as the Western section how do we know they were built at the same time by the
2:39 · same people first and foremost the configuration of each earthwork is identical both have the bank
2:44 · on the self and a ditch on the North sometimes with a very small counter Bank on the North with
2:50 · that therefore we can tell it was built by the people on the South Side well secondly we have
2:55 · its name ones like wen's ditch wen's dke now we can tell this goes back a long way because it's
3:02 · mentioned in a number of anglo-saxon Charters and the first of those was 903 ad I was going to
3:08 · carry on walking inside the Wansdyke but at this point I'm have to somehow climb up the slippery
3:14 · Bank okay I didn't climb it cuz I was a bit worried about doing damage to it that leads
3:20 · us nicely to the next question the main question when was this built cuz that's the point of the
3:24 · entire video cuz if we understand when this was built well then that would give us so
3:28 · much context about the people and the lives and the landscape here at the time we can
3:32 · put this into the history we already know just look at the size of the thing it's absolutely
3:38 · Monumental so we have two clear sections with Monumental Earthworks Earthworks speaking of
· The missing Link
3:53 · an organized Society we have a name and we have a maximum date of 903 ad when
3:59 · we have our first written evidence for this structure okay so that's all good we have the
4:05 · uh Eastern side and the western side but what of the gap between the two well I'll have a look at
4:10 · this and you'll see exactly what joined them just the other side we have a slightly raised Ager of
4:16 · a Roman Road we've got a ditch here which marks this hedgeline now this Roman Road sort of goes
4:22 · between uh the western side of the Eastern section at Morgan's Hill all the way across
4:27 · to B on the Eastern side side of the Eastern section of the onak and it's connected by this
4:33 · Roman Road you have a very straight line for Miles hedge rows and a ditch here in between
4:40 · me and the Roman Road just the other side now I don't want to play Down the Roman Road I'm very
4:46 · much here for that but in context of today's Quest what does it mean well I guess we have
4:51 · two options if this was just a coincidence and the Roman Road was not seen as part of
4:55 · the entire structure we can consider two separate Earth Works perhaps in their own right maybe this
5:02 · low land that the Roman Road finds itself on in between was never really traveled in the north
5:08 · south Direction and The on dikes well they were there to see off traffic from the Ridgeway from
5:13 · the Northeast and on the other side seeing off traffic from the fossway from the north
5:19 · respectively but what if they did use this structure what if it turns out they did use it
5:26 · as part of the Wansdyke the bit that connects the east and the West all the way along here
5:31 · doesn't look like a huge structure do we have any evidence at all that it was part of that structure
5:37 · it turns out we do I'll list it and you let me know if you buy it or not number one well we do
5:44 · have the OS maps from the sort of the late 1800s and they do detail this as both the Wansdyke and
5:49 · the Roman Road that's only 150 years or so of history number two we can go back a bit further
5:56 · to some early tith Maps late 1700s early 1800s and again it details this as the Wansdyke then
6:04 · we have number three Tom from allotment Fox the YouTube channel where he discovered a document
6:09 · from the 1300s which very much changed my opinion on this whole debate this area was once a huge
6:16 · Forest to the north of where I am now Chippenham forest and to the South Melksham Forest now these
6:23 · forests had boundaries written boundaries like an old Charter and there we have it
6:29 · this Roman Road has for over 700 years been known as the oneskee okay so this isn't
6:36 · evidence in itself that this was definitely the ones dke but my goodness me we've now got
6:41 · 7 or 800 or so years that this had been known as the Wansdyke that's much more tangible than
6:48 · anything else to suggest that this was one long linear structure all the way across the [Music]
· Iron Age
6:56 · country Okay so let's recap we have a maximum build date of 903 CE and well we don't have
7:06 · as yet a start date let's try and pin that down and we'll start here at Morgan's hill our beloved
7:14 · William stukeley came here and was inspired to comment and pass judgment in fact he declared
7:20 · it was of Iron Age construction and we should overthrow any notion of those that imagine it to
7:26 · be anything to do with the Saxons so Stukeley went on to evidence this and he did so on Morgan's Hill
7:32 · in fact right here on this very spot cuz this is where from the middle section the Roman Road and
7:37 · the Wansdyke actually split and up there you can see the Earthworks that's the Wansdyke Carries
7:42 · On up there over the hills and in that direction up that pathway there well that's the direction
7:47 · of the Roman Road and stukeley said well we don't need to do any archaeology or any digging here we
7:51 · can just look at the landscape the Roman Road he said that cuts right through the onsd therefore
7:58 · the ond came before the Roman era fantastic he declared it was built by the baly tribe
8:05 · as they Advanced North one of their four walls so surely stoley wouldn't get this wrong would
8:12 · he I mean he did get a few things wrong and led people out the Garden Path for centuries
8:16 · on end but not this time our stukeley had some basic archaeological principles at play here one
8:22 · thing cut through another therefore we can date it we have the Wansdyke as a pre-roman structure
· A bit Later?
