The Devil's Ditch

The land of my ancestors is shown in the figure to the right. No names, no descriptors, just the land and the rivers are shown. The tracings in blue represent the river Dee. [The head waters to the west.] The tracings in green represent the river Severn. [The headwaters to the west.] They begin their long journeys to the sea, the Dee flowing north, and the Severn flowing south. The black stars are the locations of iron age "hill forts" that represent the locations of defensive positions arranged by the family units occupying the land. They seem to cluster in a certain pattern, four to the southeast, two in the middle, and three to the north. The red dashed line shows the position of Offa's Dyke as it runs north to south. In some cases, the dyke ran right through a hill fort. [Believed by most to be built during his reign 757 - 796 AD ] Some are to the west of the dyke, and some are to the east. At the time of its placement, this must represent those who came under Offa's control, and those stayed on the other side of the fence. It certainly fits the geographic location of the Kingdom of Mercia moving up the Severn to the northwest. At completion, the ditch was 6 feet deep, and from the bottom of the ditch, the rampart was 24 feet above. [The ditch facing west of course.] The Welsh were to call this "The Devil's Ditch".

Say hello to Offa. The drawing to the left is my attempt to picture this fella. It is taken from his image on the silver penny he introduced for the first time to the pockets of those in the land. He appears fairly young with quite a hair do! It appears that he had a beard, and certainly looks like would want to take charge of things around him. He had contact with Pope Hadrian I, who allowed him to establish a church center at Lichfield. It was out of this center that much of Charlemagne's educational institutions were derived. [Was to change the world as we know it.] There was certainly a lot of international intrigue surround Offa and Charlemagne! [Marriage of sons and daughters, and trade and such.]

It would appear that my family managed to walk this fence through out the generations to come. Hello Offa... you devil you.

Hen Dinas

Almost due south from the town of Wrexham is Oswestry. It is the southern most anchor of Wat's dyke leading to the ancient hill fort called "Old Oswestry Hill Fort". Strictly speaking, according to James Dyer, "hillforts" were hilltops defended by walls of stone, banks of earth or fences of wood, usually accompanied by one or more external ditches. They are generally associated with the iron age folks, starting around 800 B.C.

Old Oswestry, Selattyn, is considered one of the most complex of this periods hillforts. The fortifications cover about 40 acres, and in parts, has as many as seven ramparts. The hill top contains roughly 16 acres, and is felt by Professor W.J. Varley (excavated site in 1939), at first to have contained a group of circular timber-built huts. Two ramparts were built at a later date, encircling the hill, which by this time contained circular stone huts. Over time, further changes took place extending the defenses, building one of the most complex series of deep hollows and ridges. [More will be said about this later.] This fortification certainly took advantage of a lofty, natural eminence, and is traditionally felt to be the ancient site of the town of Oswestry. Wat's Dyke connects here, and it certainly would have been occupied before this dyke was built. It is around this area that much of my JONES family had its roots. Perhaps, this "Hen Dinas" was the first location of my Celtic tribe.

The reference is : "Prehistoric England and Wales", by James Dyer, Penguin Books, 1981. Old Oswestry is discussed on pages 220-221. Hill forts are discussed on pages 33-34.