Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/327

ANCIENT EARTHWORKS Herrock Hill; crosses Rushock *^ (where three conspicuous yew trees called 'the Shepherds' stand on the bank); and apparently ends off abruptly, after a course of 5 miles, at Kennel Wood, where it meets the inclosed lands.

Between Kennel Wood and Shoals Bank, south of Weobley, the Dike is greatly obscured; and much doubt has arisen from the existence of two distinct sets of earthworks, both greatly discontinuous, but entirely disconnected from each other. The more probable solution is that the more perfect line represents the completed work, and the other one never completed and ultimately abandoned. This is confirmed by, and indeed explains, the records in the Gwentian Brut that, in 765, 'the Cymry devastated Mercia, and thereupon Offa made the great Dike, called Offa's Dike, to divide Wales from Mercia'; that, in 776, 'the men of Gwent and Glamorgan entered Mercia and razed Offa's Dike level with the ground'; and, in 784, 'Offa made a Dike a second time nearer to himself, leaving a piece of country between Wye and Severn where is the tribe of Elystan Glodrydd.' The principality of Elystan, stretching from the Wye to the east of Powis, included this district.

The more complete and, probably, later of these lines was, as far as can be ascertained, as follows: — Leaving Kennel Wood, at the north-east of Rushock, it struck through Scutchditch Wood, and thence is represented by the Green Lane, and skirting Wapley Hill it came to Stocklow, whence a well-defined hedgerow leads to a point on the Pembridge Road a quarter of a mile west of Milton Cross. From this point a well-formed dike strikes south in a straight line across the Arrow valley, a mile in length, broken only by the river, to a point on the Kington Road half a mile from Pembridge. This bank presents all the features of the best preserved parts of the Dike and is locally known as the 'Rowe Ditch.' From its southern end farming operations and orchards have obliterated nearly all traces as far as the eleventh milestone from Hereford on the road to Weobley; except that in the interval, and in almost a straight line with the bank just described, the names Rough Moor, Grim's Ditch, Riddox, and the Ley (where some traces have been identified), seem to have preserved the memory of the Dike.

From this eleventh milestone a bank, with a well-marked line of ancient hollies, leads along Shoal's Bank and through Yazor Wood to the Claypits, whence the Dike is easily recognizable to the termination of this length on the left bank of the Wye at Bridge Sollars.

Of the alternative, and probably earlier, line some substantial but short and discontinuous remains appear between Titley and Holme Marsh, crossing the railways near Titley Junction and Lyonshall station; but south of Holme Marsh nothing has been recognized, nor does any suggestive place-name occur.

This line, so far as it was constructed, was much nearer to Wales than the other line already described.

Between Bridge Sollars and Hereford the river appears to have been accepted as the 'Mark.' In any case there is no indication that the Dike ever existed between those places.

" In Domesday 'Ruiscop,' probably raew-cop. The Dike passes over its highest point at an elevation of 1,245 ft. The Yews on the Dike probably account for the name Yazor (lavesoure in Domesday, i.e. 'iwes-ora' or 'The Yew Bank') to be presently mentioned. So in the Edwy Charter already referred to (note 80) the 'iwes-heáfod ' (Yews-head) occurs on the Dike opposite Tintern.

«> Qy. Scouts Ditch. 259