8:32 · so off goes William stukeley and in comes Sir Richard coalt Hoare self-described as a historian
8:37 · of Wiltshire Hoare doesn't do any digging per se but does give us a few really helpful insights
8:44 · forgive me on a little bit continuity on this film filmed over two days that are
8:47 · very different from one another now Colt Hoare well by and large when he came here he agreed
8:54 · with stoley he said yes this was definitely of Iron Age construction it certainly looks like it
8:59 · feels like it and he attributed it to a number of different things that stukeley did too but he said
9:05 · one other really important factor you see he found a bit like this that was sort of cut through as
9:10 · a sheep drove and he looked at one of the uh the banks and he deemed that right down here he said
9:17 · well actually there's two different layers to this he said what he saw was uh Iron Age Hill Fort at
9:24 · this level and built on top of that was something which was more akin to the Saxons [Music]
9:32 · so that's all good maybe we're starting to be on the right track but it doesn't really help
9:35 · us pin down a date it just tells us what they used to think a couple of hundred years ago
9:40 · but Hoare himself stood over at new buildings on the Eastern side of this section where it just
9:47 · stops in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere no Prominent Point on the landscape and
9:52 · he almost came up with a side quest there and then himself well did this go further
9:56 · did this use any more dikes that we know of or perhaps this went down to the kennet and
10:01 · formed a complete linear boundary across the country from the kenet that side all the way
10:06 · across here to the Avon closer to the Bristol end and we have one long Monument which I will never
10:14 · stop being completely all struck at look at that there if you can see through the mist and Rain
10:19 · he was already friends with the Earl of Ailsbury a major land owner in this area of Wiltshire the
10:25 · good Earl and another Shepherd at the time both recall the Wansdyke style earthwork now to get
10:31 · the location as they described we have to go off the beat in track to round about here okay
10:38 · so that is a shot I replicated from a book The Albany book I think it was and it's a speculated
10:44 · route as per sir Coly Hoarse um notion that this went on much further so let's set our own little
10:53 · side quest let's stick 60 seconds on the clock as of now let's dive in that hedge and see if we can
10:59 · any evidence of the ones like this far out well he's got to find a way in first now straight on
11:05 · down that way in a line across the valley goes the bedwin dyke and he stipulated that that would have
11:10 · um been part of this Wansdyke I need to find a way in the head so I can actually have a look at
11:14 · it and see if it does look anything like the Wansdyke uh just found a suitable Gap clock
11:19 · sticking okay so I'm probably going to need more than a minute to explain but nevertheless are we
11:25 · in the Wansdyke well we've got a huge Bank on the South off the southwest side slightly less
11:31 · of a bank on that side um so this does really fit with the construction of it everything else about
11:37 · it looks quite good the the gap between the two Banks looks good so have we got the war stock on
11:44 · hand I guess we're never going to know well we certainly aren't going to know before we do some
11:47 · archaeology on this and some other sections but I can see why Sir Richard Coalt Hoare and
11:52 · others are from speculated that this was the Wansdyke Hoare was now obsessed or inspired and
12:01 · he spent months almost years looking at various ditches and dikes from the bedwin Dyke chisbury
12:07 · amp Broad Lane ink pen all of those places to try and see if this look like what they look like and
12:14 · maybe it was a continuation further that way now many of us today aren't really convinced
12:20 · that that does join up to a lot of those dkes and Banks and Earthworks but perhaps time and
12:27 · archaeology will one day tell us and fill in that gap for the meantime let's get back on
12:31 · track 70 years would pass and we still believe this to be of iron Age construction and that's
· The Dig
12:42 · okay because it doesn't half look like a hill fort in places and of course William stukeley
12:47 · told us that to be the case so why would we believe otherwise then in steps Augustus
