The North Oxfordshire Grim's Ditch

THE NORTH OXFORDSHIRE GRIM’S DITCH: AN ENIGMA WITHIN AN ENIGMA Tim Copeland THE ‘CINDERELLA’ OF LARGE SCALE LATE IRON AGE/EARLY ROMAN ENCLOSURES. AT THE TIME THAT THIS MONUMENT WAS CONSTRUCTED THERE WAS NO ‘OXFORDSHIRE’ AND ‘GRIM’ WAS OF ANGLO- SAXON ORIGIN. WE HAVE TO THINK HERE ON A REGIONAL, OR EVEN NATIONAL, SCALE. The late Iron Age major sites Crawford did a lot of fieldwork on foot and in the air (the ‘father’ of fieldwork as we know it) and discovered sections of the NOGD south of the River Evenlode. He published his findings in ‘Antiquity’ Issue 15 in 1930 under the title ‘Grimsdyke in Wychwood’. He suggested that the NOGD might have been constructed about 370 AD to stop invading Saxons attacking the villas. NOGD CHARACTERISTICS I • Area: 80sq km • Linear bank and ditch: 40km with gaps • Bank: 2m high(?) and 7m wide • Ditch:1.75m deep • Ditch: 6.8m wide • Possible palisade in front of the ditch • No traces of previous occupation within the enclosed area EXCAVATIONS AT BLENHEIM AND MODEL FARM DITCHLEY 1936 • It was decided that the structure was completed in the early AD 40s against the Roman threat. It was then deliberately filled in almost immediately when it was seen to be redundant. A cross-section of the NOGD at Ditchley in 1936. Note the presence of a ‘palisade trench’ beyond the ditch. This occurs at many points on the north circuit. THE NOGD AT LONG HANBOROUGH Having been covered by woodland for at least a 1000 years, this must be close to its full height and depth. On the south side of the Evenlode we have no dating evidence for the NOGD and it is possible that its construction is later than the north. NOGD CHARACTERISTICS II • The circuit is not defendable and appears to be a well- made boundary • The internal sites are best explained as elite compounds, perhaps assembly sites • In spite of extensive fieldwork most of the late Iron Age sites have been located below Roman villas NOGD CHARACTERISTICS III • Often described as a ‘territorial oppidum’, but too large when compared with British and European examples • It is probably best understood as channelling movement through the landscape NOGD CHARACTERISTICS IV • The enclosure is in a peripheral position at the junction of the high ground of the Cotswolds and the low Thames Valley. • There appear to be north- south routeways entering the area • There do not seem to be routeway connections east- west with either Bagendon or St. Albans. ROMANS AND THEIR(?)ROADS THE AKEMAN STREET ROUTE • The Romans used roads as demonstrating submission and a change of power. Akeman Street (16a/16b) is a very early construction. There are easier routes between St. Albans and the Cirencester area, such as the Thames Valley. Akeman Street is targeted on the NOGD. • This slide is from Margary’s classification. Half way along the Akeman Street route at Alchester a possible early vexillation fortress has been discovered. The NOGD is on the River Evenlode just above the ‘E’ near 16b. Akeman Street enters the NOGD system aggressively by cutting through the bank and ditch at Blenheim Park, and changes course to pass one of largest late Iron Age settlements at Stonesfield, illustrated here as a villa. It neatly divides the enclosure into two areas. It crosses the Evenlode and exits through what appears to be an unfinished section of the NOGD, probably made unnecessary by the road’s construction. The Roman sites along the route are roadside settlements that offered refreshment and trading functions. The ‘tired’ Street as it enters the NOGD at Blenheim. It became a local road in the 2nd century and onwards. This is from the 1936 excavations. Akeman Street near Stonesfield SP410 181 Tw o Roman practice camps or small forts are at the end of the NOGD near Charlbury at the River Evenlode where a long distance path enters the system. Roman military materials have been found close-by. There is another square structure in the same position at Ditchley. THE VILLA LANDSCAPE THE VILLA LANDSCAPE • Unlike Silchester and other ‘oppida’ the NOGD didn’t become urban and seems to perpetuate individual power from the late Iron Age in the growth of villas, some of the earliest in the province of Britannia. They are usually on late Iron Age sites. Ditchley villa as photographed by Major Allen in 1934/5 and excavated by Ralegh Radford in 1938. Many of the early villas (70s AD) in the NOGD began as ‘winged corridor’ designs. NORTH LEIGH ROMAN VILLA • Another site with late Iron Age importance. • Occupied until the late 4th or early 5th century. This might have been the reason why Crawford considered the NOGD was constructed about that time. Stonesfield Roman villa was completely destroyed by robbing for stones to build houses and walls between 1810 and 1820 AD. Recent geophysics has indicated the depth of the wall trenches and the winged corridor villa at 450/171. Its position on Akeman Street might indicate its importance in the late Iron Age. BEYOND THE GRIM’S DITCH A marching camp on the Windrush at 16b WELSH WAY The Duntisbournes A speculation on my part is that with Cirencester not being founded at this date Akeman Street followed the present Welsh Way to Bagendon and joined the Margary’s 41b/41c (Ermin Street) from Silchester to Gloucester. KINGSHOLM Kingsholm is the site of an early vexillation fort but also an important late Iron Age settlement above the Severn. Ermin Street ends at this point. AN EARLY ROMAN FRONTIER? Again speculation, but did the courses actually form an earlier frontier to the developing Roman province of Britannia? BIBLIOGRAPHY • Copeland, T. 1988. The North Oxfordshire Grim’s Ditch: a Fieldwork Survey. Oxoniensia 52: 277-292. • Copeland, T. 2002. Iron Age and Roman Wychwood: the Land of Satavacus and Bellicia. Charlbury. The Wychwood Press. • Copeland, T. 2009. Akeman Street: Moving Through Iron Age and Roman Landscapes. Stroud: The History Press. • Crawford , O.G.S. Grim’s Ditch in Wychwood. Antiquity 4: 303-15. • Henig, M. and P. Booth. 2000. Roman Oxfordshire. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. • Lambrick, G, and M. Robinson, Allen, M. 2009. The Thames Through Time: The Archaeology of the Gravel Terraces of the Upper and Middle Thames: The Thames Valley in Late Prehistory: 1500 BC–AD 50. (Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 29). Oxford: Oxford Archaeology. • Margary, I.V. 1930. Roman Roads in Britain South of Fosse Way - Bristol Channel, Vol. 1. London: Phoenix House. • Moore, T. 2020. A Biography of Power: Research and Excavation at the Iron Age oppidum of Bagendon, Gloucestershire(1979-2017). Oxford: Archaeo Press..

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