12:52 · pitt Rivers now he'd recently become the uh first inspector of ancient monuments
12:59 · and he was invited to a dig with AC Smith for the last 100 years or more they firmly believe
13:06 · this Monumental structure was indeed of Iron Age construction but now pitt rivers and Smith
13:13 · could change this view of Wansdyke you see pitt Rivers had recently dug at Bokerley Dyke down
13:20 · on the wichard Dorset borders and that was very similar in construction to this not only that but
13:27 · pitt Rivers had also discovered that it was sub Roman or at least very late Roman in its date I
13:34 · love this part of the Wansdyke it goes on for miles in that direction now pitt Rivers he set
13:38 · up camp at the Bear in devizes and each morning he made his way up to here or just over the other
13:43 · side of that hill and him and his team dug a 30ft trench in that trench they found some Samian and
13:49 · pottery and an iron cleat very similar to what they found over at Bokerley Dyke there was one
13:56 · other thing he found an enclosure which he felt was early Roman and here is the kicker here is
14:02 · the most important thing from what pitt Rivers had discovered so that inclosure where he deemed it
14:08 · the ones cut through that enclosure and that tells us so much because he also came to heel back down
14:14 · the hill at Morgan Hill and he also said that well actually the Roman Road didn't cut through
14:19 · Wansdyke the Wansdyke cut through the Roman Road therefore the ond came after the Roman Road and
14:25 · the Roman era so right now in real time we can confirm as did Pitt Rivers at the time that we
14:32 · are unable to fix a date for the Wansdyke however we can at least determine its Origins are Roman
14:39 · or post Roman there were a few other Publications throughout the next 100 years or so but nothing
· Three Theories
14:46 · really helped there was a lot of speculation field work and such including this huge piece of work
14:53 · by the archaeologist Albany major we also have a few more Digs at the Eastern end of the East
14:59 · section that combined with looking at the Modern Parish boundaries and their lack of correlation
15:04 · with the Dyke suggested a hypothesis that implied very shortlived usage of the Dyke whatever the
15:11 · date though they concluded that in the 1960s that the Wansdyke had achieved its purpose so clearly
15:17 · walls and ditches and boundaries or whatever this is well it doesn't work well for archaeology
15:24 · because people lived and traveled within their own territory there would have been no active
15:28 · life here therefore the archaeology and the finds would be very sparse so let's now consider what
15:35 · this would have been used for and we're going to use three different theories to do that I'll
15:41 · go through each very briefly and you let me know what you think is the best one or if you have an
15:45 · alternative Theory I look forward to meeting you in the comments below 367 ad to 450 ad Britain
15:54 · versus Britain gildas a six Century monk from Britain describes in his writing in the absence of
16:00 · Rome weak in beating off the weapons of the enemy but strong in putting up with Civil War and the
16:07 · burden of sin now this date range sits well with the perspective of the evidence from pitt rivers
16:13 · and his conclusions the Builders of the Wansdyke we know would have been from the south side
16:19 · so what remained of those that were established centuries before in the form of the bow guy if so
16:25 · they would have been protecting from the Dobunni to the north with the potential power vacuum from
16:30 · the Romans slowly offering less protection events like the conspiracy of 367 or perhaps the building
16:37 · of the Wansdyke was there to protect the roots of the Fosse and equally on the Eastern section that
16:42 · of the Ridgeway hugely important trade routes and lines in their territory this Theory however has
16:48 · holes Allan Soldat suggests that it doesn't really consider the Durotriges later coming
16:54 · out from the somerset levels and reoccupying strategic Hill Forts and capturing the mendit
16:59 · and its valuable resources Theory number two 410 AD to 600 AD Britain versus the Saxons now this
17:09 · has been discussed a number of times but we have one significant issue that stops IT in its tracks
17:15 · this structure was built from those in the South protecting themselves in some way from the north
17:20 · their people their resources for the Britain to protect the incoming Saxons well this doesn't work
· Shaw Farm
17:30 · so this is shaw Farm I was invited here by the farm owner it's on private land and Untouched
17:36 · by the plow and people for centuries that was until Dr langlands and colleagues from Swansea
17:42 · University recently came here and turned this entire structure metaphorically on
17:47 · its head optically stimulated ill luminescence was the order of the day you take some soil from
17:54 · various places and you determine when it last saw a light so let's step forward to 750 CE and
18:00 · we have Mercier Aethelbald the king of invading deep into wesex territory in fact Aethelbald was
18:07 · a patron of glastenbury Abbey at the time wessex was very much on the back foot now Cynewulf the
18:14 · king of Wessex his first act as King in 757 CE where his First Act was to witness the transfer of
18:22 · some land within Wessex to Malsbury Abbey within Mercier late 757 ad Aethelbald is murdered likely
18:34 · much to the joy of Cynewulf he began to step up we have him noted as battling with some Britains
18:41 · granting land himself now in various Charters so I've reached the section where the Ridgeway here
18:48 · crosses almost perpendicular with the Wansdyke and uh potentially one of the reasons why it was
18:54 · built at this point um certainly in its wall sense now right now could this have been the
19:02 · perfect opportunity for Cynewulf to stamp his authority on Wessex and build this build this
19:09 · huge Frontier this barrier this trade barrier right now as langlands and Reynolds have both
19:15 · suggested in the past this construction this Monumental earthwork could have been a great
19:22 · opportunity for Cynewulf to stamp his authority on the the boundary between wessex and mercia to the
19:29 · north soldat suggests that the latest point at which this construction could have taken place
19:40 · would have been 779 CE when Cynewulf and Offa battled at the Battle of bensington offa took the
19:47 · settlement and wessex was subjugated by Mercia for the next 23 years so perhaps we're looking
19:54 · at a structure that ultimately inspired offer to build his famous Dyke separated
19:58 · Wales from Mercia soon after so what of a date what of optical stimulated luminescence that
20:05 · we've been promised while Dr Alex langlands suggests that the the date range would be
20:10 · something between 650 CE and 750 CE now that's great because it doesn't fall too far from the
20:16 · third theory that we discussed perhaps a tiny bit before Cynewulf his time and perhaps the
20:22 · king prior to him was already building up these defenses this border um which perhaps Cynewulf
20:29 · took over thereafter well either way we do have Wessex versus Mercier as a result of the test
20:37 · conducted just about half a mile in that direction at shaw Farm I've been Paul really appreciate your
20:42 · time if you want to click on like And subscribe i' be really appreciative see you this time next week

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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
	·	Intro
0:01	·	[Music] now if you're familiar with the history of Britain well you'll be aware of hadran's wall
0:05	·	built in 122 ad a Roman Frontier wall you may have even heard of the antonine wall
0:11	·	same purpose if you really like your history of Britain well you may have even heard of offer's
0:16	·	Dyke the wall that separated Mercier and Wales but what if I told you there was another another
0:23	·	wall in the south of Britain perhaps of equal if not greater importance have a look at this
0:33	·	this absolutely Monumental structure and it stretches across Southern Britain from one
0:39	·	side almost to the other this has puzzled antiquarians of old of new archaeologists
0:45	·	for hundreds of years surely we should know more about this and what it was for to help
0:53	·	us understand this wall this Monument would give us so much context about the landscape
0:58	·	the people and what was going on here at the time that meant the need for this Monumental earthwork
1:04	·	to be constructed and yet despite almost 300 years of guesswork sporadic digging where we
1:11	·	still don't know what it was for and who it was built by that was until now in the last couple
1:17	·	of years we've had some archaeological dates which are going to help us piece this puzzle
1:21	·	together welcome to the story of Wansdyke we're going to build a wall it's going to be built
	·	What is it?
1:42	·	in its physical form that we can observe today we have 2 and a half sections we have the West
1:48	·	Wansdyke stretching from mais noel to Southern bath this is by far a complete unit and instead
1:53	·	is made up of individual sections following a clear route it's around 15 km long so we
2:00	·	have this section the Eastern section which I'm exploring today you're going to see a
2:03	·	lot of this now this ran from Morgan's Hill uh Northwest of devises all across to South
2:08	·	Marlborough in savanake Forest that's the absolute definite route potentially more
2:13	·	further on but these are the Earthworks that you can see still remaining today now this
2:18	·	route is 18 km long and is considered perhaps the most complete section of the sections of
2:24	·	the ones dik now I suggested we had two and 1 half sections I'll come to the half shortly
2:30	·	but first of all pressing problem of how do we know that this section here the Eastern section
2:34	·	had the same purpose as the Western section how do we know they were built at the same time by the
2:39	·	same people first and foremost the configuration of each earthwork is identical both have the bank
2:44	·	on the self and a ditch on the North sometimes with a very small counter Bank on the North with
2:50	·	that therefore we can tell it was built by the people on the South Side well secondly we have
2:55	·	its name ones like wen's ditch wen's dke now we can tell this goes back a long way because it's
3:02	·	mentioned in a number of anglo-saxon Charters and the first of those was 903 ad I was going to
3:08	·	carry on walking inside the Wansdyke but at this point I'm have to somehow climb up the slippery
3:14	·	Bank okay I didn't climb it cuz I was a bit worried about doing damage to it that leads
3:20	·	us nicely to the next question the main question when was this built cuz that's the point of the
3:24	·	entire video cuz if we understand when this was built well then that would give us so
3:28	·	much context about the people and the lives and the landscape here at the time we can
3:32	·	put this into the history we already know just look at the size of the thing it's absolutely
3:38	·	Monumental so we have two clear sections with Monumental Earthworks Earthworks speaking of
	·	The missing Link
3:53	·	an organized Society we have a name and we have a maximum date of 903 ad when
3:59	·	we have our first written evidence for this structure okay so that's all good we have the
4:05	·	uh Eastern side and the western side but what of the gap between the two well I'll have a look at
4:10	·	this and you'll see exactly what joined them just the other side we have a slightly raised Ager of
4:16	·	a Roman Road we've got a ditch here which marks this hedgeline now this Roman Road sort of goes
4:22	·	between uh the western side of the Eastern section at Morgan's Hill all the way across
4:27	·	to B on the Eastern side side of the Eastern section of the onak and it's connected by this
4:33	·	Roman Road you have a very straight line for Miles hedge rows and a ditch here in between
4:40	·	me and the Roman Road just the other side now I don't want to play Down the Roman Road I'm very
4:46	·	much here for that but in context of today's Quest what does it mean well I guess we have
4:51	·	two options if this was just a coincidence and the Roman Road was not seen as part of
4:55	·	the entire structure we can consider two separate Earth Works perhaps in their own right maybe this
5:02	·	low land that the Roman Road finds itself on in between was never really traveled in the north
5:08	·	south Direction and The on dikes well they were there to see off traffic from the Ridgeway from
5:13	·	the Northeast and on the other side seeing off traffic from the fossway from the north
5:19	·	respectively but what if they did use this structure what if it turns out they did use it
5:26	·	as part of the Wansdyke the bit that connects the east and the West all the way along here
5:31	·	doesn't look like a huge structure do we have any evidence at all that it was part of that structure
5:37	·	it turns out we do I'll list it and you let me know if you buy it or not number one well we do
5:44	·	have the OS maps from the sort of the late 1800s and they do detail this as both the Wansdyke and
5:49	·	the Roman Road that's only 150 years or so of history number two we can go back a bit further
5:56	·	to some early tith Maps late 1700s early 1800s and again it details this as the Wansdyke then
6:04	·	we have number three Tom from allotment Fox the YouTube channel where he discovered a document
6:09	·	from the 1300s which very much changed my opinion on this whole debate this area was once a huge
6:16	·	Forest to the north of where I am now Chippenham forest and to the South Melksham Forest now these
6:23	·	forests had boundaries written boundaries like an old Charter and there we have it
6:29	·	this Roman Road has for over 700 years been known as the oneskee okay so this isn't
6:36	·	evidence in itself that this was definitely the ones dke but my goodness me we've now got
6:41	·	7 or 800 or so years that this had been known as the Wansdyke that's much more tangible than
6:48	·	anything else to suggest that this was one long linear structure all the way across the [Music]
	·	Iron Age
6:56	·	country Okay so let's recap we have a maximum build date of 903 CE and well we don't have
7:06	·	as yet a start date let's try and pin that down and we'll start here at Morgan's hill our beloved
7:14	·	William stukeley came here and was inspired to comment and pass judgment in fact he declared
7:20	·	it was of Iron Age construction and we should overthrow any notion of those that imagine it to
7:26	·	be anything to do with the Saxons so Stukeley went on to evidence this and he did so on Morgan's Hill
7:32	·	in fact right here on this very spot cuz this is where from the middle section the Roman Road and
7:37	·	the Wansdyke actually split and up there you can see the Earthworks that's the Wansdyke Carries
7:42	·	On up there over the hills and in that direction up that pathway there well that's the direction
7:47	·	of the Roman Road and stukeley said well we don't need to do any archaeology or any digging here we
7:51	·	can just look at the landscape the Roman Road he said that cuts right through the onsd therefore
7:58	·	the ond came before the Roman era fantastic he declared it was built by the baly tribe
8:05	·	as they Advanced North one of their four walls so surely stoley wouldn't get this wrong would
8:12	·	he I mean he did get a few things wrong and led people out the Garden Path for centuries
8:16	·	on end but not this time our stukeley had some basic archaeological principles at play here one
8:22	·	thing cut through another therefore we can date it we have the Wansdyke as a pre-roman structure
	·	A bit Later?
8:32	·	so off goes William stukeley and in comes Sir Richard coalt Hoare self-described as a historian
8:37	·	of Wiltshire Hoare doesn't do any digging per se but does give us a few really helpful insights
8:44	·	forgive me on a little bit continuity on this film filmed over two days that are
8:47	·	very different from one another now Colt Hoare well by and large when he came here he agreed
8:54	·	with stoley he said yes this was definitely of Iron Age construction it certainly looks like it
8:59	·	feels like it and he attributed it to a number of different things that stukeley did too but he said
9:05	·	one other really important factor you see he found a bit like this that was sort of cut through as
9:10	·	a sheep drove and he looked at one of the uh the banks and he deemed that right down here he said
9:17	·	well actually there's two different layers to this he said what he saw was uh Iron Age Hill Fort at
9:24	·	this level and built on top of that was something which was more akin to the Saxons [Music]
9:32	·	so that's all good maybe we're starting to be on the right track but it doesn't really help
9:35	·	us pin down a date it just tells us what they used to think a couple of hundred years ago
9:40	·	but Hoare himself stood over at new buildings on the Eastern side of this section where it just
9:47	·	stops in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere no Prominent Point on the landscape and
9:52	·	he almost came up with a side quest there and then himself well did this go further
9:56	·	did this use any more dikes that we know of or perhaps this went down to the kennet and
10:01	·	formed a complete linear boundary across the country from the kenet that side all the way
10:06	·	across here to the Avon closer to the Bristol end and we have one long Monument which I will never
10:14	·	stop being completely all struck at look at that there if you can see through the mist and Rain
10:19	·	he was already friends with the Earl of Ailsbury a major land owner in this area of Wiltshire the
10:25	·	good Earl and another Shepherd at the time both recall the Wansdyke style earthwork now to get
10:31	·	the location as they described we have to go off the beat in track to round about here okay
10:38	·	so that is a shot I replicated from a book The Albany book I think it was and it's a speculated
10:44	·	route as per sir Coly Hoarse um notion that this went on much further so let's set our own little
10:53	·	side quest let's stick 60 seconds on the clock as of now let's dive in that hedge and see if we can
10:59	·	any evidence of the ones like this far out well he's got to find a way in first now straight on
11:05	·	down that way in a line across the valley goes the bedwin dyke and he stipulated that that would have
11:10	·	um been part of this Wansdyke I need to find a way in the head so I can actually have a look at
11:14	·	it and see if it does look anything like the Wansdyke uh just found a suitable Gap clock
11:19	·	sticking okay so I'm probably going to need more than a minute to explain but nevertheless are we
11:25	·	in the Wansdyke well we've got a huge Bank on the South off the southwest side slightly less
11:31	·	of a bank on that side um so this does really fit with the construction of it everything else about
11:37	·	it looks quite good the the gap between the two Banks looks good so have we got the war stock on
11:44	·	hand I guess we're never going to know well we certainly aren't going to know before we do some
11:47	·	archaeology on this and some other sections but I can see why Sir Richard Coalt Hoare and
11:52	·	others are from speculated that this was the Wansdyke Hoare was now obsessed or inspired and
12:01	·	he spent months almost years looking at various ditches and dikes from the bedwin Dyke chisbury
12:07	·	amp Broad Lane ink pen all of those places to try and see if this look like what they look like and
12:14	·	maybe it was a continuation further that way now many of us today aren't really convinced
12:20	·	that that does join up to a lot of those dkes and Banks and Earthworks but perhaps time and
12:27	·	archaeology will one day tell us and fill in that gap for the meantime let's get back on
12:31	·	track 70 years would pass and we still believe this to be of iron Age construction and that's
	·	The Dig
12:42	·	okay because it doesn't half look like a hill fort in places and of course William stukeley
12:47	·	told us that to be the case so why would we believe otherwise then in steps Augustus
12:52	·	pitt Rivers now he'd recently become the uh first inspector of ancient monuments
12:59	·	and he was invited to a dig with AC Smith for the last 100 years or more they firmly believe
13:06	·	this Monumental structure was indeed of Iron Age construction but now pitt rivers and Smith
13:13	·	could change this view of Wansdyke you see pitt Rivers had recently dug at Bokerley Dyke down
13:20	·	on the wichard Dorset borders and that was very similar in construction to this not only that but
13:27	·	pitt Rivers had also discovered that it was sub Roman or at least very late Roman in its date I
13:34	·	love this part of the Wansdyke it goes on for miles in that direction now pitt Rivers he set
13:38	·	up camp at the Bear in devizes and each morning he made his way up to here or just over the other
13:43	·	side of that hill and him and his team dug a 30ft trench in that trench they found some Samian and
13:49	·	pottery and an iron cleat very similar to what they found over at Bokerley Dyke there was one
13:56	·	other thing he found an enclosure which he felt was early Roman and here is the kicker here is
14:02	·	the most important thing from what pitt Rivers had discovered so that inclosure where he deemed it
14:08	·	the ones cut through that enclosure and that tells us so much because he also came to heel back down
14:14	·	the hill at Morgan Hill and he also said that well actually the Roman Road didn't cut through
14:19	·	Wansdyke the Wansdyke cut through the Roman Road therefore the ond came after the Roman Road and
14:25	·	the Roman era so right now in real time we can confirm as did Pitt Rivers at the time that we
14:32	·	are unable to fix a date for the Wansdyke however we can at least determine its Origins are Roman
14:39	·	or post Roman there were a few other Publications throughout the next 100 years or so but nothing
	·	Three Theories
14:46	·	really helped there was a lot of speculation field work and such including this huge piece of work
14:53	·	by the archaeologist Albany major we also have a few more Digs at the Eastern end of the East
14:59	·	section that combined with looking at the Modern Parish boundaries and their lack of correlation
15:04	·	with the Dyke suggested a hypothesis that implied very shortlived usage of the Dyke whatever the
15:11	·	date though they concluded that in the 1960s that the Wansdyke had achieved its purpose so clearly
15:17	·	walls and ditches and boundaries or whatever this is well it doesn't work well for archaeology
15:24	·	because people lived and traveled within their own territory there would have been no active
15:28	·	life here therefore the archaeology and the finds would be very sparse so let's now consider what
15:35	·	this would have been used for and we're going to use three different theories to do that I'll
15:41	·	go through each very briefly and you let me know what you think is the best one or if you have an
15:45	·	alternative Theory I look forward to meeting you in the comments below 367 ad to 450 ad Britain
15:54	·	versus Britain gildas a six Century monk from Britain describes in his writing in the absence of
16:00	·	Rome weak in beating off the weapons of the enemy but strong in putting up with Civil War and the
16:07	·	burden of sin now this date range sits well with the perspective of the evidence from pitt rivers
16:13	·	and his conclusions the Builders of the Wansdyke we know would have been from the south side
16:19	·	so what remained of those that were established centuries before in the form of the bow guy if so
16:25	·	they would have been protecting from the Dobunni to the north with the potential power vacuum from
16:30	·	the Romans slowly offering less protection events like the conspiracy of 367 or perhaps the building
16:37	·	of the Wansdyke was there to protect the roots of the Fosse and equally on the Eastern section that
16:42	·	of the Ridgeway hugely important trade routes and lines in their territory this Theory however has
16:48	·	holes Allan Soldat suggests that it doesn't really consider the Durotriges later coming
16:54	·	out from the somerset levels and reoccupying strategic Hill Forts and capturing the mendit
16:59	·	and its valuable resources Theory number two 410 AD to 600 AD Britain versus the Saxons now this
17:09	·	has been discussed a number of times but we have one significant issue that stops IT in its tracks
17:15	·	this structure was built from those in the South protecting themselves in some way from the north
17:20	·	their people their resources for the Britain to protect the incoming Saxons well this doesn't work
	·	Shaw Farm
17:30	·	so this is shaw Farm I was invited here by the farm owner it's on private land and Untouched
17:36	·	by the plow and people for centuries that was until Dr langlands and colleagues from Swansea
17:42	·	University recently came here and turned this entire structure metaphorically on
17:47	·	its head optically stimulated ill luminescence was the order of the day you take some soil from
17:54	·	various places and you determine when it last saw a light so let's step forward to 750 CE and
18:00	·	we have Mercier Aethelbald the king of invading deep into wesex territory in fact Aethelbald was
18:07	·	a patron of glastenbury Abbey at the time wessex was very much on the back foot now Cynewulf the
18:14	·	king of Wessex his first act as King in 757 CE where his First Act was to witness the transfer of
18:22	·	some land within Wessex to Malsbury Abbey within Mercier late 757 ad Aethelbald is murdered likely
18:34	·	much to the joy of Cynewulf he began to step up we have him noted as battling with some Britains
18:41	·	granting land himself now in various Charters so I've reached the section where the Ridgeway here
18:48	·	crosses almost perpendicular with the Wansdyke and uh potentially one of the reasons why it was
18:54	·	built at this point um certainly in its wall sense now right now could this have been the
19:02	·	perfect opportunity for Cynewulf to stamp his authority on Wessex and build this build this
19:09	·	huge Frontier this barrier this trade barrier right now as langlands and Reynolds have both
19:15	·	suggested in the past this construction this Monumental earthwork could have been a great
19:22	·	opportunity for Cynewulf to stamp his authority on the the boundary between wessex and mercia to the
19:29	·	north soldat suggests that the latest point at which this construction could have taken place
19:40	·	would have been 779 CE when Cynewulf and Offa battled at the Battle of bensington offa took the
19:47	·	settlement and wessex was subjugated by Mercia for the next 23 years so perhaps we're looking
19:54	·	at a structure that ultimately inspired offer to build his famous Dyke separated
19:58	·	Wales from Mercia soon after so what of a date what of optical stimulated luminescence that
20:05	·	we've been promised while Dr Alex langlands suggests that the the date range would be
20:10	·	something between 650 CE and 750 CE now that's great because it doesn't fall too far from the
20:16	·	third theory that we discussed perhaps a tiny bit before Cynewulf his time and perhaps the
20:22	·	king prior to him was already building up these defenses this border um which perhaps Cynewulf
20:29	·	took over thereafter well either way we do have Wessex versus Mercier as a result of the test
20:37	·	conducted just about half a mile in that direction at shaw Farm I've been Paul really appreciate your
20:42	·	time if you want to click on like And subscribe i' be really appreciative see you this time next week